Land-use changes and sustainable development in mountain areas: a case study in the Spanish Pyrenees

García‐Ruiz, José María; Lasanta, T.; Ruiz-Flaño, P.; Ortigosa, Luís; White, Sue; González, C.; Martí, C.

doi:10.1007/bf02059854

Cited by 248 publications

(145 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In the Pyrenees, this temperature increase (i.e., 0.10 1C per decade) seems to be the result of cloud cover or the greenhouse effect (Bücher and Dessens, 1991) and is consistent with the increase of temperature recorded globally and at high altitudes (Vuille and Bradley, 2000;Pepin and Seidel, 2005). Thus, at the end of the nineteenth century, the concomitant occurrence of agropastoral abandonment and warming likely favored the densification and altitudinal progression of forests at the expense of seminatural open fields in altitude (i.e., rock ptarmigan habitat), with land uses finally reaching very low levels during the twentieth century (Garcia-Ruiz et al, 1996;Davasse, 2000). Recently, several observations of such an upward shift (i.e., 200 m upward) have been recorded during the same period for various plant species in the Alps and Pyrenees (Walther et al, 2005;Lenoir et al, 2008).…”

Section: Ybp To Currentlysupporting

confidence: 72%

Pyrenean ptarmigans decline under climatic and human influences through the Holocene

et al. 2013

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In Europe, the Quaternary is characterized by climatic fluctuations known to have led to many cycles of contraction and expansion of species geographical ranges. In addition, during the Holocene, historical changes in human occupation such as colonization or abandonment of traditional land uses can also affect habitats. These climatically or anthropically induced geographic range changes are expected to produce considerable effective population size change, measurable in terms of genetic diversity and organization. The rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) is a small-bodied grouse occurring throughout Northern hemispheric arctic and alpine tundra. This species is not considered threatened at a continental scale, but the populations in the Pyrenees are of concern because of their small population size, geographical isolation and low genetic diversity. Here, we used 11 microsatellites to investigate genetic variations and differentiations and infer the overall demographic history of Pyrenean rock ptarmigan populations. The low genetic variability found in these populations has been previously thought to be the result of a bottleneck that occurred following the last glacial maximum (i.e., 10 000 years ago) or more recently (i.e., during the last 200 years). Our results clearly indicate a major bottleneck affecting the populations in the last tenth of the Holocene. We discuss how this decline can be explained by a combination of unfavorable and successive events that increased the degree of habitat fragmentation.

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Section: Ybp To Currentlysupporting

confidence: 72%

Pyrenean ptarmigans decline under climatic and human influences through the Holocene

et al. 2013

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“…It is generally accepted that extensive farming practices increase environmental quality and biodiversity of agro-ecosystems as compared to intensive practices (Hoogeveen et al, 2002). More specifically, the abandoning of traditional farming in mountain areas has been associated with extensive reforestation (Garcia-Ruiz et al, 1996;Bebi and Baur, 2002;Bielsa et al, 2005;Gellrich et al, 2007), soil degradation, loss of biodiversity (Conti and Fagarazzi, 2005), and a decrease in landscape quality and attractiveness (Giupponi et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Livestock systems and farming styles in Eastern Italian Alps: an on-farm survey

Sturaro

Cocca

Gallo

et al. 2009

Italian Journal of Animal Science

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this research aimed to study the relationships between livestock systems, landscape maintenance and farming styles in the belluno Province, a mountainous area of the Eastern Italian Alps. A total of 65 farms were sampled on the basis of livestock category farmed and herd size. Farms were visited to collect information on technical and productive aspects, on landscape features of land managed, which was identified by aerial photographs and digitised in a GIS environment, and on the farmers' background, attitudes and approach to farming. Six different livestock systems were identified: intensive beef cattle (2 farms); extensive beef cattle (12 farms); large sheep/goat farms (9 farms); small sheep/goat farms (6 farms); intensive dairy cattle (14 farms) and extensive dairy cattle (22 farms). The intensive systems had larger herds, modern structures and equipment, and were strongly production oriented, whereas the extensive systems had smaller herds and productivity, with often traditional or obsolete structures and equipment, but showed a tendency to diversify production by means of on-farm cheese making and/or mixed farming of different livestock categories. the ability to maintain meadows and pastures was greater for the extensive systems, especially in steep areas, while the annual nitrogen output, estimated as kg N/ha, was lower. Data on the farmers' background and attitudes were analysed with a non-hierarchical cluster procedure that clustered the farmers into 4 farming styles widely different in motivations to farming, innovative capability, and ability to diversify income sources and ensure farm economic viability. the farming styles were distributed across all livestock systems, indicating the lack of a linkage between the assignment of a farm to a livestock system and the way the farm is managed. this study demonstrates that in mountain areas variability of livestock systems may be high, and that they differ not only in production practices but also in the ability to maintain landscape, which is generally higher in the extensive or even marginal systems. Within a given livestock system, farms may be managed with different styles, which implies that informative knowledge to address policy decisions needs to integrate the definition of livestock systems with the assessment of farming styles.

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“…Soil formation is a slow process, while soil physical, chemical and biological degradation processes, such as soil compaction [5], erosion [6], acidification [7,8], decline in organic matter content [9], etc., can occur relatively fast, especially in areas of agricultural land use [10,11]. The faster pedogenic processes reach steady state after tens to hundreds of years, while slow processes of soil formation evolve on a time scale of thousands to tens of thousands of years [12].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Land Use and Management on SoilHydraulic Properties

et al. 2015

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Soil hydraulic properties are among the most important parameters that determine soil quality and its capability to serve the ecosystem. Land use can significantly influence soil properties, including its hydraulic conditions; however, additional factors, such as changes in climate (temperature and precipitation), can further influence the land use effects on soil hydraulic properties. In order to develop possible adaptation measures and mitigate any negative effects of land use and climatic changes, it is important to study the impact of land use and changes in land use on soil hydraulic properties. In this paper, we summarize recent studies examining the effect of land use/land cover and the associated changes in soil hydraulic properties, mainly focusing on agricultural scenarios of cultivated croplands and different tillage systems.

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Land-use changes and sustainable development in mountain areas: a case study in the Spanish Pyrenees

Cited by 248 publications

References 14 publications

Pyrenean ptarmigans decline under climatic and human influences through the Holocene

Pyrenean ptarmigans decline under climatic and human influences through the Holocene

Livestock systems and farming styles in Eastern Italian Alps: an on-farm survey

Effects of Land Use and Management on SoilHydraulic Properties

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