O ensino da ecologia da paisagem em Portugal

Neste trabalho descreve-se a dinâmica da oferta do ensino da ecologia da paisagem desde o seu início em Portugal, no final dos anos 1980, até ao presente. Faz-se um apanhado das unidades curriculares atualmente em funcionamento no ensino superior, por ciclo de estudos e por instituição, e descrevem-se as tendências observadas nas últimas duas décadas no ensino desta disciplina. Em Portugal são lecionadas presentemente 17 unidades curriculares especificamente dedicadas à ecologia da paisagem, distribuídas por cursos de 1º e 2º ciclo e mestrados integrados, em 12 instituições. Depois de um período inicial marcado pelo rápido surgimento de unidades curriculares, observou-se o seu abandono, particularmente no âmbito da adequação dos cursos ao modelo de Bolonha. Recentemente, surgiram novas unidades, principalmente ao nível de programas de doutoramento (3º ciclo), que permitem compensar o anterior desaparecimento de unidades e manter uma considerável oferta de ensino em ecologia da paisagem no país

Landscape ecology in meeting challenges in land management: the case of Portugal

The practice of planning and management at the landscape scale has increased over the year and in some fields, such as forestry, hydrology, or biodiversity conservation, the landscape approach is already a requirement. Management at this scale is a challenging task due to the complexity of the socio-economicecological systems under consideration but mostly due to the level of uncertainty of current and future drivers of change and their effects. Theoretical foundations and methods to support management of landscapes can be found within landscape ecology, an emerging science field in the 1990’s and 2000’s but now fully established despite the diversity of perspectives. In Portugal, landscape ecology has also emerged in the 1990’s but applications in real world cases are infrequent. The goal of this work was to analyse the role of the science of landscape ecology in meeting or contributing to meet challenges in landscape management in Portugal. We analysed approaches and methods used to address the sustainable management of landscapes as well as particular case studies in forestry, fire hazard reduction, biodiversity conservation and regional planning where landscape ecology based knowledge or methods have been applied. Considering the insufficiency of applications in Portugal revealed by this work, we additionally present principles, guidelines and measures to be used in land management in general and within in the fields described above based upon the foundations and the practice in the field of landscape ecology, particularly in Portugal

Ecologia da paisagem e suas aplicações profissionais em Portugal: os casos da gestão florestal e da conservação da biodiversidade

Neste trabalho avalia-se a aplicação da ecologia da paisagem à prática profissional em duas áreas distintas: a gestão florestal e a conservação da natureza e da biodiversidade. A partir de uma hipótese, de acordo com a qual a elevada aplicabilidade da ecologia da paisagem a determinadas áreas e a vasta experiência formativa nesta disciplina em Portugal deveria ser traduzida por um elevado número de aplicações práticas nos âmbitos da conservação da biodiversidade e a gestão florestal, avaliamos um conjunto de indicadores de utilização da estrutura teórica, dos conceitos e dos métodos desta disciplina a partir da análise de um conjunto de documentos concebidos a diferentes níveis organizacionais. Os resultados indicam que a presença da ecologia da paisagem nestas duas áreas profissionais é muito ténue, sendo muito poucos os casos onde é clara a influência da disciplina na conceção e desenvolvimento de políticas, planos e projetos. As explicações para esta situação podem envolver simultaneamente insuficiência de transferência de conhecimento da ecologia da paisagem para o mundo profissional e uma não sincronização entre a formação académica e a aplicação

A Framework for Multi-Dimensional Assessment of Wildfire Disturbance Severity from Remotely Sensed Ecosystem Functioning Attributes

Wildfire disturbances can cause modifications in different dimensions of ecosystem functioning, i.e., the flows of matter and energy. There is an increasing need for methods to assess such changes, as functional approaches offer advantages over those focused solely on structural or compositional attributes. In this regard, remote sensing can support indicators for estimating a wide variety of effects of fire on ecosystem functioning, beyond burn severity assessment. These indicators can be described using intra-annual metrics of quantity, seasonality, and timing, called Ecosystem Functioning Attributes (EFAs). Here, we propose a satellite-based framework to evaluate the impacts, at short to medium term (i.e., from the year of fire to the second year after), of wildfires on four dimensions of ecosystem functioning: (i) primary productivity, (ii) vegetation water content, (iii) albedo, and (iv) sensible heat. We illustrated our approach by comparing inter-annual anomalies in satellite-based EFAs in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, from 2000 to 2018. Random Forest models were used to assess the ability of EFAs to discriminate burned vs. unburned areas and to rank the predictive importance of EFAs. Together with effect sizes, this ranking was used to select a parsimonious set of indicators for analyzing the main effects of wildfire disturbances on ecosystem functioning, for both the whole study area (i.e., regional scale), as well as for four selected burned patches with different environmental conditions (i.e., local scale). With both high accuracies (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) > 0.98) and effect sizes (Cohen’s |d| > 0.8), we found important effects on all four dimensions, especially on primary productivity and sensible heat, with the best performance for quantity metrics. Different spatiotemporal patterns of wildfire severity across the selected burned patches for different dimensions further highlighted the importance of considering the multi-dimensional effects of wildfire disturbances on key aspects of ecosystem functioning at different timeframes, which allowed us to diagnose both abrupt and lagged effects. Finally, we discuss the applicability as well as the potential advantages of the proposed approach for more comprehensive assessments of fire severity.Portuguese national funds through FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the GreenRehab project PCIF/RPG/0077/2017Junta de Andalucia P18-RT-1927Project DETECTOR A-RNM-256-UGR18European Union Funds for Regional DevelopmentPortuguese Foundation for Science and Technology European CommissionMinistry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) European CommissionEuropean Social Fund, within the 2014-2020 EU Strategic Framework, through FCT SFRH/BD/99469/2014Individual Scientific Employment Stimulus Program (2017), through FCT CEECIND/02331/201

Climate change impacts on water resources and reservoir management: uncertainty and adaptation for a mountain catchment in Northeast Portugal

Reservoirs often play an important role in mitigating water supply problems. However, the implications of climate change are not always considered in reservoir planning and management. This study aimed to address this challenge in the Alto Sabor watershed, northeast Portugal. The study analysed whether or not the shortage of water supply can be effectively addressed through the construction of a new reservoir (two-reservoir system) by considering future climate projections. The hydrological model Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was calibrated and validated against daily-observed discharge and reservoir volume, with a good agreement between model predictions and observations. Outputs from four General Circulation Models (GCM) for two scenarios (RCP 4.5 and 8.5) were statistically downscaled and bias-corrected with ground observations. A general increase in temperature is expected in the future while the change in precipitation is more uncertain as per the differences among climatic models. In general, annual precipitation would slightly decrease while seasonal changes would be more significant, with more precipitation in winter and much less in spring and summer. SWAT simulations suggest that the existence of two-reservoir will better solve the water supply problems under current climate conditions compared to a single-reservoir system. However in the future, the reliability of this solution will decrease, especially due to the variability of projections from the different climatic models. The solution to water supply problems in this region, adopted taking only present-day climate into account, will likely be inefficient for water supply management under future climate conditions.This work was funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors - COMPETE and by National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology under the project PTDC/AAG-MAA/4539/2012 / FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027863 (IND_CHANGE). J.P. Nunes was financially supported by FCT (Portuguese Science Foundation), and the European Social Fund through post-doctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/87571/2012). A.T. Monteiro is supported by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors - COMPETE and by National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology under the UID/BIA/50027/2013 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006821. The authors would like to thank the Municipality of Bragança for the datasets on water inflows.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fine-tuning the BFOLDS fire regime module to support the assessment of fire-related functions and services in a changing Mediterranean mountain landscape

Fire simulation models are useful to advance fire research and improve landscape management. However, a better understanding of these tools is crucial to increase their reliability and expansion into research fields where their application remains limited (e.g., ecosystem services). We evaluated several components of the BFOLDS Fire Regime Module and then tested its ability to simulate fire regime attributes in a Mediterranean mountainous landscape. Based on model outputs, we assessed the landscape fire regulation capacity over time and its implications for supporting the climate regulation ecosystem service. We found that input data quality and the adjustment of fuel and fire behaviour parameters are crucial to accurately emulating key fire regime attributes. Besides, the high predictive capacity shown by BFOLDS-FRM allows to reliably inform the planning and sustainable management of fire-prone mountainous areas of the Mediterranean. Moreover, we identified and discussed modelling limitations and made recommendations to improve future model applications.A. Sil received support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through Ph.D. Grant SFRH/BD/132838/2017, funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, and by the European Social Fund - Operational Program Human Capital within the 2014–2020 EU Strategic Framework. P.M. Fernandes contributed in the framework of the UIDB/04033/2020 project, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Assessing the multi-scale predictive ability of ecosystem functional attributes for species distribution modelling

Global environmental changes are rapidly affecting species' distributions and habitat suitability worldwide, requiring a continuous update of biodiversity status to support effective decisions on conservation policy and management. In this regard, satellite-derived Ecosystem Functional Attributes (EFAs) offer a more integrative and quicker evaluation of ecosystem responses to environmental drivers and changes than climate and structural or compositional landscape attributes. Thus, EFAs may hold advantages as predictors in Species Distribution Models (SDMs) and for implementing multi-scale species monitoring programs. Here we describe a modelling framework to assess the predictive ability of EFAs as Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) against traditional datasets (climate, land-cover) at several scales. We test the framework with a multi-scale assessment of habitat suitability for two plant species of conservation concern, both protected under the EU Habitats Directive, differing in terms of life history, range and distribution pattern (Iris boissieri and Taxus baccata). We fitted four sets of SDMs for the two test species, calibrated with: interpolated climate variables; landscape variables; EFAs; and a combination of climate and landscape variables. EFAbased models performed very well at the several scales (AUCmedian from 0.881±0.072 to 0.983±0.125), and similarly to traditional climate-based models, individually or in combination with land-cover predictors (AUCmedian from 0.882±0.059 to 0.995±0.083). Moreover, EFAbased models identified additional suitable areas and provided valuable information on functional features of habitat suitability for both test species (narrowly vs. widely distributed), for both coarse and fine scales. Our results suggest a relatively small scale-dependence of the predictive ability of satellite-derived EFAs, supporting their use as meaningful EBVs in SDMs from regional and broader scales to more local and finer scales. Since the evaluation of species' conservation status and habitat quality should as far as possible be performed based on scalable indicators linking to meaningful processes, our framework may guide conservation managers in decision-making related to biodiversity monitoring and reporting schemes.This research was developed as part of the ECOPOTENTIAL project financed by European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 641762. SAC, DAS and JPH received funding from the ECOPOTENTIAL project. JG was supported by FCT (Portuguese Science Foundation) through PhD grant SFRH/BD/90112/2012. DAS received funding from Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, JC2015-00316 grant, and Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, CGL2014-61610-EXP project

Forests as promoters of water ecosystem services: insights from Portugal

Forests provide multiple ecosystem services, with relevance for the ones related to water. It is widely accepted that forests greatly influence the water cycle, promoting evapotranspiration, improving infiltration, reducing surface runoff and consequently soil erosion, although sometimes at expenses of a reduction in total water yield. In fact, forests are targeted for several measures to restore freshwater and land ecosystems, conserving biodiversity and at the same time improving the revenues of landowners, especially if Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are in place. However, the environmental effectiveness of these measures is not always acknowledged, especially due to the lack of local studies. Therefore, the objective of this presentation is to gather information based on modelling exercises applied to case-studies in Portugal, in which forests influence the provision of ecosystem services related to water in terms of quantity and quality. First, the results from an econometric model based on spatial variables applied to continental Portugal will be presented. Results suggested the existence of a positive and significant effect of local forest cover on water treatment cost savings of 0.056%. Secondly, scenarios of afforestation were simulated in SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) for two watersheds of northern Portugal. Results revealed that forests have a positive role on the regulation of water, in particular for the scenario of native deciduous type of trees, such as oak. Moreover, forests influence water quality, in terms of less nitrates in the river, and less soil erosion, when compared to a scenario of agricultural expansion. Lastly, a SWAT application in a small watershed in Central Portugal with scenarios of afforestation vs. fires, showed that soil erosion protection and water quality regulation provided by forests might be negatively affected by fire occurrence. Overall, further work should be done to consider fire risk over PES schemes applied to the Mediterranean forest.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Approaches and methods for ecosystem services assessment in the North of Portugal: from supply modeling to land management optimization

In the last decades, ecosystems services (ES) in the North of Portugal have been assessed typically for sets of ES addressed individually based on indicators (e.g., LULC) but also through mechanistic and non-mechanistic modeling (e.g., hydrological modeling, InVEST). Economic evaluation has been applied based mostly on the combination of ES supply in biophysical units with market prices or value attributed by other techniques (e.g., avoided cost, unit value transfer). Such studies, and the approaches and methods involved, have been helpful in demonstrating the magnitude and dynamics of the supply of a series of ES in the region, both in biophysical and monetary units, and to inform regional planning and management of natural resources, such as forests. These studies have been changing the perception of stakeholders regarding forest systems and their management. Despite the importance of ES research conducted so far, there is an ongoing effort to further develop ES assessment in the region, conceptually and methodologically, namely by overcoming some of the intrinsic constraints of the approaches and methods used. Improvements intend to better integrate different ecosystem functions and services, to eliminate double counting, and to address the interactions between supply and demand of ES at several scales. The incorporation of capabilities of land-use and management optimization based on the supply and value of ES is also currently a research goal in the region. Recent developments have been based on operational research tools developed for the forest sector in the region of Bragan ça addressing ecosystem services from heuristics, multi-criteria and linear programming perspectives, expecting to solve complex spatially explicit management alternatives problems based on ES. In this presentation we will introduce these tools and their adjustment and applications in the assessment of ES in the region.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Remotely Sensed Variables of Ecosystem Functioning Support Robust Predictions of Abundance Patterns for Rare Species

Global environmental changes are affecting both the distribution and abundance of species at an unprecedented rate. To assess these effects, species distribution models (SDMs) have been greatly developed over the last decades, while species abundance models (SAMs) have generally received less attention even though these models provide essential information for conservation management. With population abundance defined as an essential biodiversity variable (EBV), SAMs could offer spatially explicit predictions of species abundance across space and time. Satellite-derived ecosystem functioning attributes (EFAs) are known to inform on processes controlling species distribution, but they have not been tested as predictors of species abundance. In this study, we assessed the usefulness of SAMs calibrated with EFAs (as process-related variables) to predict local abundance patterns for a rare and threatened species (the narrow Iberian endemic ‘Gerês lily’ Iris boissieri; protected under the European Union Habitats Directive), and to project inter-annual fluctuations of predicted abundance. We compared the predictive accuracy of SAMs calibrated with climate (CLI), topography (DEM), land cover (LCC), EFAs, and combinations of these. Models fitted only with EFAs explained the greatest variance in species abundance, compared to models based only on CLI, DEM, or LCC variables. The combination of EFAs and topography slightly increased model performance. Predictions of the inter-annual dynamics of species abundance were related to inter-annual fluctuations in climate, which holds important implications for tracking global change effects on species abundance. This study underlines the potential of EFAs as robust predictors of biodiversity change through population size trends. The combination of EFA-based SAMs and SDMs would provide an essential toolkit for species monitoring programs.This work has been carried out within the H2020 project ECOPOTENTIAL: Improving Future Ecosystem Benefits Through Earth Observations (http://www.ecopotential-project.eu). The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 641762. S.A.-C., D.A.-S., and J.H. received funding from the ECOPOTENTIAL project. A.R. was financially supported by the Xunta de Galicia, Spain (post-doctoral fellowship ED481B2016/084-0). J.F.G. was funded by the Individual Scientific Employment Stimulus Program (2017) by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT CEEC-2017)