Anthropogenic Influences in Land Use/Land Cover Changes in Mediterranean Forest Landscapes in Sicily

Veca, Donato Salvatore La Mela; Cullotta, Sebastiano; Sferlazza, Sebastiano; Maetzke, Federico Guglielmo

doi:10.3390/land5010003

Cited by 21 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Since the first national planimetric and stereoscopic aerial photos coverage was carried on in 1954-1956 (G.A.I. flight), most of the studies dealt with those years [47,64]. Previous temporal studies depended on different sources such as local aerial photos, historical maps or local land registers [36].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

70 Years of Land Use/Land Cover Changes in the Apennines (Italy): A Meta-Analysis

Malandra

Vitali

Urbinati

et al. 2018

Forests

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Land use science usually adopts a case study approach to investigate landscape change processes, so we considered a meta-analysis an appropriate tool for summarizing general patterns and heterogeneous findings across multiple case studies over a large geographic area. Mountain landscapes in the Apennines (Italy) have undergone significant variations in the last century due to regional and national socio-economic changes. In this work, we reviewed 51 manuscripts from different databases and examined 57 case studies. We explored heterogeneous data sets, adopting a stepwise approach to select the case studies: Step 1, a general overview of the main studies; Step 2, an analysis of the features of the study sites and of land-use/cover transitions; Step 3, a landscape pattern analysis. We standardized the processing methods to obtain a new set of homogeneous data suitable for comparative analysis. After some pre-processing of the selected paper due to the broad heterogeneity of the data, we calculated common landscape metrics ex novo. We obtained digital images used to perform automatic segmentation with eCognition Developer 64 software. Our review indicated that most case studies were in Central and Southern Italy, 83% were examined at local scale, 77% carried out change detection, but only 38% included both change detection and landscape spatial pattern analysis. The results revealed a clear trend of forest expansion (+78%) and the reduction of croplands (−49%) and grasslands (−19%). We did not find significant changes in the landscape spatial patterns.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

70 Years of Land Use/Land Cover Changes in the Apennines (Italy): A Meta-Analysis

Malandra

Vitali

Urbinati

et al. 2018

Forests

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“…The number of residents of the nine municipalities of the Madonie Mountains (Castelbuono, Petralia Soprana, Petralia Sottana, Castellana Sicula, Polizzi Generosa, Isnello, Gratteri, Collesano and Geraci Siculo) has decreased from 52,762 in 1951 to 31,258 in 2011 (-41% -ISTAT 2017) due to emigration to other countries and internal migration. The trend of forest harvesting and its products (cutter timber and fuel wood) in Sicily (ISTAT 2011) reflects the depopulation of the rural areas such as Madonie Mountains: (i) forest harvesting has decreased from 133,000 m 3 in 1950 to 35,000 m 3 in 2011; (ii) cutting timber has decreased from 36,000 m 3 in 1950 to 16,000 m 3 in 2011; and (iii) fuel wood has decreased from 97,000 m 3 in 1950 to 20,000 m 3 in 2011 (La Mela Veca et al 2016). The gradual abandonment of any silvicultural treatments has consequently led these stands to a state of natural evolution, which is now the most common management system.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of traditional forest management on carbon storage in a Mediterranean holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) coppice

Sferlazza¹,

Maetzke²,

Iovino³

et al. 2018

iForest

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In the last decade, there has been increased interest in measuring and modeling storage in the five forest carbon pools: the aboveground and belowground biomass (living biomass), the deadwood and litter (dead biomass), and the soil (soil organic matter). In this paper, we examined carbon storage in a holm oak coppice stand in the Madonie Mountains in Sicily (Italy), which is a typical case of managed coppice stands. Today, traditional coppice practices are only applied to a small number of forested areas in Sicily, such as the selected site, because of the decline in demand for wood and charcoal. The dendrometric parameters of the stands were recorded, and silvicultural indices were calculated immediately after cutting as well as during and at the end of the rotation period; they showed the trends typical of coppices. The carbon stocks in the five carbon pools were quantified to investigate the effects of coppicing on carbon storage in this Mediterranean area. Results showed that the lowest living biomass values were observed in the first years following coppicing, except for litter carbon. Belowground biomass and the soil carbon stock did not vary significantly with coppicing. During the rotation period, the aboveground biomass was completely restored, and the balance of the carbon stocks indicates that coppicing is a sustainable forest management choice from the point of view of the carbon balance, given that the logged trees are generally used for bioenergy production.Citation: Sferlazza S, Maetzke FG, Iovino M, Baiamonte G, Palmeri V, La Mela Veca DS (2018). Effects of traditional forest management on carbon storage in a Mediterranean holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) coppice.

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“…The agricultural systems characterize the Sicilian traditional landscape [17], including extensive active or abandoned farms, shrublands, pastures, and grasslands. Sicilian forests cover the slopes and the top of the main northern and north-eastern mountain ranges [18]. Sicily also has a large percentage of its forest surface protected by Regional Natural Parks (Mt.…”

Section: Forest Resources In Sicily (Italy)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience of Mediterranean Forests to Climate Change

Sferlazza¹,

Guglielmo²,

MiozzoMarcello³

et al. 2017

Mediterranean Identities - Environment, Society, Culture

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In the Mediterranean region, forests play a key role in the welfare of urban and rural peoples, by providing highly appreciated marketed goods as well as high value but nonmarket services. Anthropogenic climate change entails a significant impact on Mediterranean forests, such as the reduced species diversity, high density, pest, and diseases. In this chapter, we present the achievements of the project LIFE ResilForMed (Resilience of Mediterranean Forests to climate change), as Sicilian responds on adaptation and mitigation to climate change: (i) map of Sensitivity Forest Areas to desertification of the Sicilian region; (ii) list of bird indicators showing sensitivity to desertification in Sicily; (iii) set of resilience indicators aimed to assess the resilience of Mediterranean forests to climate changes; (iv) list of sporadic and endemic tree species of Sicilian forests; (v) development of optimal management models suitable to improve or consolidate the resilience of forest and preforest ecosystems. This work is at the forefront of developing knowhow and transferable best management practices that may help Mediterranean forests to adapt to climate change and thereby, safeguard their multifunctional benefits for future generations.

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Anthropogenic Influences in Land Use/Land Cover Changes in Mediterranean Forest Landscapes in Sicily

Cited by 21 publications

References 13 publications

70 Years of Land Use/Land Cover Changes in the Apennines (Italy): A Meta-Analysis

70 Years of Land Use/Land Cover Changes in the Apennines (Italy): A Meta-Analysis

Effects of traditional forest management on carbon storage in a Mediterranean holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) coppice

Resilience of Mediterranean Forests to Climate Change

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