Wildfires shape the composition and functioning of Mediterranean ecosystems, but we do not know how these ecosystems respond to both the higher fire recurrence and shorter recovery times expected for future climatic scenarios. We sampled 29 plots with different fire recurrences (from 0 to 4 fires over the past decades) and time since the last fire (up to 35 years; hereafter TSLF) in Southeast Spain, to assess the effect of fire recurrence and TSLF on 25 ecosystem attributes, five related ecosystem services (biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, disturbance regulation, food production, and supporting services), plus the synergies and trade-offs between them. High fire recurrence (number of fires) and TSLF interacted to determine ecosystem services but did not affect the synergies and trade-offs between them. Fire recurrence reduced many ecosystem functions and ecosystem multifunctionality. However, this effect dampened, and even became positive, for biodiversity conservation and food production services provided enough (> 20 years) time to recover. The combined effects of fire recurrence and TSLF, however, reduced carbon sequestration and had no overall effects on supporting services. Disturbance regulation, in turn, diminished drastically with the first fire, with no effect of further fires or their interaction with TSLF. Our results show which ecosystem services will suffer more from an increase in fire recurrence, and where restoration and management efforts should focus to maximize the provision of those services more demanded by stakeholders.

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Semi-arid environments are strongly limited by water and nutrients, which hinders their recovery after anthropogenic disturbances. Application of compost and irrigation can improve soil fertility and enhance vegetation growth during the restoration of these environments. However, these restoration techniques may also favor the establishment of opportunistic communities and arrest natural succession. Mid and long-term assessments (>10 years) of the improvements in soil conditions and water availability after ecological restoration are scarce, although this is particularly important given the slow dynamics characterizing these environments. We assessed the effect of two levels of irrigation and compost addition (full-factorial design) in a limestone quarry under semi-arid conditions after a 13 years-period. These treatments were applied in addition to topsoiling, hydroseeding and plantation of woody species in the entire study area.highlights the need for mid-and long-term monitoring programs to properly assess the effectiveness of restoration actions.

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<p>Forest fires and extreme droughts will continue to be main disturbances in Mediterranean ecosystems, given the ongoing and projected climatic changes. In fact, an exacerbation of some aspects of their regime is expected. In this perspective, it is fundamental to design adaptive management strategies that can reduce the impact of disturbances and increase ecosystem resilience. To achieve this, it is necessary to develop an integrated management, able to select the best combination of restoration actions for different scenarios. Here, we address the effectiveness of the combination of several actions related to fuel reduction and restoration after fire in the long term, to increase the presence of resprouting species and mitigate fire occurrence, for different future climate change scenarios. Fuel reduction treatments include the application of shrub clearing at different intensities and frequencies. Restoration actions comprise the plantation of resprouting species, aiming to increase ecosystem resilience. We used a simple, ecological, published model, specifically developed for Mediterranean ecosystems and including species competition and post-fire responses, which we calibrated using the recorded vegetation response to treatments. Our results point out that, if we look for more resilient ecosystems in the next decades, we will need an intensification of fuel reduction treatments. Noticeably, including resprouting species has an important effect in the ecosystem. However, the success of these actions will be variable depending on the climate scenario.</p>