Human impacts on Quercus suber habitats in Sardinia: past and present

Quercus suber L. is a species confined to the centre and western Mediterranean basin. On the island of Sardinia its distribution is limited mainly by soils. Apart from its economic significance to local communities, cork oak habitats are recognised as having both cultural and biodiversity value at a European level. Although traditionally associated with human activities these habitats are today under increasing threat. Among the problems that affect cork oak habitats on the island are soil erosion and loss of organic matter due to ploughing and seeding for pasture. Stock numbers have increased while grazing cattle have been replaced by sheep and are proven to be particularly damaging especially to cork oak regeneration. Although the species is a passive pyrophyte, frequent fires render the trees susceptible to fungal and defoliator attacks and destroy the understory leading to soil degradation and erosion. This paper provides a review of these threats and explores their link to the changes resulting from abandonment of traditional farming methods and different management systems used in Sardinia

An appraisal of the Mediterranean flora and vegetation and its conservation needs

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:4126.581(131) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Landscape Typology in the Mediterranean context: A tool for habitat restoration

Despite the wide use of Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) as a tool for landscape planning in NW Europe, there are few examples of its application in the Mediterranean. This paper reports on the results from the development of a typology for LCA in a study area of northern Sardinia, Italy to provide a spatial framework for the analysis of current patterns of cork oak distribution and future restoration of this habitat. Landscape units were derived from a visual interpretation of map data stored within a GIS describing the physical and cultural characteristics of the study area. The units were subsequently grouped into Landscape Types according to the similarity of shared attributes 36 using Two Way Indicator Species Analysis (TWINSPAN). The preliminary results showed that the methodology classified distinct Land- 37 scape Types but, based on field observations, there is a need for further refinement of the classification. The distribution and properties of two main cork oak habitats types was examined within the identified Landscape Types namely woodlands and wood pastures using Patch Analyst. The results show very clearly a correspondence between the distribution of cork oak pastures and cork oak woodland and landscape types. This forms the basis of the development of strategies for the maintenance, restoration and recreation of these habitat types within the study area, ultimately for the whole island of Sardinia. Future work is required to improve the landscape characterisation , particularly with respect to cultural factors, and to determine the validity of the landscape spatial framework for the analysis of cork oak distribution as part of a programme of habitat restoration and re-creation

Rapid assessment of historic, current and future habitat quality for biodiversity around UK Natura 2000 sites

Changes in landscape composition and structure may impact the conservation and management of protected areas. Species that depend on specific habitats are at risk of extinction when these habitats are degraded or lost. Designing robust methods to evaluate landscape composition will assist decision- and policy-making in emerging landscapes. This paper describes a rapid assessment methodology aimed at evaluating land-cover quality for birds, plants, butterflies and bees around seven UK Natura 2000 sites. An expert panel assigned quality values to standard Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) land-cover classes for each taxonomic group. Quality was assessed based on historical (1950, 1990), current (2000) and future (2030) land-cover data, the last projected using three alternative scenarios: a growth-applied strategy (GRAS), a business-as-might-be-usual (BAMBU) scenario, and sustainable European development goal (SEDG) scenario. A quantitative quality index weighted the area of each land-cover parcel with a taxa-specific quality measure. Land parcels with high quality for all taxonomic groups were evaluated for temporal changes in area, size and adjacency. For all sites and taxonomic groups, the rate of deterioration of land-cover quality was greater between 1950 and 1990 than current rates or as modelled using the alternative future scenarios (2000–2030). Model predictions indicated land-cover quality stabilized over time under the GRAS scenario, and was close to stable for the BAMBU scenario. The SEDG scenario suggested an ongoing loss of quality, though this was lower than the historical rate of c. 1% loss per decade. None of the future scenarios showed accelerated fragmentation, but rather increases in the area, adjacency and diversity of high quality land parcels in the landscape