The Analysis of Dynamic Interaction in Legume Binary Mixture Under Controlled Conditions of Irrigation and Clipping

The objective of this study was to analyse the type of interference that occurred between the annual legume species, purple clover (Trifolium purpureum L.) and narrow leaved crimson clover (Trifolium angustifolium Loisel. ), growing in mixed conditions under two different watering regimes and two different clipping treatments. A replacement series experiment was conducted in pots placed in the field. The above ground biomass (gr/plant) were measured. The recently proposed Inverse Linear Model was implied in order to analyse the competitive interaction between the above species. The results suggest that Tr. purpureum was the superior competitor to Tr. angustifolium and a remarkable niche differentiation was occurred after the clipping treatment

The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) in 2015-2016

Peer reviewe

The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) in 2016-2017

This report summarizes the activities and achievements of the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) from mid-2016 through to the end of 2017. During this period, the 13th Eurasian Grassland Conference took place in Sighişoara, Romania, and the 14th conference was held in Riga, Latvia. The 10th EDGG Field Workshop on Biodiversity patterns across a precipitation gradient in the Central Apennine mountains was conducted in the Central Apennines, Italy, this time in addition to multi-scale sampling of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens, also including one animal group (leaf hoppers). Apart from the quarterly issues of its own electronic journal (Bulletin of the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group), EDGG also finalised five grassland-related Special Features/Issues during the past 1.5 years in the following international journals: Applied Vegetation Science, Biodiversity and Conservation, Phytocoenologia, Tuexenia and Hacquetia. Beyond that, EDGG facilitated various national and supra-national vegetationplot databases of grasslands and established its own specialised database for standardised multi-scale plot data of Palaearctic grasslands (GrassPlot). © by Stephen Venn 2018.Peer reviewe

Soil quality characteristics of traditional agroforestry systems in Mouzaki area, central Greece

Agroforestry systems (AFS) are characterized by growing trees and crops on the same area, aiming at sustainable production and better natural resources management, whilst potentially contributing to climate change mitigation. One of the most important benefits related to the productivity of AFS is the maintenance or improvement of soil quality. In the present study, qualitative characteristics of soils were evaluated in eight traditional smallholder AFS in the Municipality of Mouzaki, central Greece. The AFS were both silvoarable and silvopastoral systems and they were located either in lowland or semi-mountainous areas. Within the research areas, the effect of the trees on soil parameters was investigated. Soil samples were collected at two depths (0–30 and 30–60 cm) and at three distances from the tree base, corresponding to half, twice, triple or quadruple the tree canopy width. Soil organic matter (OM), total N, available P, exchangeable K, electrical conductivity (ECe), cation exchange capacity, pH and bulk density were determined. The effects of altitude and land use (agroforestry practice) on the soil quality parameters were also evaluated. Soil quality characteristics varied among the eight AFS. The distance from the tree significantly affected only ECe (p = 0.042), which decreased from a mean value of 0.31 dS/m to 0.25 dS/m, as the distance from the tree increased. Silvoarable systems presented significantly higher pH, ECe, available P (p < 0.001) and total N (p = 0.012) content than silvopastoral. Increased altitude resulted in significantly higher levels of OM and total N within the top 30 cm depths (p < 0.001); mean soil OM was 1.7% and total N 0.11% in the AFS in the lowland, whereas in the semi-mountainous areas 2.4% and 0.16%, respectively. The results of the research provided evidence of soil carbon sequestration, thus indicating the potential of AFS to mitigate climate change. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V

A conceptual business model for an agroforestry consulting company

While socioeconomic and environmental benefits of agroforestry are widely appreciated in the tropics, they were almost neglected from the plans for agronomic development implemented up to early 2000 as set by major policy schemes within the EU. However, such benefits had supported the rural economies of the Mediterranean EU countries—Greece included—in the past. Nowadays several unorganized traditional agroforestry systems persist, rather as remnants, and occupy extensive areas in Greece. Given its recognizable paramount importance as a lever for rural development, the EU included agroforestry in the forthcoming programming period of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP 2014–2020) as a greening, agro-environmental tool. While the institutional environment in Greece and the EU generally favours the initiation of agroforestry projects, farmers do not have such experience. The present paper sets as its major goals to set up and explore the major characteristics of a Business Model for an agroforestry consulting company (ACC) in Greece, by applying the Pillar/Blocks methodology of Alexander Osterwalder and his co-workers. Details on Customer Value Proposition, Customer Segmentation and Relationship, necessary Resources, Costs and Revenue streams are presented. Greening primary production, sequence of harvests, additional income, prospects for entrepreneurship, and transfer of EU provisions to the farmers are the main Value Propositions of the ACC. Dedicated personal assistance and co-creation are the relationship types expected to be developed with its customers. Key partners are local representatives, academic specialists and stakeholders, while key suppliers are tubex manufacturers, software providers and NGOs. Main revenue streams for the ACC are usage fees, subscription fees and advertising. The establishment of such a consulting company in a central location of the country, such as the region of Thessaly, where the agri-market environment appears promising, is expected to generate additional revenues for farmers that will introduce and/or maintain agroforestry systems and cause major improvements in an area with decreasing soil and water quality and deteriorating landscape values due to intensification of farming over the last decades. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Assessment of grazing effects on mediterranean shrubs Phillyrea latifolia L. and Cistus monspeliensis L. with developmental instability and fractal dimension

In this study we used developmental instability expressed as translational and fluctuating asymmetries as well as fractal dimension in order to assess the effects of different levels of grazing pressure by goats on two dominant species of Mediterranean shrublands, i.e. Phillyrea latifolia L., a palatable, and Cistus monspeliensis L., an unpalatable shrub. Treatments included light, moderate and heavy grazing pressure. For the former species, an additional ungrazed treatment was used as a control. Measurements were carried out in thirty shrubs of each species in each treatment. For Phillyrea, the fluctuating asymmetry analysis revealed higher asymmetry of leaves in the grazed treatments than in the control. The lower parts (below 1.5m height) of Phillyrea shrubs, reached by goats, also attained larger values of asymmetry in comparison to the upper parts (above 1.5m height) of the shrubs, not reached by goats. Moreover, fractal dimension of branches was lower in the grazed treatments in comparison to the ungrazed ones, as well as in the lower parts compared to the upper parts of the shrubs. However, the results of translational asymmetry analysis showed that grazed shrubs were developmentally more stable than the ungrazed ones. These results suggest that Phillyrea is very tolerant to grazing; its upper part can be maintained in a non - stressful situation even when its lower part is overgrazed. For Cistus, the results of translational asymmetry revealed that grazing did not affect its developmental stability. The effects of grazing on fractal dimension declined under moderate grazing situations. This indicates that Cistus is developmentally stable both in well preserved and in heavily disturbed sites. It is concluded that developmental instability and fractal dimension are useful tools in assessing the differential response of Mediterranean key species to grazing impact.This research is part of the INCO project DRASME ( Desertification Risk Assessment in Silvopastoral Mediterranean Ecosystems, contract no. IC18- CT98-039), financed by the European Commission. Greece-Spain Bilateral Action No 200GR0001 also supported the project. The support from both these projects is gratefully acknowledged.Peer reviewe

Report on the 15th Eurasian Grassland Conference in Sulmona, Italy

Grassland Conservation (EGC 2018) took place from 4th to 8th June 2018 in the town of Sulmona, located in the centre of the Apennines in the Majella National Park. It was jointly organised by the University of Rome La Sapienza and the Majella National Park. This was the 10th conference of the EDGG, despite the official numbering includes the predecessor conferences of the AG Trockenrasen. The main topic of the conference was the conservation of grasslands through transdisciplinary and transnational cooperation. A total of 59 participants from 18 countries attended the conference, which included two keynote talks, 27 regular talks and 16 posters. The attendance of five participants was made possible with travel grants provided by EDGG/IAVS

Options Méditerranéennes, A no. 92, 2010 -The contributions of grasslands to the conservation of Mediterranean biodiversity

Abstract. It is widely known that the Mediterranean basin sustains a remarkable biodiversity. Its rich vascular flora, comprising up to 11,700 endemic known plants which is more than four times the number found in all the rest of Europe, highlights the basin as one of the globe's biodiversity hot spots, with tremendous importance for ecosystems integrity and life per se. Grasslands is the biome with the major contribution to this nature's high value. Current signs of grassland biodiversity deterioration or loss inevitably alarm scientific and institutional mechanisms to withstand further decrease, in order to avoid irreversible changes of the total biodiversity and quality of life. The present paper emphasises on plant diversity, and describes the levels of diversity in Mediterranean grasslands, stresses the need to shift from point to total diversity, investigates the causes and effects behind biodiversity deterioration and loss, reviews the methods for biodiversity improvement, proposes a typical methodological set for evaluating biodiversity, and includes this set into a general scheme for a spatial and temporal monitoring programme. It is concluded that although significant theoretical and empirical knowledge has been accumulated up to now concerning either the halting of biodiversity loss or improving biodiversity of the Mediterranean basin grasslands, still this knowledge is pending to be put into full action from institutional structures and mechanisms. Keywords. Point diversity -Total diversity -Monitoring -Mediterranean grasslands. Amélioration de la diversité végétale et méthodes pour son évaluation dans les prairies du bassin méditerranéen Résumé. Il est certain que le bassin méditerranéen possède une biodiversité remarquable. Sa flore vasculaire riche de plus de 11 700 plantes endémiques connues, c'est-à-dire quatre fois plus que dans le reste de l'Europe, caractérise le bassin comme un des points chauds de biodiversité de la planète, avec une importance extrême pour l'intégrité des écosystèmes et de la vie elle-même. Les prairies constituent le biome qui contribue le plus à cette valeur élevée de la nature. Des signes récents de détérioration ou de perte de la biodiversité des prairies ne peuvent qu'alarmer les mécanismes scientifiques et institutionnel

Grasslands and shrublands of the Mediterranean region

The Mediterranean Region extends to the 1.6% of the world's land surface and more than the half of the Mediterranean-type ecosystems of the world. The remarkable species richness in the Mediterranean Region mainly originates from an exceptional habitat diversity and the presence of several natural barriers facilitating the segregation and differentiation of local taxa and biocoenoses. In this article, we deal with the habitats characterized by grasslands and shrublands that clearly show the adaptations to what could be called "the Mediterranean syndrome", i.e., the intrazonal Mediterranean grasslands and shrublands (MG&S). The main driving forces of the adaptive radiation and high biodiversity that characterize the MG&S are geographical segregation and appearance of new lands, climatic variability, substrate heterogeneity, species-specific plant-animal interactions and short generation times. MG&S are of paramount importance for delivering a wide array of ecosystem services. Apart from their importance for the maintenance of biodiversity, they play a major role in providing high quality forage for both livestock and wild animals; they support communities of insects with major roles in the ecosystem services of control and pollination; they sustain apiculture, and contribute to the prevention of erosion processes and maintenance of the water cycle; they buffer the negative impacts from fertilizers and pesticides and display highly significant aesthetic and recreational values. However, major threats to the provision of ecosystem services mostly originate from climate change, and recent land use changes (such as: "coastalization," unbalanced grazing activities and abandonment of traditional practices). To mitigate the adverse effects of land use changes, the management of MG&S may be based on four principles; (a) ecosystem sustainability, (b) natural regeneration, (c) multifunctionality, and (d) protection. © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved