Landscape Mosaic Research Articles

Investigation of the Secondary Succession of Abandoned Areas from Different Cultivation in the Pannonian Biogeographic Region

Areas abandoned for various reasons are widespread on Earth, with a significant proportion in some regions of Europe. Our knowledge of vegetation dynamics in abandoned lands is incomplete, in part because research comparing types abandoned from different cultivars is limited. This paper compared the textural and structural changes of previously extensively treated vineyards, arables, and grasslands over a 30-year timescale in secondary succession studies. Based on the botanical surveys, it can be said that the total species number and diversity of abandoned vineyards and arable lands did not increase linearly in the four age groups studied. The way of secondary succession of former vineyards and arable lands showed many similarities. In these types, rapid regeneration of natural vegetation can be observed, the rate of which can only be reduced by the abundance of a few strong competitor species. However, the abandonment of extensively grazed and mowed grasslands has reduced species numbers and diversity, which may reduce the resilience of such grasslands to environmental factors. In abandoned lands, the mosaic landscape and previous extensive small-plot farming appear to have a positive effect on the rate of secondary succession and regeneration, as the species-rich vegetation patches provide a suitable propagule source for regeneration.

Pollen-insect interaction meta-networks identify key relationships for conservation in mosaic agricultural landscapes.

Flower visitors use different parts of the landscape through the plants they visit, however these connections vary within and among land uses. Identifying which flower‐visiting insects are carrying pollen, and from where in the landscape, can elucidate key pollen–insect interactions and identify the most important sites for maintaining community‐level interactions across land uses. We developed a bipartite meta‐network, linking pollen–insect interactions with the sites they occur in. We used this to identify which land‐use types at the site‐ and landscape‐scale (within 500 m of a site) are most important for conserving pollen–insect interactions. We compared pollen–insect interactions across four different land uses (remnant native forest, avocado orchard, dairy farm, rotational potato crop) within a mosaic agricultural landscape. We sampled insects using flight intercept traps, identified pollen carried on their bodies and quantified distinct pollen–insect interactions that were highly specialized to both natural and modified land uses. We found that sites in crops and dairy farms had higher richness of pollen–insect interactions and higher interaction strength than small forest patches and orchards. Further, many interactions involved pollinator groups such as flies, wasps, and beetles that are often under‐represented in pollen–insect network studies, but were often connector species in our networks. These insect groups require greater attention to enable wholistic pollinator community conservation. Pollen samples were dominated by grass (Poaceae) pollen, indicating anemophilous plant species may provide important food resources for pollinators, particularly in modified land uses. Field‐scale land use (within 100 m of a site) better predicted pollen–insect interaction richness, uniqueness, and strength than landscape‐scale. Thus, management focused at smaller scales may provide more tractable outcomes for conserving or restoring pollen–insect interactions in modified landscapes. For instance, actions aimed at linking high‐richness sites with those containing unique (i.e., rare) interactions by enhancing floral corridors along field boundaries and between different land uses may best aid interaction diversity and connectance. The ability to map interactions across sites using a meta‐network approach is practical and can inform land‐use planning, whereby conservation efforts can be targeted toward areas that host key interactions between plant and pollinator species.

Polymorphism promotes edge utilization by marsh crabs.

Understanding how habitat edges affect ecological processes is crucial given widespread and increasing modifications to natural landscapes. Resource specialization is a key factor affecting among-species edge responses, but we know little about how intraspecific resource use variation mediates edge utilization. Here, we integrate stomach content analysis, geometric morphometrics and feeding experiments to explore the role of resource polymorphism in mediating marsh crab (Panopeus obesus) foraging within the marsh-oyster reef boundary. Stomachs of edge individuals contained a greater proportion of morphologically defended edge prey (bivalves) compared to core marsh individuals, and edge individuals possessed relatively tall and robust claw morphology for manipulating such prey. We further show experimentally that phenotypic changes of edge P. obesus are associated with enhanced feeding efficiency on small, but not large edge prey. Morphological and ecological traits of edge P. obesus overlapped with the edge-occurring congener, P. herbstii, suggesting some degree of functional convergence despite the potential for interspecific competition within edges. Though this polymorphism is likely plastic, the success of P. obesus along edges could subsidize predator production within marshes and alter top-down pressure across mosaic estuarine landscapes. More generally, our study reveals polymorphism as a driver of edge utilization, while yielding new insight into the processes that maintain or erode spatial niche differentiation within predator guilds.

Mosaic glimpses: Serious games, generous constraints, and sustainable futures in Kandal, Cambodia

• Serious games are increasingly popular participatory formats in development contexts. • While serious games involve many forms of ‘rendering technical,’ they do not simply simplify and ‘depoliticize’ development. • Understanding participatory outcomes requires exploring specific patterns of socio-technical constraints involved in serious games . • Tinkering to keep constraints generous and boundaries permeable can turn serious games into technologies of humility. • As technologies of humility, serious games can support collective explorations of more-than-human worlds and divergent practical ontologies. This paper uses a series of serious games – a form of participatory modelling designed and played in Kandal, Cambodia - as an entry point for reexamining relations between development projects, participatory formats, landscape transformations, and sustainable futures. Critics of development and participation have shown that participatory formats simplify real-world complexities by rendering them technical. This is also the case for serious games. But contrary to what is often assumed, ‘depoliticization’ is not the unavoidable outcome. Instead, participatory outcomes depend on specific sociotechnical patterns of more or less generous constraints. To support collective exploration requires tinkering with these patterns of constraints to keep the boundaries between virtual and real worlds, insiders and outsiders, and the present and future relatively permeable. Generous constraints and permeable boundaries do not keep power out of participation but facilitate glimpses of different possibilities. In Kandal, they made it possible to shift from narrow technical discussions on the rehabilitation of specific preks (water channels) towards a collective exploration of sustainable futures for the full mosaic landscape. In general, we argue, serious games hold potentials as experimental systems, which are serious to the extent that they work like technologies of humility. In this capacity, they can support efforts to do difference together, and explore more-than-human worlds and divergent practical ontologies. Learning from this multiplicity matters for moving towards sustainable forms of living in Kandal and elsewhere.

Diversity and distribution of climbing plants under different anthropogenic disturbance regimes in a forest–orchard mosaic landscape in southwestern Japan

Diversity and distribution of climbing plants under different anthropogenic disturbance regimes in a forest–orchard mosaic landscape in southwestern Japan

Stable isotopes reveal seasonal dietary responses to agroforestry in a venomous mammal, the Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus).

While trends in tropical deforestation are alarming, conservation biologists are increasingly recognizing the potential for species survival in human‐modified landscapes. Identifying the factors underlying such persistence, however, requires basic ecological knowledge of a species’ resource use. Here, we generate such data to guide conservation of an understudied venomous mammal, the Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus), that occupies a mosaic landscape of agriculture and forest fragments in the western Dominican Republic. Using feces collected in both wet and dry seasons, we found significant differences in the stable isotope values of carbon (δ13C) between pasture (−24.63 ± 2.31‰, Las Mercedes) and agroforestry (−28.07 ± 2.10‰, Mencia). Solenodon populations in agricultural areas occupied wider isotopic niche spaces, which may be explained by more diverse resource within these patches or individuals combining resources across habitats. We detected elevated δ15N values in the dry season of pasture areas (8.22 ± 2.30‰) as compared to the wet season (5.26 ± 2.44‰) and overall narrower isotopic niche widths in the dry season, suggestive of the impacts of aridity on foraging behavior. Our work highlights the importance of considering a more nuanced view of variations in ‘modified’ or “agricultural” landscapes as compared with strictly protected national parks. We suggest that seasonal differences in foraging should be considered as they intersect with landscape modification by landowners for maintaining resources for focal consumers. This work adds to a growing body of literature highlighting that fecal stable isotopes are a non‐invasive and cost‐effective monitoring tool that is particularly well‐suited for cryptic small mammal species, ensuring actionable and evidenced‐based conservation practices in the tropic's rapidly changing landscapes.

Drivers of avian diversity and abundance across gradients of human influence

ContextIdentifying factors driving patterns of species communities in heterogenous human-dominated landscapes remains elusive despite extensive research. Biodiversity is thought to decrease with habitat modification, as sensitive species are lost. Conversely, diversity has also been shown increase at moderate levels of landscape modification where greater habitat heterogeneity supports a diverse suite of species.ObjectivesWe explore patterns of avian diversity and abundance in heterogenous landscapes using a novel integration of multiple dimensional gradients of human-mediated modification.MethodsWe attempt to identify aspects of landscape heterogeneity driving patterns of avian diversity and abundance in agro-urban–rural systems. Specifically, we utilize an intuitive multi-dimensional gradient distinguishing between two axes of human-influence, variation in the built environment (hard–soft) and in agricultural development (green–brown). We use these as covariates in community N-mixture models to describe variation in species abundance and diversity.ResultsAvian richness was greatest in more heterogeneous regions of the landscape. Responses of individual species were variable, with sensitive species declining, while generalist species increased, leading to higher overall diversity in human-dominated regions.ConclusionsSpecies abundance and diversity is maximized in more heterogeneous parts of landscape mosaics. By characterizing distinct axes of human influence that capture spectrum of land use, we can identify differential effects confounded in traditional landscape metrics. Critically, we demonstrate that multi-dimensional landscape gradients provide a more nuanced understanding of how patterns of biodiversity emerge. Acknowledging that biodiversity is not always negatively impacted by habitat modification offers encouraging insight to guide conservation and management in human-dominated landscapes.

The Historical Transformation of Peri-Urban Land Use Patterns, via Landscape GIS-Based Analysis and Landscape Metrics, in the Vesuvius Area

Peri-urban areas constitute an enormous resource in terms of natural capital, landscape heritage and economic activities, but, at the same time, they are often affected by physical and socio-economic degradation, drawing the attention of decision makers and planners. Many studies have focused on these contexts both in terms of suburbs, with a close dependence on urban centers, and new land typologies. The present paper focuses on documentary evidence of the direct impacts of urban growth on rural lands. The study area entails the Vesuvius National Park, which, belonging the Naples metropolis, is well-known for its historical, geo-morphologic and naturalistic value. Furthermore, the area has a history of high-quality cartographic production: the 1817, 1907, 1960, 2009 time steps maps were digitized, georeferenced, vectorized and compared in a GIS environment. The results highlight a strong change in land-use, in vineyards and urban class types, with a more disaggregated landscape mosaic. The approach shows that the historical modeling of land-use changes supports the understanding of current land-use dynamics and landscape patterns. The study also shows the need to integrate landscape planning and landscape ecology approaches, highlighting the close interactions between urban, agricultural and natural areas, for the purpose of supporting decision makers in land-use management and conservation policies.

The roles of recombination and selection in shaping genomic divergence in an incipient ecological species complex.

Speciation genomic studies have revealed that genomes of diverging lineages are shaped jointly by the actions of gene flow and selection. These evolutionary forces acting in concert with processes such as recombination and genome features such as gene density shape a mosaic landscape of divergence. We investigated the roles of recombination and gene density in shaping the patterns of differentiation and divergence between the cyclically parthenogenetic ecological sister-taxa, Daphnia pulicaria and Daphnia pulex. First, we assembled a phased chromosome-scale genome assembly using trio-binning for D. pulicaria and constructed a genetic map using an F2-intercross panel to understand sex-specific recombination rate heterogeneity. Finally, we used a ddRADseq data set with broad geographic sampling of D. pulicaria, D. pulex, and their hybrids to understand the patterns of genome-scale divergence and demographic parameters. Our study provides the first sex-specific estimates of recombination rates for a cyclical parthenogen, and unlike other eukaryotic species, we observed male-biased heterochiasmy in D. pulicaria, which may be related to this somewhat unique breeding mode. Additionally, regions of high gene density and recombination are generally more divergent than regions of suppressed recombination. Outlier analysis indicated that divergent genomic regions are probably driven by selection on D. pulicaria, the derived lineage colonizing a novel lake habitat. Together, our study supports a scenario of selection acting on genes related to local adaptation shaping genome-wide patterns of differentiation despite high local recombination rates in this species complex. Finally, we discuss the limitations of our data in light of demographic uncertainty.

Land-use trajectories for sustainable land system transformations: Identifying leverage points in a global biodiversity hotspot

Sustainable land-system transformations are necessary to avert biodiversity and climate collapse. However, it remains unclear where entry points for transformations exist in complex land systems. Here, we conceptualize land systems along land-use trajectories, which allows us to identify and evaluate leverage points, i.e., entry points on the trajectory where targeted interventions have particular leverage to influence land-use decisions. We apply this framework in the biodiversity hotspot Madagascar. In the northeast, smallholder agriculture results in a land-use trajectory originating in old-growth forests and spanning from forest fragments to shifting hill rice cultivation and vanilla agroforests. Integrating interdisciplinary empirical data on seven taxa, five ecosystem services, and three measures of agricultural productivity, we assess trade-offs and cobenefits of land-use decisions at three leverage points along the trajectory. These trade-offs and cobenefits differ between leverage points: Two leverage points are situated at the conversion of old-growth forests and forest fragments to shifting cultivation and agroforestry, resulting in considerable trade-offs, especially between endemic biodiversity and agricultural productivity. Here, interventions enabling smallholders to conserve forests are necessary. This is urgent since ongoing forest loss threatens to eliminate these leverage points due to path dependency. The third leverage point allows for the restoration of land under shifting cultivation through vanilla agroforests and offers cobenefits between restoration goals and agricultural productivity. The co-occurring leverage points highlight that conservation and restoration are simultaneously necessary to avert collapse of multifunctional mosaic landscapes. Methodologically, the framework highlights the importance of considering path dependency along trajectories to achieve sustainable land-system transformations.

Classification and sensitivity of taxonomic and functional diversity indices of anurans in the Andean coffee cultural landscape

Taxonomical and functional facets of diversity are crucial to understanding the effects of landscape transformation on species assemblages, although there is a lack of consensus on the degree of congruence between diversity indices across land-uses. We evaluated the effect of natural and anthropogenic land cover types on anurans in the Andean region of Colombia. Changes between land cover types were detected but no effect of climatic season on the structure of anuran assemblages. Species with larger body sizes showed a greater affinity for anthropogenic land cover types. We analyzed the functional facet of diversity (based on diet and morphological traits) and discovered that the degree of congruence with taxonomic diversity metrics changed when comparing different land cover types. We evidenced a strong effect of the type of vegetation cover on the Hill numbers (from zero to third orders) for functional diversity but not for the other taxonomic diversity indices. Of all the diversity metrics evaluated, we found that Rao's quadratic entropy, functional dispersion, and average functional diversity were the most sensitive indices to land-use change. Surprisingly, the surrounding of houses, the land cover type with the greater degree of anthropogenic intervention had the higher values of functional diversity, suggesting broader types of specieś resource acquisition. These results suggest the importance of landscape mosaics in the conservation of different facets of anuran diversity. We also emphasize the importance of measuring anuran functional traits to understand more comprehensively the effects of landscape transformation at the assemblage level and to appropriately direct conservation and management actions.

Urban sprawl facilitates invasions of exotic plants across multiple spatial scales

Exotic plant invasions are considered one of the major threats to biodiversity causing important impacts at the population, community, and ecosystem levels. Understanding the drivers of plant invasions across multiple spatial and temporal scales often requires a landscape approach. The effect of landscape composition on biological invasion has been extensively studied, whereas landscape configuration effects were seldom considered or the analyses were limited to single species. Here, we aimed to analyze how the expansion of urban and agricultural areas can affect exotic species richness (both neophytes and archaeophytes) at three spatial scales, namely regional (scale: 37.5 km2), landscape (scale: 7.1 km2) and local (scale: 100 m2). We considered the possible contribution of urban and agricultural areas both in terms of composition (i.e. habitat cover) and configuration (i.e. shape complexity of patches). First, we found that increasing urbanization coupled with high shape complexity of urban elements were major drivers of both neophyte and archaeophyte invasions across heterogeneous landscapes. In particular, shape complexity seemed to be a key driver of plant invasions at large spatial scale, whereas the type of recipient habitat and urban cover determined the exotic success at the patch level. Second, archaeophytes were also affected by agriculture land use, i.e. agricultural patches shape complexity increased their spread at both regional and landscape scales. High shape complexity of highly disturbed habitats is expected to increase the exchange surface that exotic plant use to spread their propagules across the landscape mosaics. Our findings suggest that urban planning aimed at curbing urban fragmentation by both reducing shape complexity and diffuse urban sprawl might greatly improve the resistance of landscapes to biological invasions.

Evaluation and optimization of ecosystem services under different land use scenarios in a semiarid landscape mosaic

Ecosystem services are usually influenced by physical land use changes and climate changes. The significant land use changes and polices in Inner Mongolia mainly include urban development and the ecological restoration programs of Forest Protection, the Grain for Grass and Vegetation Recovery. This study used the Dyna-CLUE model to simulate 2030 land use changes in the Central and Western Inner Mongolia, and then explored key ecosystem services and the ESs-Balanced index under four land use scenarios with the above changes. Compared with the urban development scenario, Vegetation Recovery increases NPP, soil conservation, sand fixation, the surface and bottom soil moisture by 10.84 %, 0.76 %, 4.35 %, 1.52 % and 0.12 % respectively, but it decreases water yield by 6.56%. The Grain for Grass Program increases NPP (1.12 %), soil conservation (0.43 %) and sand fixation (3.96%) at the expense of other ecosystem services, while Forest Protection only increases NPP and the surface soil moisture narrowly. The study further provided the spatially explicit land use optimization by comparing the ESs-Balanced index under four scenarios. Vegetation Recovery suits most west and south areas covered by the sandy land or Gobi, while the Grain for Grass Program is only supportable with the western sandy farmland. The results are instructive to promote key ecosystem functions and services related to serious local ecological problems, and deal with the contradictions between ecological conservation and human development in other similar arid and semiarid regions.

Responses of remnant wetlands in the Sanjiang Plain to farming-landscape patterns

Human activities, especially cultivated-land reclamation, substantially influence landscape patterns. This phenomenon leads to a sharp decrease in wetland areas and wetland function degradation. To understand the impact of changing landscape patterns of the cultivated land on remnant wetland degradation and to formulate highly targeted control measures, considering a farmland-wetland mosaic landscape in the Sanjiang Plain as an example, this study explored the response of soil- and vegetation-related indicators of remnant wetlands under the influence of changing cultivated land patterns. Correlations between cultivated land patterns and soil- and vegetation-indicators in different buffer zones of remnant wetland sample points were discussed. On the basis of modeling an index of the integrated degradation degree of remnant wetlands (IDRWs) using soil- and vegetation-indicators, the correlation between cultivated land patterns and IDRW was analysed. The results showed that: 1) five soil-related indexes of remnant wetlands were lower than those of natural wetlands, and nine vegetation-related indexes of remnant wetlands were higher than those of natural wetlands; 2) the variation in soil- and vegetarian-related indexes caused by changing cultivated land patterns in a certain range of remnant wetlands was significant (P < 0.05) and these indexes could potentially be used as variables to model IDRW; and 3) the aggregation degree of wetland patches was the main landscape index for IDRW simulation (from 1995 to 2015, the proportion of serious degradation of the Sanjiang Plain wetland first decreased in 2010 and then increased, and that of slight degradation first increased in 2010 and then decreased, indicating that wetland protection and restoration plans have shown progress after 2010). Our study discussed the impacts of cultivated land patterns on remnant wetland degradation and developed a simulation method of degraded remnant wetlands to provide a reference for the wetland protection, restoration, degradation monitoring, and reclamation planning for the cultivated lands in the future.

Coprolite palynology from Abrigo do Lagar Velho (Portugal) and a revision of Gravettian vegetation in the Iberian Peninsula

Palynological investigations on Gravettian coprolites of Abrigo do Lagar Velho (Vale do Lapedo, Leiria, Portugal) dated between ca. 30 to ca. 27.3 ka cal BP are presented. The palaeoecological data shows a semi-forested landscape with Pinus, Poaceae, Erica, Artemisia, Juniperus and Quercus as the dominant taxa. A diversity of trees, shrubs, and herbs is also noticeable, including broad-leaf trees, Mediterranean woody shrubs and trees, conifers, xerothermophytes, indicators of saline substrates and heliophytes such as Erica, Asteroideae, Cistaceae, Ephedra fragilis and E. distachya. The overall reconstruction is a mosaic of different landscapes or types of vegetation around the rock-shelter. Indeed, we provided approach on the Gravettian vegetation of the Iberian Peninsula, connecting the palaeoecosystem with the biogeography of past human populations during the late Pleistocene.

Transition from shifting cultivation to agroforestry: A case study of regrouped villages in Tripura, India

Adoption of alternatives to classical shifting cultivation practices is imperative to the sustainable management of these mosaic landscapes. Resettlement programmes comprise one of the many ways of weaning shifting cultivators and provide them with better livelihood opportunities and improve their socio-economic status. The present study aims to analyse the current socio-economic status of resettled shifting cultivators, changes in farming practices, agroforestry inclusion as alternative and factors that contribute to their adoption. It was observed that about 82% of the households surveyed in the two districts of Tripura have adopted agroforestry practices, either along with shifting cultivation or as the sole type of cultivation practice. This transition to inclusion of agroforestry happened within a span of about 10 years, due to various government and private interventions. A total of 15 agroforestry species were recorded that were grown by these farmers in various combinations that depended on external factors like availability of seedlings, external interventions, area of homestead land and financial viability. Through awareness and better infrastructural support, these farmers can manage their cultivation more sustainably and reap better financial returns from them.

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) grouping patterns in an open and dry savanna landscape, Issa Valley, western Tanzania

Fission-fusion societies are social systems in which individuals belonging to the same community are rarely all together but rather spend most of their time in temporary parties. This flexible social organization is assumed to be an adaptation that balances advantages and costs of group living in a fluid way as resources and constraints shift through space and time. It has been argued that this flexibility freed hominins from the foraging constraints caused by living in large groups. Given their close genetic relationship to humans and because they represent the classic case of a fission-fusion society, chimpanzees have often been used as referential models to understand human social evolution. Determinants of chimpanzee party size have been widely studied for decades across several communities. However, we lack data from open and dry sites—which closely resemble those reconstructed for Plio-Pleistocene hominins—on communities that potentially face similar environmental constraints as early hominins did. We investigated chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) grouping patterns on a recently habituated community living in the savanna-woodland mosaic landscape of the Issa Valley, western Tanzania, by following chimpanzees daily and recording party size every hour. Our results revealed that party size at Issa 1) followed seasonal fluctuations in food availability, 2) increased in the presence of swollen females, and 3) was higher in open vegetation, which potentially presents a high predation risk. Furthermore, we found the Issa community to be highly cohesive compared with the majority of other communities, possibly due to a combination of its small size and potential threats characterizing its home range. Our study fills a gap in our knowledge of chimpanzee sociality by exploring grouping pattern determinants in an East African understudied biome and highlights what elements of early hominin social behavior may have evolved in Late Pliocene landscapes.

Road density and forest fragmentation shape bat communities in temperate mosaic landscapes

Road construction is expanding worldwide, exacerbating both direct mortality by road-kills and habitat fragmentation, especially for mobile vertebrates such as bats. Understanding how road density affects bat communities in mosaic landscapes of various compositions and configurations is therefore critical. We acoustically sampled bat communities in 172 landscapes of southern France to: (i) disentangle the relative and interacting effects of road density and forest fragmentation by farmland on the activity of bat communities; (ii) investigate how road density affects different aspects of bat diversity (taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic) and species activity according to their life-history traits; and (iii) assess whether road density effects on bats change with the level of forest fragmentation. Forest amount and patchiness were more important than road density for all components of bat diversity, except for functional evenness. Bat diversity peaked in landscapes with intermediate levels of forest fragmentation, while road density had negative effects on functional and phylogenetic diversity. The effect of road density on the activity of R. ferrumequinum, R. hipposideros, N. leisleri and P. pipistrellus was only negative in landscapes with either a low forest amount or a low number of forest patches. By better understanding interactions between forest fragmentation and road density, our study will contribute to a more adequate landscape planning that will improve the resilience of bat communities to both road expansion and forest fragmentation. Moreover, the complex landscape-level interactions between habitat fragmentation and matrix quality on bats advocate for the use of a more holistic view in future fragmentation studies.

Place-Based Analysis of Satellite Time Series Shows Opposing Land Change Patterns in the Copperbelt Region of Zambia

The process of land degradation needs to be understood at various spatial and temporal scales in order to protect ecosystem services and communities directly dependent on it. This is especially true for regions in sub-Saharan Africa, where socio economic and political factors exacerbate ecological degradation. This study identifies spatially explicit land change dynamics in the Copperbelt province of Zambia in a local context using satellite vegetation index time series derived from the MODIS sensor. Three sets of parameters, namely, monthly series, annual peaking magnitude, and annual mean growing season were developed for the period 2000 to 2019. Trend was estimated by applying harmonic regression on monthly series and linear least square regression on annually aggregated series. Estimated spatial trends were further used as a basis to map endemic land change processes. Our observations were as follows: (a) 15% of the study area dominant in the east showed positive trends, (b) 3% of the study area dominant in the west showed negative trends, (c) natural regeneration in mosaic landscapes (post shifting cultivation) and land management in forest reserves were chiefly responsible for positive trends, and (d) degradation over intact miombo woodland and cultivation areas contributed to negative trends. Additionally, lower productivity over areas with semi-permanent agriculture and shift of new encroachment into woodlands from east to west of Copperbelt was observed. Pivot agriculture was not a main driver in land change. Although overall greening trends prevailed across the study site, the risk of intact woodlands being exposed to various disturbances remains high. The outcome of this study can provide insights about natural and assisted landscape restoration specifically addressing the miombo ecoregion.

Seasonal bird assemblages in Dehesas (substeppic prairies with Quercus suber) of North-Western Sardinia (Italy): A poorly studied landscape of high eco-biogeographic interest

Dehesas (i.e., substeppic prairies with Quercus suber) represent a poorly studied Mediterranean habitat type of high eco-biogeographic interest. Here, we applied a point-transect method along a yearly cycle (from spring to autumn), to focus on seasonal differences in bird assemblages inhabiting a Dehesas landscape in north-western Sardinia (Italy). We confirmed the presence of Mediterranean species with restricted ranges (e.g. Sturnus unicolor, Sylvia sarda). At the community level, seasonal patterns show significant differences among mean abundance, with a maximum in autumn and a minimum in summer. The highest values in autumn may be explained by the aggregations of wintering small passerines. Considering the univariate metrics of diversity, the number of species significantly differs among seasons, with the richest community in spring. Shannon-Wiener diversity and Margalef (normalized richness) were higher in spring and summer compared to autumn. Habitat heterogeneity of these landscape mosaics, driven by historical agro-pastoral practices (fires and pastures), together with the presence of patchy 'key structures', positively affects bird species richness and abundance, improving, respectively, the number of niches and resources. More resource effort should be devoted to study these habitat types recently interested in an increased anthropogenic pressure (urban sprawl and road infrastructures, location of wind power plants, etc.).&nbsp