Impacts of land management on the resilience of Mediterranean dry forests to fire

Abstract

11Wildfires have always been a part of the history of Mediterranean forests. However, forest 12 regeneration after a wildfire is not certain. It depends on many factors, some of which may be 13 influenced by land management activities. Failure of regeneration will cause a regime shift in the 14 ecosystem, reducing the provision of ecosystem services and ultimately leading to desertification. 15How can we increase Mediterranean forests' resilience to fire? To answer this question, we did a 16 literature review, investigating chains of processes that allow forests to regenerate (which we label 17 "regeneration mechanisms"), and assessed the impact of selected management practices 18 documented in the WOCAT database on the regeneration mechanisms. 19We identified three distinct regeneration mechanisms that enable Mediterranean forests to recover, 20 as well as the time frame before and after a fire in which they are at work, and factors that can hinder 21 or support resilience. The three regeneration mechanisms enabling a forest to regenerate after a fire

How does land management contribute to the resilience of Mediterranean forests and rangelands? A participatory assessment

“…This applies mainly to the study of the role of LMPs: We assessed the outcome of a certain practice implemented in a certain context in relation to a certain disturbance, without analysing separately each variable that leads to such outcome. This may have led to a difference in the assessment across different study sites, because there is some indication that the effects of practices may depend on the conditions of the system itself before the disturbance (Walker et al, ) and other contextual factors such as the landscape (Jucker Riva, Daliakopoulos, Eckert, Hodel, & Liniger, ) and time of implementation (Jucker Riva et al, ). An example was the different evaluation of carob plantation with regard to fire in Cyprus and Greece.…”

“…Although a wide set of methods and tools exists to assess how LMPs affect sustainability of land use (Bunning, Mcdonagh, & Rioux, 2011 few such studies that exist are very case specific (e.g., valid only for a certain event or area) or context specific (e.g., valid only for a certain type of disturbance). Thus, despite efforts to operationalize the resilience of ecosystems to avoid the loss of ecosystem services (Bergamini et al, 2013;Mitchell et al, 2014;Plummer & Armitage, 2007;Resilience Alliance, 2010), it remains difficult to identify practical solutions for land managers, as the value of a certain LMP may vary greatly if we consider only the degradation caused by land use or if we include increasing resilience to disturbances within the management objectives (Jucker Riva et al, 2016). Therefore, there is a need to increase our understanding of how LMPs can contribute to resilience.…”

“…LMPs are normally implemented to increase productivity of the land or to reduce degradation associated with human activities. Through land management, humans can also change the resilience of ecosystems (Alados et al, 2011;Crépin, Biggs, Polasky, Troell, & de Zeeuw, 2012;Folke et al, 2010;Jucker Riva, Liniger, Valdecantos, & Schwilch, 2016): Successful LMPs can make it more difficult for an ecosystem to reach a critical threshold (e.g., reducing the frequency of fires in a forest area prevents a shift to shrub-dominated vegetation). Further, LMPs can reduce the impact of disturbances (e.g., increasing vegetation reduces erosion during torrential rainfall) or directly move the system towards a more stable configuration (e.g., afforestation after a fire in case of failed spontaneous recovery).…”