The Portuguese montado is an agro-silvo pastoral system quite similar to the dehesa in Spain, and covering in Portugal most of the Southern region of the country, Alentejo. The trees in the montado are cork oh holm oak, and the system is mostly acknowledged due to the cork production, but also due to its singular savanna like land cover pattern, its multiple and complementary productions, the support of a diversity of ecosystems services and its biodiversity. The present special issue covers the diversity of components of the montado and of perspectives required to understand and assess the functioning of the system. This Editorial introduces the montado system, describes its extension and similarities to the dehesa in Spain, and addresses the multiple productions and externalities of the montado. It also refers to the several components of the system. It focus on the uniqueness and values of this system, stressing its potential and threats, and the requirements for integrated knowledge production. In the end of the Editorial, each one of the papers that compose the special issue are presented.

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In this work we wish to demonstrate the possibility of a reconstruction of the 3D growth of the Stone pine (Pinus pinea L) crown. The crowns of two samples were digitized in segments corresponding with individual years, which allowed us to reconstruct length-growth and 3D shape over the last 5 years. Due to the low sample amount, we limited ourselves to observations and methodology-descriptions instead of overall conclusions. We were able to observe diminished height-growth in year 2006, which is the year after a severe drought. However, this was not observed in the total length-growth of the crown. It is possible to see that the growth of 2006 is not dominant at the top of the crown, as it would have been in normal years. The year of the drought, 2005, is visible in the annual rings, but the shoot length of 2005 is not visibly lower than expected.

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