Old field dynamics on the dry side of the Mediterranean basin: patterns and processes in semiarid southeast Spain
Year: 2007
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Euro-Mediterranean countries have a long history of land use changes and urbanization processes (Antrop 2004). During the past century, with the advent of industrial and tourist development, these countries have experienced an important intensification of land use changes related to the abandonment of rural livelihoods and city sprawl in coastal areas. On the northern (European) rim of the Mediterranean basin, the socioeconomic changes taking place during this period promoted a dramatic rural exodus, with the consequent abandonment of large cultivated areas (Lepart and Debussche 1992) (figure 13.1). As a result, these previously cultivated areas are now being colonized by natural vegetation, with important implications for processes such as water balance (Bellot et al. 2001), wildfire regime (Pausas 2004) and carbon sequestration (DeGryze et al. 2004). Meanwhile, landscapes on the southern (African) rim of the Mediterranean basin still suffer from overexploitation, especially overgrazing (after clearing), increasing cultivation on pronounced slopes, and associated degradation problems (Le Houerou 1993; Taiqui 1997; Redjali 2004). These contrasting patterns are related to the different socioeconomic, demographic, and political trends occurring between the northern and southern Mediterranean (Puigdefabregas and Mendizabal 1998) Thus there is some association between land abandonment in mesic Mediterranean ecosystems and overexploitation in drier Mediterranean ecosystems. However, there are also areas in southern Europe (e.g., southeast Spain) that are considered semiarid and are undergoing the process of land abandonment (Bonet et al. 2004; Bonet et al. 2006). In this chapter we will focus on such areas, where studies of vegetation dynamics have been developed only recently (Bonet et al. 2001; Bonet 2004; Bonet and Pausas 2004; Pausas et
Authors: Andreu Bonet, Juli G. Pausas
Language: English
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1543278072