Abstract
The biodiversity of wood-pastures depends on a balance between human interference and natural vegetation succession, which however is undergoing changes driven by socio-economic factors and climate change. Widely spread throughout Europe, wood-pastures were subject to either intensification or abandonment, leading to habitat segregation and loss. This is currently the fate of large Romanian remnant woodpastures and climate warming further complicates management adaptation.In a series of simulation experiments, we compared the long-term effects of different land use and climate change scenarios on the habitat diversity of a wood-pasture in the Southern Carpathians (Fundata village, Romania). We tested livestock densities according to management guidelines, complemented with shrub-cutting in order to maintain a structurally-diverse landscape with high habitat values in the light of climate change. We found that significant losses of open pastureland and inclusion into forest, as well as landscape structural simplification and loss of complex habitats can be expected from climate warming, with more severe consequences in a hotter climate perspective. We arguefor the re-establishment of the traditional multi-use of wood-pastures at optimum livestock densities in combination with low-intensity shrubcutting, because our study demonstrated that traditional practices offer a balanced compromise between agricultural use and maintaining habitat mosaics that are robust to climate change.
Highlights
In wood-pasture landscapes, grasslands, forests and interconnecting ecotones form a mosaic of habitats, with a high value for nature conservation (Bergmeier et al 2010; Hartel et al 2015)
We expanded the scope of previous studies in wood-pastures of the Southern Carpathians (Peringer et al 2016 based on historical observations) by the consideration of two climate change scenarios and by the consideration of the traditional multi-use of wood-pastures
Thereby our study demonstrated that traditional practices offer a balanced compromise among agricultural use and habitat mosaics that are robust to climate change
Summary
In wood-pasture landscapes, grasslands, forests and interconnecting ecotones form a mosaic of habitats, with a high value for nature conservation (Bergmeier et al 2010; Hartel et al 2015). In the Carpathians, species which rely on the complex habitat structure of wood-pastures become threatened (Beaufoy et al 2008; Bergmeier et al 2010; Dorresteijn et al 2013; Hartel et al 2014; Hartel & Plieninger 2014; Roellig et al 2014). The loss of wood-pasture mosaics leads to a decrease in the ecological value of the entire landscape (Hartel & Plieninger 2014; Marușca et al 2014; Roellig et al 2018, 2014; Sutcliffe et al 2015b). As wood-pastures origin from the traditional combination of multiple landuse forms, most prominently livestock grazing and tree and shrub-cutting for fire wood, sustainable economic strategies are required for the future to prevent their loss (Huber et al 2013b; Plieninger et al 2015; Sutcliffe et al 2015b)
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