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Land-use legacies in the forest structure of silvopastoral oak woodlands in the Eastern Mediterranean

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Abstract

Eastern Mediterranean silvopastoral oak woodlands have been greatly damaged through forest conversion, illegal lumbering, overgrazing, and forest fires. The aim of this study was to assess land-use changes and the legacies that they have imprinted on the forest structure of Quercus macrolepis and accompanying Quercus pubescens and Quercus cerris woodlands on Lesvos Island, Greece. The size structures of adult oak populations were analyzed as indicators of long-term oak regeneration, while short-term recruitment was determined by counting oak seedlings and saplings. The size structure of the adult Q. macrolepis population was similar to the inverse J-shaped distribution typical for natural Mediterranean oak forests, indicating continuous recruitment with a constant mortality rate of mature individuals. Seedling and sapling densities were highly variable, but generally low in relation to adult oak densities. Recruitment of oak seedlings and saplings was positively related to determinants such as forest cover, adult oak density and basal area, woody plant richness, and litter cover. Both seedling and sapling occurrence were negatively associated with dung frequency, which suggests that sheep grazing imposes a barrier to oak recruitment. The study outlines a comprehensive land-use transition from the 1950 to 1970s, during which a complex and multifunctional agrosilvopastoral land-use system was simplified to an intensive grazing system. The discrepancy between the successful long-term regeneration and the less successful short-term recruitment of oaks illustrates that intensified livestock grazing has been a major driver of vegetation change. Grazing impact is likely to interact with increasing drought conditions, which may trigger a negative feedback cycle that undermines the capacity of woodlands to sustain ecosystem services.

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Notes

  1. This is the degree to which an aspect is north: values from −1 (south) to 1 (north), calculated as cos(aspect*π/180).

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Acknowledgments

This study has been financed by IKYDA, an integrated action program coordinated between the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Greek State Scholarship Foundation (IKY). T.P.’s contribution was funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (FKZ 01UU0904A). We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on this manuscript and to Christopher Hank for improving the language of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecosystem Services Research Group, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jägerstrasse 22/23, 10117, Berlin, Germany

    Tobias Plieninger

  2. Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    Tobias Plieninger

  3. Institute for Landscape Management, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacherstr. 4, 79106, Freiburg, Germany

    Harald Schaich

  4. Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, University Hill, 81100, Mytilene, Greece

    Thanasis Kizos

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  1. Tobias Plieninger
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Plieninger, T., Schaich, H. & Kizos, T. Land-use legacies in the forest structure of silvopastoral oak woodlands in the Eastern Mediterranean. Reg Environ Change 11, 603–615 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-010-0192-7

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