Land-cover changes in a remote area of central Apennines (Italy) and management directions

Rastlinski Svet Dolomitov

“…another reason for the stability of the communities originally ascribed to Brizo mediae-Brometum erecti is that they are generally subjected to horse and cattle grazing, which has not substantially varied in the whole area since 1968 (figure 3) and can filter plant species able to avoid or resist a prolonged pressure by these type of animals (Catorci et al 2012). indeed, cattle and horses have substantially similar grazing behaviors, strongly preferring moist and productive areas where they spend the majority of their time (Putfarken et al 2008).…”

“…indeed, the sedentary behavior of these animals, which graze from early spring to late summer in the Mount Catria area, do not allow orchids to accomplish their life cycle, even if this is relatively brief. it was already demonstrated that early flowering geophytes, such as the orchid species like Orchis morio, are strongly affected by grazing in springtime (Catorci et al 2013). …”

“…indeed, the effectiveness of re-visiting historical plots in different habitat types has been demonstrated by several case studies that relied on the location of the historical plots, which were often hand-marked on topographic maps (fischer & stöcklin 1997, von numers & korvenpää 2007, baeten et al 2010, Jírová et al 2012, saar et al 2012, Catorci et al 2013, Johnson et al 2014.…”

Quantifying Landscape-Scale Patterns of Temperate Forests over Time by Means of Neutral Simulation Models

“…57 (2006). From the post-war until the end of the analyzed period, we observed the natural spread of forests, a phenomenon that characterizes the large scale dynamics of oak woodlands in many hilly and mountainous landscapes of the Italian peninsula [14,58,68,78]. In Mediterranean areas, the socio-economic post-World War II changes led to a decline of the number of people involved in traditional agricultural and grazing activities [78][79][80][81][82].…”

“…The current state of landscape patterns in the world is mainly the result of centuries of evolution in land use [5]. For instance, temperate forests in mountain and hilly landscapes of Europe are currently distributed in a mosaic, which is derived not only from centuries of extensive forest exploitation, but also from agriculture and cattle farming [6][7][8], followed by a recent, spontaneous reforestation process, which occurred after the World War II rural exodus and the consequent abandonment of traditional agricultural practices [9][10][11][12][13][14].…”