Lost forever? Ecosystem functional changes occurring after agricultural abandonment and forest recovery in the semiarid Chaco forests

Basualdo, Marta; Huykman, Natalia; Volante, José Norberto; Paruelo, José M.; Piñeiro, Gervasio

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.001

Cited by 35 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…The use of developing countries as food producers, an increase in agricultural productivity, and the use of fossil fuels that reduce the need for animal traction and then for food production for them has reduced the need to use part of the agriculture land [27,28]. This abandonment has environmental consequences such as changes in water resources, vegetation cover and floristic composition, fauna, and soil properties, which will affect also earth system functioning as they will control the biogeochemical cycles [29][30][31][32][33].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Farmland Abandonment on Water Resources and Soil Conservation in Citrus Plantations in Eastern Spain

Cerdà

Ackermann

Terol

et al. 2019

Water

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Due to the reduction in the prices of oranges on the market and social changes such as the ageing of the population, traditional orange plantation abandonment in the Mediterranean is taking place. Previous research on land abandonment impact on soil and water resources has focused on rainfed agriculture abandonment, but there is no research on irrigated land abandonment. In the Valencia Region—the largest producer of oranges in Europe—abandonment is resulting in a quick vegetation recovery and changes in soil properties, and then in water erosion. Therefore, we performed rainfall simulation experiments (0.28 m2; 38.8 mm h−1) to determine the soil losses in naveline orange plantations with different ages of abandonment (1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 years of abandonment) which will allow for an understanding of the temporal changes in soil and water losses after abandonment. Moreover, these results were also compared with an active plantation (0). The results show that the soils of the active orange plantations have higher runoff discharges and higher erosion rates due to the use of herbicides than the plots after abandonment. Once the soil is abandoned for one year, the plant recovery reaches 33% of the cover and the erosion rate drops one order of magnitude. This is related to the delay in the runoff generation and the increase in infiltration rates. After 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 years, the soil reduced bulk density, increase in organic matter, plant cover, and soil erosion rates were found negligible. We conclude that the abandonment of orange plantations reduces soil and water losses and can serve as a nature-based solution to restore the soil services, goods, and resources. The reduction in the soil losses was exponential (from 607.4 g m−2 in the active plot to 7.1 g m−2 in the 10-year abandoned one) but the water losses were linear (from 77.2 in active plantations till 12.8% in the 10-year abandoned ones).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Farmland Abandonment on Water Resources and Soil Conservation in Citrus Plantations in Eastern Spain

Cerdà

Ackermann

Terol

et al. 2019

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…*p value < 0.05, **p value < 0.01, ***p value < 0.001; ns, not significant (Wilcoxon's paired test to compare 1954 and 2012 covers for each category) (Florentine and Westbrooke 2004). There are examples in Oceania (Endress and Chinea 2019), Puerto Rico (Lugo and Helmer 2004), and eastern Africa (Chapman and Chapman 1999) and even in semi-arid regions of Argentina (Basualdo et al 2018). In mountain areas of the Mediterranean basin, land cover dynamics are faster as reported in the Alps (Tasser et al 2005;Niedrist et al 2009), the Carpathians (Kuemmerle et al 2009;Weisberg et al 2013), and the Pyrenees (Metailié and Paegelow 2005;Roura-Pascual et al 2005); in Greece (Petanidou et al 2008); and in Spain (De Aranzabal et al 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns and drivers of forest landscape change in the Apennines range, Italy

et al. 2019

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Human activities and natural processes over millennia have shaped the forest landscapes of European mountain ranges. In the Apennines, the second largest range in Italy, the post-World War II abandonment of traditional activities has led to forest expansion. Previous analyses of land use change related to forest landscape were performed for relatively small localities and used different sampling protocols. Consequently, a replicate landscape approach and a systematic sampling design were crucial for quantifying changes at the regional scale. We investigated land cover change and landscape configurational shifts comparing different slope exposures and altitudinal zones and discussed the main drivers affecting post-agricultural forest dynamics. We selected two paired study landscapes (North-East vs SouthWest) of 16 km 2 for each of 10 sites located along the entire range. We applied object-based classification to aerial photography from 1954 and 2012, resulting in 40 land cover maps. We assessed (i) overall landscape changes by computing land cover transitions, (ii) landscape patterns through key metrics, and (iii) reforestation dynamics through multivariate statistics and binomial generalized linear models (GLMs). Apennine landscape mosaics experienced structural simplification at lower elevation due to tree establishment in abandoned pastures, but a diffuse fragmentation of historical grasslands at higher elevation due to development of woody vegetation patches beyond the forest-grassland ecotone. Forest expansion occurred more rapidly at lower elevations, on steeper slopes, and closer to existing forests and cultivated areas. A replicate landscape approach proved useful for quantifying changes to forest cover and landscape structure along complex gradients of topography and land use history, following a diffuse agro-pastoral abandonment.

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“…Our study area is located in the heart of the Gran Chaco (Figure 1), which encompasses over 1.3 million square kilometers [19] and hosts one of the largest remaining areas of uncultivated fertile soils worldwide [20]. The Gran Chaco is threatened by land-use change, in particular, expansion of agriculture [21]. Technological innovations-including new soybeans and maize hybrids-have made it possible to farm in most parts of the Gran Chaco [22].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Land-Use Conflict in the Gran Chaco: Finding Common Ground through Use of the Q Method

2020

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In a world characterized by ongoing overexploitation of finite resources—such as land and forests—stakeholder conflicts over use of remaining resources occur frequently and are likely to intensify. There is increasing awareness of the need to better understand individual stakeholders’ perspectives, which often condition behavior, in order to address conflicts and inform wider policymaking. We used the Q method to capture the perspectives of diverse stakeholders and highlight consensus and distinguishing statements. Our results bring to the fore three main perspectives on deforestation (development, family agriculture, and subsistence) and several points of agreement and disagreement. The strongest disagreement concerns the benefits and costs of deforestation: the development perspective portrays benefits as mutual and costs as marginal, whereas the family agriculture and subsistence perspectives associate no benefits and extreme costs with deforestation—including loss of livelihoods and culture. Nevertheless, stakeholder consensus emerges on other points—especially the need for participatory long-term strategies of land use. This paper shows how the Q method can be applied to better understand land-use conflicts.

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Lost forever? Ecosystem functional changes occurring after agricultural abandonment and forest recovery in the semiarid Chaco forests

Cited by 35 publications

References 78 publications

Impact of Farmland Abandonment on Water Resources and Soil Conservation in Citrus Plantations in Eastern Spain

Impact of Farmland Abandonment on Water Resources and Soil Conservation in Citrus Plantations in Eastern Spain

Patterns and drivers of forest landscape change in the Apennines range, Italy

Land-Use Conflict in the Gran Chaco: Finding Common Ground through Use of the Q Method

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