Abstract
Mediterranean mountain landscapes are undergoing a widespread phenomenon of abandonment. This brings, as a consequence, the loss of traditional land use practices, such as transhumant pastoralism, as well as shrub and wood encroachment, with repercussions on the biodiversity associated with semi-open, human-managed landscapes. In this study, we focus on a mountain pasture from the Southern Apennines (Italy), where free-ranging transhumant grazing is still carried out, to quantify the effects of grazing presence and exclusion on arthropod diversity, and to qualitatively characterize the plant communities of grazed and ungrazed areas. Using field sampling, remote sensing, and semi-structured interviews, we assessed the validity of traditional cattle farming as a landscape management tool. Indeed, high diversity grasslands excluded from grazing were characterized by significantly less even and more dominated arthropod communities, as well as fewer plant species and families. Moreover, in areas that have been consistently grazed over the years, we found no forest encroachment from 1955 to 2019. However, rural communities are experiencing difficulties in keeping local traditions alive, even with current agri-environmental schemes. Thus, traditional livestock grazing can be a valuable management tool to maintain high biological and cultural diversity, even if stronger cooperation and attention to local needs is necessary.
Highlights
The current period is characterized by dramatic losses of biodiversity [1] and strong ecological changes [2,3] with effects—direct and/or indirect—on both animal and plant species [4,5,6].The long history of interaction between humans and their environment has generated a co-evolution of Mediterranean landscapes in the past millennia [7,8,9]
These habitats are characterized by high levels of both biodiversity and cultural heritage because of the connection with the people who inhabit them [9,14,15,16], making the Mediterranean basin a Global Biodiversity Hotspot [17]. Some examples of such landscapes are the mountain pastures of the Apennines [18,19], which show a profound connection with typical local traditions like pastoralism, dating back to 6000 years BP [20,21], and transhumance, the practice of seasonal droving of livestock from the lowlands to the uplands, which was recently inscribed on the UNESCO Representative
The comparison of alpha diversity in the arthropod communities along the habitat gradient (Figure 2a–d) revealed significantly higher values for the Simpson and Shannon indices (p = 0.029) for grassland plots compared with woodland plots, while the Berger–Parker index depicts a completely opposite trend
Summary
The long history of interaction between humans and their environment has generated a co-evolution of Mediterranean landscapes in the past millennia [7,8,9] During this period, different phases have alternated, but human presence was constant [10,11]. These habitats are characterized by high levels of both biodiversity and cultural heritage because of the connection with the people who inhabit them [9,14,15,16], making the Mediterranean basin a Global Biodiversity Hotspot [17]. Some examples of such landscapes are the mountain pastures of the Apennines [18,19], which show a profound connection with typical local traditions like pastoralism, dating back to 6000 years BP [20,21], and transhumance, the practice of seasonal droving of livestock from the lowlands to the uplands (and vice versa), which was recently inscribed on the UNESCO Representative
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