The role of the Acorn as a conservative in our meadows

The results achieved during these years of research include the determination of the variability of the production between years, with strong influence of climate, physiological factors and allocation of resources from the tree; the variability of the production between species, with a strong genetic component (in this sense are working in a methodology to determine the best producers of a meadow); that pruning of maintenance do not significantly influence the production of Acorn, giving priority also over a genetic component, which is why the decision to prune or not should be based on this criterion; or a detailed knowledge of the cycles of growth of the species, with decreases in the diameter in summer. These results involve a better understanding of the dynamics of the species and its processes in the woodlands, which provides the basis for the sustainable management of these.

The oak forests or mountains of acorns in a province like Huelva occupy a surface of 170.438 hectares and have "a great economic and ecological importance for the province, so just keep them", says Kings Alejano, principal investigator. In an environment like the Meadow, the Iberian pig is the livestock species that takes better advantage produced acorns, transforming effectively their carbohydrates into fat, as well as being used by varied fauna (insects, mammals and birds) for consumption, so you have an ecological role as well as economic. Thus, the phase of use of the Acorn (montanera) in the Iberian pig continues providing a clear appreciation of the production of the trees, constituting a key productive element at a time that other traditional as the firewood or charcoal production have much lower output in the markets.

Used working method is to rethink and monitor experimental plots, with installation of various devices for continuous measurements. Investigate the forest environment is not easy, because we are working with processes that, as the climate change over time. Plots that are studying these researchers of the UHU have the added value that are replanteadas since 2001, allowing them to have sufficiently large sets of data to get valid findings of their studies.

The methods used include collection in containers during the fattening period or the visual count, a technique rarely used in Spain until now and that it allows to know what will be the production of Acorn at greater noticewhich helps to better organize the management. This technique, which is carried out at the beginning of October, is that two observers are placed in front of the tree and through binoculars or eye, count the number of acorns they see in a given time. This result is then extrapolated to know the total production of the tree.

"The aim is to know what the most appropriate management to improve the production of Acorn, but for that we need to know how such production." "What we do is that basic research from there and thus improve the management of systems, ensuring their conservation," says Alejano.