Global change and Mediterranean forests: current impacts and potential responses

Valladares, Fernando; Benavides, Raquel; Rabasa, Sonia G.; Dı́az, Mario; Pausas, Juli G.; Paula, Susana; Simonson, William D.

doi:10.1017/cbo9781107323506.005

Cited by 51 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 144 publications

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“…This is confirmed by the in-depth analysis of the IUTI sampling points classified as SOA in 1990 and 2013, showing that 45.5% of them experienced a change in the reference period (i.e., new SOA, disappearing or shifting from one sub-type to another). This is also consistent with the evident dynamics in Mediterranean forests, triggered by land use and climate change, especially regarding the modifications of species composition and spatial structure [73]. Considering the key role played by forest structure on productivity [74], biodiversity [75], and the resistance/resilience [76] of forest ecosystems, these dynamics deserve particular attention from forest managers.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Evaluating the Contribution of Trees outside Forests and Small Open Areas to the Italian Landscape Diversification during the Last Decades

Sallustio

Cristofaro

Hashmi

et al. 2018

Forests

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Land use by humans strongly alters the landscape mosaic, either by reducing or increasing its heterogeneity. One of the most recent and widespread land use changes in Europe has been the spontaneous reforestation of marginal agricultural lands. These primarily affected small landscape patches, such as trees outside forests (TOF) and small open areas (SOA), often represent the most diversifying features of landscape' structures. Nevertheless, only small-scale studies can be found in the literature and thus it remains a relatively unexplored issue. Integrating inventory and cartographic approaches, this work assesses changes in abundance, coverage, and average size of small patches in Italy between 1990 and 2013. Main results showed an overall increase in number and coverage of small patches during the reference period. The average patch size remains unaltered for TOF but decreases significantly for SOA, due to trees encroachment and canopy cover increasing in forests. Our findings confirm the important changes in Mediterranean land mosaics and contribute to a better understanding of current conditions and recent trends regarding TOF and SOA. The integrated approach has proven to be helpful for the large-scale assessment of small patches dynamics, representing a viable monitoring tool to encourage the inclusion of small patches in landscape policy and planning.Forests 2018, 9, 701 2 of 13 within the land mosaic have a strong impact on ecological processes and, in turn, on the functioning of socio-economic and ecological systems [5,6].Recently, humans have driven landscape dynamics much more than natural evolution [7,8]. Since the Industrial Revolution, intensive farming systems and urban land expansion at a global scale have increasingly altered the structures and functions of the existing landscapes at an unprecedented rate [9]. The anthropogenic influence is even more marked in landscapes characterized by higher levels of heterogeneity and built by centuries of human activities and modifications, such as those in the Mediterranean area [10][11][12]. During the last decades, the Mediterranean landscapes have indeed experienced a general decrease of agricultural lands, mainly due to their abandonment, followed by tree encroachment and subsequent woodland expansion [13,14], particularly in mountain and less profitable marginal lands [15][16][17]. Oppositely, the agricultural intensification and the expansion of urban areas, which usually follow a high scattered and fragmented spatial pattern, urban sprawl, and urban sprinkling [18,19], are occurring in lowlands and plains [20][21][22]. These phenomena are strictly interlinked and can alter the sustainability of such systems, especially in the medium-long term [22].Tree encroachment can have both positive and negative implications in terms of ecosystems' functionality and their capacity to provide ecosystem services (e.g., [23][24][25][26][27][28][29]). The risk associated with landscape homogenization [30] is particularly relevant if combined with urban expansion, ...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Evaluating the Contribution of Trees outside Forests and Small Open Areas to the Italian Landscape Diversification during the Last Decades

Sallustio

Cristofaro

Hashmi

et al. 2018

Forests

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“…This new focus will complement the more classical, but still much needed, analyses on how responses of keystone species or communities to global change may ameliorate or amplify direct effects on forest structure and function (e.g. Valladares et al, 2013).…”

Section: Effects Of the Interactions Between The Drivers Of Global Chmentioning

confidence: 98%

Reassessing global change research priorities in mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems: how far have we come and where do we go from here?

Doblas‐Miranda

Martínez‐Vilalta

Lloret

et al. 2014

Global Ecology and Biogeography

120

100

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Aim Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems serve as reference laboratories for the investigation of global change because of their transitional climate, the high spatiotemporal variability of their environmental conditions, a rich and unique biodiversity and a wide range of socio-economic conditions. As scientific development and environmental pressures increase, it is increasingly necessary to evaluate recent progress and to challenge research priorities in the face of global change. Location Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems.Methods This article revisits the research priorities proposed in a 1998 assessment.Results A new set of research priorities is proposed: (1) to establish the role of the landscape mosaic on fire-spread; (2) to further research the combined effect of different drivers on pest expansion; (3) to address the interaction between drivers of global change and recent forest management practices; (4) to obtain more realistic information on the impacts of global change and ecosystem services; (5) to assess forest mortality events associated with climatic extremes; (6) to focus global change research on identifying and managing vulnerable areas; (7) to use the functional traits concept to study resilience after disturbance; (8) to study the relationship between genotypic and phenotypic diversity as a source of forest resilience; (9) to understand the balance between C storage and water resources; (10) to analyse the interplay between landscape-scale processes and biodiversity conservation; (11) to refine models by including interactions between drivers and socio-economic contexts; (12) to understand forest-atmosphere feedbacks; (13) to represent key mechanisms linking plant hydraulics with landscape hydrology.Main conclusions (1) The interactive nature of different global change drivers remains poorly understood. (2) There is a critical need for the rapid development of regional-and global-scale models that are more tightly connected with largescale experiments, data networks and management practice. (3) More attention should be directed to drought-related forest decline and the current relevance of historical land use.

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“…This might be because extinction rates of birds are area‐dependent (Wang, Chen, & Ding, ). In contrast, responses of terrestrial mammals to habitat fragmentation are generally nonlinear as many large mammal species require a minimum habitat size (Valladares et al., ). For example, Sichuan snub‐nosed monkeys ( Rhinopithecus roxellana ) require a 1,000 ha home range, and the Hainan gibbon ( Nomascus hainanus ) is rarely found in forest fragments below 100 ha (Li, Chen, Ji, & Ren, ; Zhang et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The distribution of plants and seed dispersers in response to habitat fragmentation in an artificial island archipelago

Liu

Slik

Coomes

et al. 2019

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim Small, old‐growth forest fragments generally have more small‐seeded plants than large patches, due to the disappearance of large seed dispersing vertebrates. This pattern may differ for secondary forest fragments where differential migration ability rather than persistence of seed dispersers may be driving plant community assembly. In this study, we investigated the effect of habitat fragmentation on seed dispersers and plant community structure in regenerating forests. Location The Thousand Island Lake, China. Taxon Plants, birds and mammals. Methods We compiled diversity and abundance data for birds and mammals on islands in the Thousand Island Lake, China. We also surveyed the secondary plant communities and measured seed dispersal traits. Results Community‐weighted mean seed size of woody plants decreased with island size. This pattern was related to compositional difference of the dispersers. We found that mammal diversity and abundance was only weakly or not related to island size; whereas bird diversity and abundance increased strongly with island size. Density of bird‐dispersed plants was significantly positively related with island size. Since birds tend to disperse smaller seeds than mammals, the trend in seed size may have been a consequence of the shift in relative abundance of the two disperser guilds. Main Conclusions Differential responses of seed dispersers to habitat fragmentation may lead to pervasive shifts in the plant community structure of regenerating forest fragments. Our study highlights the importance of keeping large continuous forests in order to retain mammals and their dispersal capabilities.

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Global change and Mediterranean forests: current impacts and potential responses

Cited by 51 publications

References 144 publications

Evaluating the Contribution of Trees outside Forests and Small Open Areas to the Italian Landscape Diversification during the Last Decades

Evaluating the Contribution of Trees outside Forests and Small Open Areas to the Italian Landscape Diversification during the Last Decades

Reassessing global change research priorities in mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems: how far have we come and where do we go from here?

The distribution of plants and seed dispersers in response to habitat fragmentation in an artificial island archipelago

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