Tree colonisation of abandoned arable land after 27 years of horse-grazing: the role of bramble as a facilitator of oak wood regeneration

Kuiters, A.T.; Slim, P.A.

doi:10.1016/s0378-1127(03)00136-1

Cited by 74 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…C. Koch, could have played the role of nurse-plants which encouraged oak regeneration by protecting seedlings and young shoots from herbivore damage, such as grazing and trampling, as has been confirmed for other oak species [4,12], and also for pedunculate oak [24]. The absence of any recent regeneration in Southern Tragamón could be interpreted as a lack of safe sites appropriate for oak establishment, this being the result of past over-grazing and, more recently, of lawn maintenance labour and trampling by the public.…”

Section: Establishment Patternsmentioning

confidence: 80%

Dendrochronology of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) in an old-growth pollarded woodland in northern Spain: establishment patterns and the management history

Rozas

2005

Ann. For. Sci.

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-Long-term patterns of tree establishment and past management practices, in an old-growth pollarded woodland in northern Spain, were studied using dendrochronological techniques. Age distribution revealed three main cohorts of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.): < 50 years, 150-200 years old, and 250-500 years old. Juveniles and trees 200-299 years were found to be clumped and spatially segregated from older trees. Oaks older than 300 years showed a random spatial distribution. Mean pollarding intervals had increased through time, and the mean number of suppressions per year had decreased significantly. Pollarding frequency and intensity had decreased since 1917 in mature trees, and since 1905 in old-growths, suggesting a decline of the pollarding practice in the early 20th century. A delay of 6 years in growth releases, with respect to growth suppressions, was common. This resulted from both strong growth recovery after pollarding, and the release of growing space in the canopy. Mature oaks mainly showed 1-3 pollarding signals, while in old-growths between 4-7 growth suppressions per tree were more frequent. In 1774, 1792, 1806, 1839 and 1859, small groups of trees and scattered trees were pollarded, while in 1905 a generalised reduction of tree growth was noted. The results obtained from this study have significant connotations regarding the preservation and management of formerly pollarded woodlands.

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Section: Establishment Patternsmentioning

confidence: 80%

Dendrochronology of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) in an old-growth pollarded woodland in northern Spain: establishment patterns and the management history

Rozas

2005

Ann. For. Sci.

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“…A possible solution is to release into the wild individuals of breeds that are most likely to be successful in replacing the ecological role of their wild ancestors. For instance, Iceland ponies have been released in the former arable fields of the Dutch-Belgian border (Kuiters and Slim 2003): their grazing favored a dense grass sward and after 27 years open grassland still represented 98% of the area.…”

Section: Limits To Ecological Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

Rewilding Abandoned Landscapes in Europe

2012

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For millennia, mankind has shaped landscapes, particularly through agriculture. In Europe, the age-old interaction between humans and ecosystems strongly influenced the cultural heritage. Yet European farmland is now being abandoned, especially in remote areas. The loss of the traditional agricultural landscapes and its consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem services is generating concerns in both the scientific community and the public. Here we ask to what extent farmland abandonment can be considered as an opportunity for rewilding ecosystems. We analyze the perceptions of traditional agriculture in Europe and their influence in land management policies. We argue that, contrary to the common perception, traditional agriculture practices were not environmentally friendly and that the standards of living of rural populations were low. We suggest that current policies to maintain extensive farming landscapes underestimate the human labor needed to sustain these landscapes and the recent and future dynamics of the socio-economic drivers behind abandonment. We examine the potential benefits for ecosystems and people from rewilding. We identify species that could benefit from land abandonment and forest regeneration and the ecosystem services that could be provided such as carbon sequestration and recreation. Finally, we discuss the challenges associated with rewilding, including the need to maintain open areas, the fire risks, and the conflicts between people and wildlife. Despite these challenges, we argue that rewilding should be recognized by policy-makers as one of the possible land management options in Europe, particularly on marginal areas.

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“…As a result, one of the most direct impacts of large herbivores on the landscape is the limitation and variation in the spatial distribution of secondary successions (Laskurain et al 2013;Kuiters and Slim 2003). Yet, the role of herbivores goes beyond the direct impacts of browsing and grazing.…”

Section: The Pre-neolithic Ecosystem Engineersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maintaining Disturbance-Dependent Habitats

Navarro

Kaplan

Pereira

2015

Rewilding European Landscapes

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Natural disturbances, or the lack thereof, contributed to shape Earth's landscapes and maintain its diversity of ecosystems. In particular, natural fire dynamics and herbivory by wild megafauna played an essential role in defining European landscapes in pre-agricultural times. The advent of agriculture and the development of complex societies exacerbated the decline of European megafauna, leading to local and global extinctions of many species, and substantial alterations of fire regimes. Those natural phenomena were over time gradually and steadily replaced by anthropogenic disturbances. Yet, for the first time since the Black Death epidemic, agricultural land-use is decreasing in Europe. Less productive marginal areas have been progressively abandoned as crop and livestock production has become concentrated on the most fertile and easier to cultivate land. With little or no substitute for the anthropogenic disturbances associated with these abandoned agricultural practices, there is growing concern that disturbance-dependent communities may disappear, along with their associated ecosystem services. Nonetheless, rewilding can give an opportunity to tackle the issue of farmland abandonment. This chapter first depicts the historical European landscapes and the role of two natural disturbances, herbivory and fire. The importance of disturbance-dependent habitats is then highlighted

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Tree colonisation of abandoned arable land after 27 years of horse-grazing: the role of bramble as a facilitator of oak wood regeneration

Cited by 74 publications

References 36 publications

Dendrochronology of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) in an old-growth pollarded woodland in northern Spain: establishment patterns and the management history

Dendrochronology of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) in an old-growth pollarded woodland in northern Spain: establishment patterns and the management history

Rewilding Abandoned Landscapes in Europe

Maintaining Disturbance-Dependent Habitats

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