Change and dynamics in Mediterranean evergreen oak woodlands landscapes of Southwestern Iberian Peninsula

Landscapes with open evergreen oak woodlands in Southwestern Iberian Peninsula have been subjected to a consistent oak forest loss. In these landscapes, the abandonment of traditional land management activities have been associated with major land use transformations, such as the replacement of agricultural land uses and native oak woodlands by both shrublands and fast-growing Eucalyptus and pine (Pinus pinea L.) plantations. In this study a spatially explicit approach, combining aerial photographs, geographical information systems and land cover metrics, was used to assess long-term landscape dynamics over a 50-year period. The aim was to provide interpreted quantitative information on the landscape dynamics and to determine the key roles of open farmland, shrubland and new forest plantations on the ongoing loss and fragmentation of oak woodlands. Different trends of land abandonment and intensification of land uses were found across the study areas mainly related to combination of particular socioeconomic and biophysical conditions, resulting in different types of evergreen oak forest conservation and restoration issues. A comprehensive assessment of these (biophysical and socioeconomic) change driving forces is, therefore, presented and discussed, as a baseline for future planning by setting of appropriate management, restoration and conservation strategies for oak woodlands in the studied landscapes. Although this study focused on a specific system of Southwestern Mediterranean, the methodology applied herein can be extrapolated to other comparable human-driven scattered tree systems, within cultural landscapes. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.