Land Cover Trade‐offs in Small Oceanic Islands: A Temporal Analysis of Pico Island, Azores

Abstract

Livestock production has been highly relevant in the Azores, boosted by European agricultural policies, increasing the demand for pasture and competing for space with other land uses. Therefore, it is important to understand the spatial evolution of pasture and related land use/land cover (LULC) trade‐offs. This study describes a geographical information systems‐based LULC change detection approach to identify, map and assess pasture‐related land use changes and respective trade‐offs in Pico Island in the period between 1998 and 2013 (15 years). Pasture in 1998 occupied a total area of 17,131 ha (about 39% of Pico Island surface), while in 2013, this same area was of 17,621 ha (about 40% of Pico Island surface). During this period, about 16,316 ha of pasture remained unchanged, while 2,110 ha (about 5% of Pico Island surface) of land use have changed from pasture to another land use (810 ha), or from a previous land use to pasture (1,300 ha). The whole pasture spatial dynamics and its net increase of 3% from 1998 to 2013 (490 ha, about 1% of Pico Island surface) were analysed through the identification, mapping and assessment of LULC trade‐offs and interpreted according to several physical (elevation) and socio‐economic/policy drivers. Pasture and livestock grazing activity with adequate management may not constitute per se threats to nature conservation and biodiversity protection in Pico Island, as the identified issues have been shown to be mostly related to the pasture dynamics (changes and respective trade‐offs). Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Macaronesia as a Fruitful Arena for Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology

“…Hence, the last decade has witnessed the publication of important studies aiming to assist local and regional decision-making systems in moving toward more effective nature conservation planning and management policies in Macaronesia. Special attention has been given to "Natural Protected Areas" design and effectiveness (Vergílio et al, 2016;Gil et al, 2017). Several indices for the selection of priority areas for conservation have been developed based on Macaronesia (Gaspar et al, 2011;Borges et al, 2012;Cardoso et al, 2013).…”

The impact of grazing on land degradation: A common problem with many driving forces

“…Last contributions published were made by Jian Sun et al (–this issue), Artur Gil et al (—this issue), Tao Chen et al (—this issue), and Kajar Köster et al (—this issue). The first one (Sun et al, —this issue) studied the influence of grazing exclusion on the trade‐off between aboveground and belowground biomass.…”

“…The first one (Sun et al, —this issue) studied the influence of grazing exclusion on the trade‐off between aboveground and belowground biomass. Artur Gil et al (—this issue) analysed changes in land cover and land use extension (expressed in ha) regarding to natural pastures from 1998 to 2013 in Pico Island (Azores, Portugal) using GIS‐based methods and providing a study case from Macaronesian bioregion to the Special Issue. By their part, Tao Chen et al (—this issue) analysed the effects of grazing intensity on communities of culturable root‐associated fungi in semi‐arid grasslands of China.…”

Monitoring Arthropods in Azorean Agroecosystems: the project AGRO-ECOSERVICES

“…The current remnants of native forests represent less than 5% of the total area of the archipelago ( Gaspar et al 2008 ). Currently, the Azorean economy depends greatly on agroecosystems ( Gil et al 2017 ). Agrosecoystems with the largest area are pastures, followed by maize, with the two crops usually grown in rotation.…”