Maggengo meadow patches enclosed by forests in the Italian Alps: evidence of landscape legacy on plant diversity

Abstract

The maggenghi are mid slope meadows typical of all the southern and of great parts of the northern European Alps, for centuries managed with traditional and low intensity techniques. Usually, they are scattered patches in surrounding forests. The spontaneous expansion of trees and shrubs, favored by the recent decline of mountain agriculture, lead the maggengo patches patterns and shapes to change. Our objective was to analyze the effect of this change on current plant diversity of the remnant patches, as the adaptive response could be slow and possibly related more to historical than to current landscape patterns. We analyzed the trend of the size, shape, elongation, fractal dimension and connectivity of maggengo patches of a Central-Eastern Italian Alpine district, in four time steps, from 1973 to 2006, and in 1859, when mountain agriculture was still widespread. Then, we studied the relationships between those landscape metrics and two current patch-level plant diversity measures: interior species richness and species density. Aerial photographs were used to investigate that trend, while a historical cadastral map was used to assess the landscape metrics in 1859. As expected, in the last 30 years, the total size of maggenghi has been reduced by 57% while their shapes have been progressively simplified. Interior species richness was positively related to size, both in 2006 and over the past 30 years, but not to any 1859 measures. Conversely, species density was positively correlated only with 1859 size, shape index and connectivity. We conclude that the historical shape, size and connectivity are some of the key variables affecting the plant species density of maggengo patches, but not of their interior plant species richness

Modeling Social-Ecological Feedback Effects in the Implementation of Payments for Environmental Services in Pasture-Woodlands

“…Land-use change depends on the specific policy scenario and farm types analyzed, as also shown by Hanley et al (2012). In addition, historical and current land use, as well as past disturbances such as wind throw (Chételat et al 2013), may have triggered vegetation dynamics that cannot be reverted because of a legacy effect (Foster et al 2003, Liu et al 2007, Sitzia and Trentanovi 2011. Thus, even a rational economic policy setting may be unable to ensure the maintenance of the pasture-woodland landscape in its existing form.…”

Browsing ratio, species intake, and milk fatty acid composition of goats foraging on alpine open grassland and grazable forestland

“…In north Italy, in the mountain belt, small semi-natural grasslands are interspersed within forests (Sitzia and Trentanovi, 2011;Garbarino et al, 2014). These areas had been traditionally grazed for millennia.…”

Balancing Economic Development and Environmental Conservation for a New Governance of Alpine Areas

“…However, nowadays, the Alpine environment is affected in particular by the phenomenon of abandonment of traditional activities over large areas, often accompanied by severe depopulation. The ensuing transformation of the landscape, tied up in particular to the rapid and often irreversible loss of open spaces, is already showing negative effects for the conservation of biodiversity [37][38][39][40][41][42]. In fact cultural landscapes in the Alps have long provided diversified habitats for numerous species, some of which are now endangered.…”

“…In many valleys, moreover, the rapid advance of forest is leading to an extensive homogenization of landscape and a loss of scenic view. This has a negative impact on summer tourism [37][38][39][40][41][42]. Other possible negative implications of abandonment are those connected to the protective functions of the forests: forests that over the centuries have been altered by Man, nowadays need forms of management tailor-made to guarantee their stability, functionality, and a capacity for natural regeneration.…”