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This study deals with the future of the traditional agroforestry systems (TAFSs) in the northern Mediterranean Basin. Important productive systems, such as ancient non-irrigated olive groves and extensive silvopastoral systems, from subalpine grasslands to coastal landscapes, are being irreversibly degraded, threatening the bio-cultural heritage of the Mediterranean region, an area recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot. In the midst of the global biodiversity and climate crisis, immediate actions are proposed for the protection and conservation management of TAFSs, within a new EU policy framework. Having the TAFSs of Greece in the spotlight of this analysis, a four-step approach was used in order to review the value of agroforestry in terms of (a) biodiversity (birds, mammals, invertebrates and soil biota), (b) agroforestry landscapes, such as traditional olive groves on terraces and valonia silvopastoral systems, (c) ecosystem services, especially concerning cultural values, and (d) the modern threats to traditional agroforestry. Through this research, problems are highlighted and European policy priorities are defined. Our conclusion is that there is an immediate need to revise the European Union rural, forestry, and environmental policies in the Mediterranean region, following the provisions of the new EU Nature Restoration Law, in order to revive agroforestry landscapes and make them productive and sustainable again for the benefit of rural economies, local communities, and biodiversity, especially in marginal Mediterranean mountainous and island areas, where depopulation and susceptibility to wildfires are major threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Involving local people in natural area management is very important to address the complexity of environmental management issues for the sustainable use of local resources. Participatory methods require the contribution of local stakeholders in decision-making. Mapping the environmental views of local communities allows for the detection of aspects that could facilitate management efforts. This research—in the frame of the Skyros LIFE project and the PAMNATURA project—measures the local acceptability of the conservation actions proposed by the LIFE project in Skyros island (Greece), in relation to recording local people's environmental orientation using the 15-item revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. The research was carried out by means of questionnaires. The LIFE project proposed actions were grouped into three categories according to their theme, i.e., promoting (a) nature protection, (b) agro-pastoralism and (c) ecotourism. The sample seems to largely agree with the LIFE project proposals, while the results showed high scores for most of the NEP scale items, implying pro-environmental beliefs, though there appears to be disagreement or neutrality regarding a few items. The local acceptability of the proposed actions was found to correlate to local people's environmental concern measured through the NEP scale. Drawing on the results, the implementation of actions related directly or indirectly to economic activities and the preservation of traditional activities, as well as environmental education and interactive informing and consultation, could enhance local participation. Skyros island seems to offer an appropriate social background for applying participatory and adaptive management and implementing conservation programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface runoff is a major component of the hydrological cycle, and it is essential for supporting the ecosystem services provided by grassland and forest ecosystems. It is of practical importance to understand the mechanisms and the dynamic processes of runoff in a river's basin, and in this study, we focused on the restored montane Pailugou Basin in the Qilian Mountains, Gansu Province, China, since its water status is extremely important for the large arid area and local economies therein. Our purpose was to determine the annual variation in the surface runoff in the Pailugou Basin because it is important to understand the influence of climate fluctuations on surface water resources and the economy of the basin. In addition, little is known about the annual variations in precipitation and runoff in this region of the world. Daily atmospheric precipitation, air temperature and runoff data from 2000 to 2019 were analyzed by the calculation of the uneven annual distribution of surface runoff, the calculation of the complete adjustment coefficient, and the vector accumulation expressed by the concentration degree. We also used the cumulative anomaly approach to determine the interannual variation trend of runoff, while the change trend was quantified by the sliding average method. Finally, we used the Mann–Kendall mutation test method and regression analysis to establish the time-series trend for precipitation and runoff and to determine the period of abrupt runoff changes. The results indicated concentrated and positive distributions of surface runoff on an annual basis, with a small degree of dispersion, and an explicit concentration of extreme flows. The relative variation ranges exhibited a decreasing trend, and the distribution of the surface runoff gradually was uniform over the year. The runoff was highest from July to September (85% of the annual total). We also determined that annual surface runoff in the basin fluctuated over the 20-year period but showed an overall increasing trend, increasing by 3.94 × 105 m3, with an average increase rate of 0.42 × 105 m3 every ten years. From 2005 to 2014, the annual runoff and the proportion of runoff in the flood season (July to September) to the annual runoff fluctuated greatly. The correlation between the runoff and precipitation was significant (r = 0.839, p < 0.05), whereas the correlation between air temperature and surface runoff was low (r = 0.421, p < 0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Developing a hierarchical classification system for classes, orders and alliances of the diverse dry grasslands of the Central and Eastern Balkan Peninsula and translating this into an electronic expert system (ES) for the automatic assignment of plots. Location: Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and northern Greece. Methods: We extracted 5734 plots from the Balkan Dry Grassland Database corresponding to eight classes of dry grasslands reported from the region, using the EuroVegChecklist ES. This data set and later the plots within each derived subunit were subjected to a new numerical approach: starting with an initial partitioning (expert‐interpreted TWINSPAN classification), diagnostic species were determined based on their phi‐values for the target vegetation type and the differences in phi‐values to the next similar types. These diagnostic species were fed into an ES to create a new partitioning, a procedure which was iterated until diagnostic species and species of the ES converged. Then the same approach was applied within each of the derived units to define the units of the next‐lower level. Results: The iterative cluster optimisation (ICO) converged in all cases. The resulting hierarchical expert system (HES) classified 95% of all plots to alliances. We distinguished four classes with eight orders and 12 alliances: (1) Tuberarietea guttatae (Romuleion); (2) Stipo‐Brachypodietea distachyi (Clinopodio alpini‐Thymion striati); (3) Festuco‐Brometea with Brachypodietalia pinnati (Chrysopogono‐Danthonion calycinae and Cirsio‐Brachypodion pinnati), Festucetalia valesiacae (Festucion valesiacae), an unnamed order of rocky steppes (with Pimpinello‐Thymion zygioidis) and Koelerietalia splendentis (Centaureo‐Bromion fibrosi, Saturejion montanae and Diantho haematocalycis‐Festucion hirtovaginatae); (four) Koelerio‐Corynephoretea with Sedo acris‐Festucetalia (Festucion vaginatae) and Trifolio arvensis‐Festucetalia ovinae (Armerio rumelicae‐Potentillion and Minuartio montanae‐Poion molinerii all. nov.). Conclusions: We created a unified hierarchical classification with an electronic ES using diagnostic species defined by phi‐values. Our new approach (ICO‐HES: iterative cluster optimisation for hierarchical expert systems) allows dividing large data sets into meaningful units at several hierarchical levels, and thus has high potential for complex classifications. Importantly, it overcomes the divide between ES species and diagnostic species and re‐unites them into one concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial titled "Spatial and temporal monitoring of wildfire hazard under a climate change environment: prevention, mitigation and management." It discusses the increasing severity and duration of wildfires due to climate change and the need for effective monitoring and management strategies. The editorial highlights recent research on the spatio-temporal monitoring of wildfire hazards and emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches. The document also includes three specific studies: one on modeling fine fuel moisture content, one on optimizing fuel treatments to reduce fire risk, and one on using satellite imagery to map burnt areas. The editorial concludes by stating that modern approaches and technologies can help prevent forest fires and minimize their negative impacts. [Extracted from the article]

The present study reviews the impact of mechanical interventions, and controlled burning combined with grazing in the Mediterranean-climate regions (MCRs) of the world. Relevant studies were searched for in the Web of Science database. Additional studies were located in the citations of these publications, and in a local database. Finally, 26 studies were included in this review. Since 1978, several other relevant studies have emerged at a rate of 24% in a 5-year time step. The studies have focused on the effects of combined grazing with other management tools on vegetation structure (18 publications), biomass productivity (16 publications), and floristic diversity (12 publications). The results were analyzed for (a) sites and treatments and (b) effects on plant structure, productivity and floristic diversity. Herbaceous forage increased after a reduction in shrub cover. Shrubs tended to recover in the grazed pastures. Vegetation height was reduced in almost in all cases according to available data. Despite its potential recovery, shrub biomass was affected by grazing in most cases. The impact of subsequent grazing was mixed regarding floristic diversity. Grazing is a useful tool for landscape management in MCRs, but the proper way to combine it with other interventions depends on the management goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment in biology-based technological innovations is a key requirement for the development of modern agriculture/forestry. The expansion of innovative biological technologies includes changes in crops/cultivations, such as the transition from intensive monocultures to multiple crops of lower agrochemical inputs with the integration of woody trees/shrubs or animals, represented by Agroforestry. This innovative biological technology is further promoted at the European Union (EU) level by powerful institutions such as the Green Deal and the new CAP, mainly by tools such as ecoschemes and agri-environmental and climate measures (AECMs). The use of integrated regional spatiotemporal models, such as CLUE-S, to predict land use changes in the framework of Agroforestry is rather restricted. This paper examines Agroforestry as a vehicle that can contribute to achieving the rural development of the region of Thessaly, Greece. It sets a time horizon for reviewing the changes that are expected in the most important units of land uses of the rural landscape of the municipality of Mouzaki, western Thessaly plain, in the year 2040, which serves as model land for the region of Thessaly. It examines these changes with the effect of three (3) socio-economic scenarios: (a) a linear operating scenario (business as usual, BAU), (b) an ecological land protection (ELP) scenario, and (c) a rapid economic development (RED) scenario. These scenarios were introduced in the non-spatial module of the CLUE-S spatiotemporal model, while in the spatial module sixteen (16) characteristic landscape parameters were introduced as independent variables. The most important land use units, including traditional silvoarable and silvopastoral woodland systems, were the dependent variables. The simulations of the changes of the land use units showed that under the RED scenario, in the year 2040 the extent of the silvoarable systems is expected to increase significantly (57%) compared to the reference year of 2020, while the rest of the land use units under the other scenarios are mainly regulated by depopulation/abandonment of the rural areas and the processes of natural succession. The fact that the extent of silvoarable systems is increasing, in combination with the favorable institutional environment created by European rural policies, gives impetus to regional rural development through investments in the agricultural sector and mainly in Agroforestry systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural landscape evolution models are used as tools for the analysis of the causes and impact of land use changes on landscapes. The CLUE-S (the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small regional extent) model was developed to simulate the changes in current land use, by using quantitative relationships between land uses and driving factors combined with a dynamic modeling of land use competition. One of the modules that build the “CLUE-S” is the non-spatial subset of the model that calculates the temporal evolution of the land use/cover under several socio-economic scenarios. The purpose of this research was to estimate the demands of land use in the area of Mouzaki, Thessaly plain, Greece with the ultimate goal of using them in the nonspatial module of the CLUE-S to predict the evolution of land uses in year 2040. These estimations are the quantitative prediction of the spatial change for all land use types at the aggregate level. Three models of forecasting the future land cover in the area were simulated, in order to obtain a clear view of the different land uses in the future. We distinguished three model-scenarios for calculating the demand-forecasts: (a) business as usual (BAU) scenario, that deals with a linear projection of the current land use demands, (b) rapid economic development (RED) scenario, and (c) ecological land protection (ELP) scenario. In the BAU scenario the land use demands for the year 2040 were calculated using linear interpolation utilizing historical data from 1960 to 2020. In the RED scenario, the demands were calculated by maximizing the economic benefit of land uses, and in the ELP scenario the demands were calculated by maximizing the environmental benefit of land uses. Furthermore, a multi-criteria analysis was performed to find the trade-offs between economic benefit maximization and environmental benefit optimization. It was found that the agricultural lands reach their maximum area under the RED scenario, while reaching their lower bound for the ELP scenario. The same goes for agroforestry systems. The grasslands reach their lower bound under the ELP scenario, while they achieve a higher value under the RED scenario. Concerning the silvopastoral woodlands, although an increase is foreseen under the BAU scenario, it appears that they reach their lower bound in the other two scenarios, RED and ELP. Forests receive intermediate values and cover a larger area under the ELP scenario compared with the RED scenario. The expected forest cover under the BAU scenario is higher. Moreover, sparse and dense shrublands receive their lower bound for both optimization scenarios, while the settlements reach the upper bound for the RED scenario and the lower one under the ELP scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report summarises the activities and achievements of the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) from January 2018 through July 2019. During the reported period, two Eurasian Grassland Conference (EGCs) took place: the 15th EGC in Sulmona, Italy, and the 16th EGC in Graz, Austria. The 11th and 12th EDGG Field Workshops studied vegetation diversity patterns in the inner alpine valleys of Austria and Switzerland, while the 13th Field Workshop was organised in Armenia. The formerly electronic newsletter of EDGG (Bulletin of the Eurasian Dry Grassland) was transformed into a peer-reviewed international journal, called Palaearctic Grasslands, which now is attracting both scientific and photographic contributions. Furthermore, the EDGG homepage was re-constructed with a new design and content management system. The EDGG has also finalised two grassland-related Special Features during the past 1.5 years in the international journals Tuexenia and Hacquetia, and contributed with eight chapters to the book Grasslands of the World: Diversity, Management and Conservation. The vegetation-plot database GrassPlot, containing standardised multi-scale data from Palaearctic grasslands and closely connected with EDGG, has developed well, as did some other regional and national grassland-focused databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The vascular flora of the Prespa National Park (Greece) has been critically revised. C. 610 species recorded after Pavlides (1985) are listed. Some previously published records were found to be incorrect or dubious and should be deleted. As a result, 1769 species are now recorded for this area in the north-western corner of Greece, compared with 1249 in the publication by Pavlides. New or excluded taxa are listed alphabetically with locality and collection data, sometimes also with comments on taxonomy, distribution, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recently completed project on the Natura 2000 sites of Prespa National Park revealed that the area hosts 49 habitat types according to the EU classification, of which eight have a narrowly restricted distribution in Greece. The priority habitat type '*6260 Pannonic sand steppes' is reported here for the first time for Greece. The new locality represents its southernmost occurrence on the Balkan Peninsula. The aim of this paper therefore is to describe the Greek stands of this habitat type, investigate the factors affecting its occurrence and discuss the associated conservation issues. This is based on a total of 87 releves sampled for this study and 8 additional releves from the literature. The releves were classified by applying TWINSPAN and ordinated using Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA). Six vegetation units could be distinguished. One of these corresponds to the habitat type *6260 and was found exclusively on inland sand dunes. Syntaxonomically, we assigned this unit to the alliance Sileno conicae-Cerastion semidecandri s.l. of the class Koelerio-Corynephoretea. Its occurrence in the study area seems to be determined by climatic factors, as well as by the sandy substrate, while anthropogenic disturbances such as grazing also appear to be beneficial to some degree. Apart from the Koelerio-Corynephoretea, another five grassland classes were distinguished in the national park, namely the Thero-Brachypodietea, Stellarietea mediae, Festuco-Brometea, Daphno-Festucetea and Juncetea trifidi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land degradation is becoming a serious concern for the sustainability of traditional agrosilvopastoral systems such as the Brazilian faxinal. The IAP (Environmental Institute of the Federal State of Paraná) is favoring the partial exclusion to grazing for 10 years as strategy both to recover degraded lands and to reduce negative effects. Nevertheless, this strategy is being followed by a reduced number of owners (faxinalenses) and little is known about the effectiveness of these measures due to either lack of field data and knowledge on faxinalenses' perceptions. We have identified one out of few farms that have followed this official strategy and, within the same farm, we have compared values of some soil properties (bulk density, porosity, water holding capacity, penetration resistance, soil organic matter and root density) from an excluded area to grazing for 10 years, with some areas that represent a gradient of grazing intensity (natural forest, secondary forest, degraded forest, grassland and a degraded area by pigs). In addition, we have interviewed some faxinalenses (one faxinal farm is owned by several farmers) in order to better understand how the risk of land degradation is perceived by them and their opinions about the usefulness of partial grazing exclusion as a strategy to improve the management of their farms. The results have shown that soil quality increases considerably as a consequence of grazing exclusion, in spite of land has been used for cropping yerba mate during the exclusion time, but faxinalenses are not mindful of these benefits and they are no longer interested in excluding other areas of their farms. They think this strategy is simply an obligation imposed by the environmental authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]