Behind forest cover changes: is natural regrowth supporting landscape restoration? Findings from Central Italy

Marchetti, Marco; Vizzarri, Matteo; Sallustio, Lorenzo; Cristofaro, M. di; Lasserre, Bruno; Lombardi, Fabio; Giancola, Carmen; Perone, A.; Simpatico, Annamaria; Santopuoli, Giovanni

doi:10.1080/11263504.2018.1435585

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 68 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Further work should deal with the inventory of temporal and spatial changes in other patch metrics like shape, which might be equally important than size and density in assessing habitat quality and landscape ecosystem services. In conclusion, sustainable land management and conservation planning should (i) incorporate small forest patches and associated dynamics, into current intervention plans; (ii) balance biological conservation with other landscape services (e.g., small vs. large heaths; [85]); (iii) include effective landscape restoration actions [25]; and (iv) consider local knowledge, in combination with remote-sensing techniques, when assessing and mapping the historical landscape changes (e.g., participatory mapping; [45]). As at the basis of sustainability, the consideration of small elements in landscape planning indeed contributes to further understand the impacts of landscape complexity and the related slow processes of change for local wellbeing, otherwise neglected when looking at broader scales.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Particularly, we distinguished between: (i) small patches with trees within land use classes other than forests, namely TOF, and (ii) small patches without trees within forest, namely SOA. In general terms, the latter can be principally associated with: (i) human activities (i.e., clearings; [44]); (ii) natural disturbances (i.e., treefall causing tree canopy gaps [42]); (iii) the tree crown architecture typical of certain forest types due to the so-called "canopy shyness" phenomenon [52]; (iv) the traditional extensive grazing activities (e.g., the so-called "maggenghi" meadows in the Alps; [62]); (v) the canopy cover gaps due to the ongoing encroaching process in new forest stands [25]. Taking into account forest dynamics and forest ecosystem functions and related services (e.g., biodiversity conservation), in this study we divided SOA into two main sub-types, namely enclosed small open areas (encld-SOA) and encroaching small open areas (encrg-SOA).…”

Section: The Classification System and Inventory Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SOA due to forest harvesting or natural treefall are not considered in the present study because of their temporary nature (i.e., short-term natural evolution processes). "canopy shyness" phenomenon [52]; (iv) the traditional extensive grazing activities (e.g., the so-called "maggenghi" meadows in the Alps; [62]); (v) the canopy cover gaps due to the ongoing encroaching process in new forest stands [25]. Taking into account forest dynamics and forest ecosystem functions and related services (e.g., biodiversity conservation), in this study we divided SOA into two main sub-types, namely enclosed small open areas (encld-SOA) and encroaching small open areas (encrg-SOA).…”

Section: The Classification System and Inventory Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Oppositely, the agricultural intensification and the expansion of urban areas, which usually follow a high scattered and fragmented spatial pattern, urban sprawl, and urban sprinkling [18,19], are occurring in lowlands and plains [20][21][22]. These phenomena are strictly interlinked and can alter the sustainability of such systems, especially in the medium-long term [22].Tree encroachment can have both positive and negative implications in terms of ecosystems' functionality and their capacity to provide ecosystem services (e.g., [23][24][25][26][27][28][29]). The risk associated with landscape homogenization [30] is particularly relevant if combined with urban expansion, leading to the loss of fertile soils and urban green spaces [31], as well as agricultural intensification in more profitable lands [32,33].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tree encroachment can have both positive and negative implications in terms of ecosystems' functionality and their capacity to provide ecosystem services (e.g., [23][24][25][26][27][28][29]). The risk associated with landscape homogenization [30] is particularly relevant if combined with urban expansion, leading to the loss of fertile soils and urban green spaces [31], as well as agricultural intensification in more profitable lands [32,33].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Evaluating the Contribution of Trees outside Forests and Small Open Areas to the Italian Landscape Diversification during the Last Decades

Sallustio

Cristofaro

Hashmi

et al. 2018

Forests

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Land use by humans strongly alters the landscape mosaic, either by reducing or increasing its heterogeneity. One of the most recent and widespread land use changes in Europe has been the spontaneous reforestation of marginal agricultural lands. These primarily affected small landscape patches, such as trees outside forests (TOF) and small open areas (SOA), often represent the most diversifying features of landscape' structures. Nevertheless, only small-scale studies can be found in the literature and thus it remains a relatively unexplored issue. Integrating inventory and cartographic approaches, this work assesses changes in abundance, coverage, and average size of small patches in Italy between 1990 and 2013. Main results showed an overall increase in number and coverage of small patches during the reference period. The average patch size remains unaltered for TOF but decreases significantly for SOA, due to trees encroachment and canopy cover increasing in forests. Our findings confirm the important changes in Mediterranean land mosaics and contribute to a better understanding of current conditions and recent trends regarding TOF and SOA. The integrated approach has proven to be helpful for the large-scale assessment of small patches dynamics, representing a viable monitoring tool to encourage the inclusion of small patches in landscape policy and planning.Forests 2018, 9, 701 2 of 13 within the land mosaic have a strong impact on ecological processes and, in turn, on the functioning of socio-economic and ecological systems [5,6].Recently, humans have driven landscape dynamics much more than natural evolution [7,8]. Since the Industrial Revolution, intensive farming systems and urban land expansion at a global scale have increasingly altered the structures and functions of the existing landscapes at an unprecedented rate [9]. The anthropogenic influence is even more marked in landscapes characterized by higher levels of heterogeneity and built by centuries of human activities and modifications, such as those in the Mediterranean area [10][11][12]. During the last decades, the Mediterranean landscapes have indeed experienced a general decrease of agricultural lands, mainly due to their abandonment, followed by tree encroachment and subsequent woodland expansion [13,14], particularly in mountain and less profitable marginal lands [15][16][17]. Oppositely, the agricultural intensification and the expansion of urban areas, which usually follow a high scattered and fragmented spatial pattern, urban sprawl, and urban sprinkling [18,19], are occurring in lowlands and plains [20][21][22]. These phenomena are strictly interlinked and can alter the sustainability of such systems, especially in the medium-long term [22].Tree encroachment can have both positive and negative implications in terms of ecosystems' functionality and their capacity to provide ecosystem services (e.g., [23][24][25][26][27][28][29]). The risk associated with landscape homogenization [30] is particularly relevant if combined with urban expansion, ...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Classification System and Inventory Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Classification System and Inventory Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Evaluating the Contribution of Trees outside Forests and Small Open Areas to the Italian Landscape Diversification during the Last Decades

Sallustio

Cristofaro

Hashmi

et al. 2018

Forests

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

National Forest Inventory Data to Evaluate Climate-Smart Forestry

Temperli

Santopuoli

Bottero

et al. 2021

Climate-Smart Forestry in Mountain Regions

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

National Forest Inventory (NFI) data are the main source of information on forest resources at country and subcountry levels. This chapter explores the strengths and limitations of NFI-derived indicators to assess forest development with respect to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, that is, the criteria of Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF). We reflect on harmonizing NFI-based indicators across Europe, use literature to scrutinize available indicators to evaluate CSF, and apply them in 1) Switzerland, where CSF is evaluated for NFI records and simulation model projections with four management scenarios; 2) 43 selected European countries, for which the indicators for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) are used. The indicators were aggregated to composite indices for adaptation and mitigation and to an overall CSF rating. The Swiss NFI records showed increased CSF ratings in mountainous regions, where growing stocks increased. Simulations under business-as-usual management led to a positive CSF rating, whereas scenarios of increased harvesting decreased either only adaptation or both mitigation and adaptation. European-level results showed increases in CSF ratings for most countries. Negative adaptation ratings were mostly due to forest damages. We discuss the limitations of the indicator approach, consider the broader context of international greenhouse gas reporting, and conclude with policy recommendations.

show abstract

Biocultural Diversity in Italy

Nazari,

Belardinelli,

Pieroni

et al. 2023

Hum Ecol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As an initial step in more extensive research into the links between biological and cultural diversity in present-day Italy, we reviewed Biocultural Diversity studies that explore the relationship between biological and cultural patterns of diversity to determine whether any direct causal relationships or common drivers could be inferred. We found no significant attempts to quantitatively measure biocultural diversity in the country as a whole. Italy shows a high number of mutual interactions, but common drivers and patterns between biological and cultural diversity were not evident. This could be either a problem of quantification due perhaps to an inherent incommensurability between the two dimensions, or different causative patterns that drive biological and cultural diversity.

show abstract

Behind forest cover changes: is natural regrowth supporting landscape restoration? Findings from Central Italy

Cited by 12 publications

References 68 publications

Evaluating the Contribution of Trees outside Forests and Small Open Areas to the Italian Landscape Diversification during the Last Decades

Evaluating the Contribution of Trees outside Forests and Small Open Areas to the Italian Landscape Diversification during the Last Decades

National Forest Inventory Data to Evaluate Climate-Smart Forestry

Biocultural Diversity in Italy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About