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Background: Long-term farmland abandonment has increased fuel build-up in many Euro-Mediterranean mountainous regions. The high fuel hazard in these landscapes, combined with ongoing climate change, is increasing the frequency of extreme wildfires, thus altering contemporary fire regimes. Mitigating the loss of the landscape’s capacity to regulate large and intense fires is crucial to prevent future harmful effects of fires. As such, effective strategies to manage these fire-prone landscapes are needed. Yet, further understanding of their performance under global change scenarios is required. This study assessed the effects of fire-smart management strategies on future landscape dynamics, fire regulation capacity (FRC), and fire regime in a Mediterranean fire-prone mountainous landscape in Portugal (30,650 ha) undergoing long-term land abandonment and climate change scenarios. For that, we applied the LANDIS-II model under climate change scenarios (RCP 4.5 and 8.5) and long-term farmland abandonment (2020–2050) according to three fire-smart management strategies focused on fire prevention compared with a business-as-usual (BAU) strategy based on fire suppression. Results: Future fire activity and land dynamics resulted in changes that fostered landscape heterogeneity and fragmentation and favoured fire-adapted forests and agroforestry systems while decreasing the dominance of shrublands and croplands. FRC decreased over time, particularly under RCP 8.5 and the BAU strategy. In turn, fire-smart strategies better prevented large and intense fires than the BAU strategy, but their effectiveness decreased under RCP 8.5. The loss of FRC resulted in increased burned area and fire frequency, which predicts a shift from contemporary fire regimes but more markedly under RCP 8.5 and in the BAU strategy. Conclusions: Fire-smart strategies outperformed BAU in averting current fire regime intensification. Merging forest- and silvopasture-based management is the most promising approach in taming the effects of climate and farmland abandonment on future fire activity. Our study underlines that planning and management policies in fire-prone Mediterranean mountain landscapes must integrate fire-smart strategies to decrease landscape fuel hazard and buffer the impact of global change on future fire regimes.

Mountains are universally regarded as key sources of high-quality water resources, fundamental for the local populations as well as for communities living downstream. In recent years, global awareness has been growing among citizens, as well as public and private institutions concerning the need to protect mountain water resources. Many mountain catchments are usually situated in regions of low population density, which are the object of special nature protection status. Water pollution in these regions is often related to road de-icing operations. The objective of this research is to recognise and characterise the environmental implications of water pollution due to road de‐icing in a mountain-protected area (Serra da Estrela, Central Portugal) by means of a geoethical perspective encompassing hydrological and ecological processes along with socioeconomic conditions. A geoethically supported decision-making on road de-icing in Serra da Estrela should bear in mind the local hydrosocial cycle, that is to say, the decision-making should be aware of the complex and dialectic interactions between water flow and quality and the socioeconomic dynamics. Costs and benefits of alternative road de-icing techniques should also be assessed, including the impacts on ecological values. This approach encompasses the ability of the territory to produce fundamental ecosystem services, including hydrological services.

ABSTRACTWe assessed the effects of landscape change on the climate regulation ecosystem service in a mountain river basin of Portugal, through the quantification, valuation and mapping of carbon sequestration and storage. The analyses were based on land use and land cover (LULC) changes that took place between 1990 and 2006 and on expected changes defined by three LULC change scenarios for 2020. We used the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs model for scenario building and carbon assessment and valuation, and several modelling tools to assess past, current and future carbon in four different pools. Soil organic carbon data was obtained through an extensive sampling scheme across the entire study area. Recent (1990–2006) and expected landscape changes (2006–2020) affected considerably carbon sequestration and storage. Observed landscape changes generally promoted carbon sequestration and storage, and had a positive effect on the climate regulation ecosystem service, both biophysically and economically. Expected LULC changes further extend the capability of the landscape to increase carbon sequestration and storage in the near future. The carbon sequestered and stored in vegetation and soil contributes to avoid socio-economic damages from climate change, while increasing the economic value of particular LULC classes and the whole landscape. These results are essential to inform land planning, especially on how, where and when changes in landscapes may affect the provision of the climate regulation ecosystem service.EDITED BYSandra Luque

AbstractCoastal zones are suffering from severe changes. Dune systems are forecasted to be impacted severely by such changes. Since shifts in coastal dynamics may drive modifications in the floristic composition of plant communities, effective indicators of such changes are needed to support adaptive measures. We performe here an assessment of the relative efficiency of functional and phytosociological classifications in the analysis of structure and dynamics in foredune vegetation. Our results identified common signals but also highlighted some differences among results from different classifications with potential consequences for the monitoring of changes in dune ecosystems. The coincident signals provided by the analysed classification systems suggest that they are effective in capturing the major rules involved in the structure and dynamics of foredune vegetation. Since the disturbance regime in foredunes is mostly related to prevailing coastal dynamics, compositional shifts in phytosociological or functional spectra are thus useful in the establishment of reliable indicators and protocols to monitor changes in coastal zones.

An attempt to obtain a consistent spatial model of natural potential vegetation (NPV) for the mainland Portuguese territory is reported. Spatial modeling procedures performed in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment, aimed to operationalize phytosociological expert-knowledge about the putative distribution of potential zonal forest communities dominant in the Portuguese continental territories. The paradigm for NPV assumed was that of Rivas-Martinez (1976) and Rivas-Martinez et al. (1999), which presupposes, for a given territory, a univocal correspondence between a uniform combination of bioclimatic stage and lithology, given a biogeographical context, and a unique successional sequence leading to a single climax community (i.e.a vegetation series (VS)). Information issued from both literature and a team of phytosociologists possessing detailed knowledge about Portuguese vegetation, namely about forests and its serial vegetation, was acknowledged as a starting point for the construction of such a habitat-vegetation correspondence model. First, a bioclimatic map concerning the "Worldwide Bioclimatic Classification System" (WBCS) of Rivas-Martinez (1981-2004), obtained by multivariate geostatistical interpolation issuing from the work of Mesquita (2005), was set. Several partial matrices, one for each biogeographical Province, combined such habitat statements to VS. Initial incoherence due to vagueness of statements led to an important amount of both superimposition of VS and habitat gaps in the matrices. Further rearrangement of the table according to known field distribution of VS by experts allowed setting an approximate univocal correspondence VS-habitat. Finally, an intersection of bioclimatic, lithology and biogeographic maps yielded over a thousand habitat combinations to be associated each to a single VS through implementation of the matrices as a set of rules. Again, inconsistencies were solved likewise, but this time by direct observation of the map by experts. Keeping of phytosociological consistency and fidelity to information on actual vegetation field distribution was always mandatory during the process.

AbstractPhylogeographic studies have repeatedly identified the southern European peninsulas (Iberian, Italian and Balkanic) as major refuges for the flora during Pleistocene glacial events. Due to the succession of cold and warm periods, a large number of frost—sensitive species became extinct or confined to isolated positions in the southern peninsulas, where specific physical conditions working at a local scale enabled the persistence of those frost-sensitive, relict species. The global purpose of this paper is to address the ecology and diversity of relict laurel—leaved scrublands in mainland Portugal (Southwest Europe), where geographic segregation gave rise to a floristic diversification of community types. These biogeographically isolated scrublands configure seven distinct associations, which are recognisable from both classical and numerical phyto- sociological approaches. The conservation of relict laurel—leaved scrublands in the territory is also assessed in the framework of the EEC “Habitats” Directive.

AbstractA new phytosociological association of perennial nitrophilous vegetation is described from submediterranean mountain areas of North-Western Iberian Peninsula. Geranio lusitanici-Scrophularietum herminiiass. nova (class Artemisietea vulgaris) is physiognomically predominated by Scrophularia herminiiand its individuality is based on the two nominal taxa (Scrophularia herminiiand Geranium pyrenaicumsubsp. lusitanicum), both endemic to the North-Western Iberian Peninsula. In this paper, the new association is fully characterised and distinguished from other perennial nitrophilous vegetation types in the territory in terms of its floristic composition, synecologic requirements, syntaxonomy, chorology and biogeography.