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Using graph theory to analyse and assess changes in Mediterranean woodland connectivity

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Abstract

Context

The Portuguese montado is an agro-silvopastoral system, similar to the Spanish dehesa, known for its cultural, economic and ecological value. Despite its importance, contrasting processes such as land abandonment and land use intensification, together with several other factors, have been responsible for montado degradation in the last decades. Biodiversitywise, assuring high levels of connectivity is vital for many species that, in turn, contribute to the natural processes on which a healthy and sustainable montado relies.

Objectives

To study the montado connectivity in the recent decades and infer what the changes represent to the short and medium dispersal species regarding habitat availability.

Methods

The study was conducted in an area delimited by biogeographic boundaries in Southern Portugal where montado is abundant. We used a graph theory based approach and montado maps of 1984, 1999 and 2014 derived from remote sensing.

Results

The results show a loss of montado associated to increasing fragmentation over time. This led to a global connectivity decrement likely to have negative implications for montado species. The most affected species are those more dependent on habitat characteristics, such as forest specialist birds, and those with low mobility that have lost great amounts of habitat not only due to montado loss but also due to the increasing fragmentation that makes suitable patches unreachable.

Conclusions

Given the montado environmental relevance, measures should be taken in order to stop its loss and preserve the core areas that have guaranteed the connectivity over time.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by FEDER Funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors—COMPETE and National Funds through FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology under the Strategic Projects PEst-C/AGR/UI0115/2011 and PEst-OE/AGR/UI0115/2014. Rui Machado also holds a scholarship (SFRH/BD/137807/2018) granted by FCT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MED – Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, Instituto de Investigação e Formação Avançada, Universidade de Évora, Pólo da Mitra, Ap. 94, 7006-554, Évora, Portugal

    Rui Machado, Sérgio Godinho & Nuno Guiomar

  2. Institute of Earth Sciences (ICT), Universidade de Évora, Rua Romão Ramalho, 59, 7002-554, Évora, Portugal

    Sérgio Godinho

  3. cE3c: Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes & Azorean Biodiversity Group, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of the Azores, 9500-321, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

    Artur Gil

  4. Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources, University of Ljubljana, Vecna pot 83, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Janez Pirnat

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  3. Nuno Guiomar
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  4. Artur Gil
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  5. Janez Pirnat
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Correspondence to Rui Machado.

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Machado, R., Godinho, S., Guiomar, N. et al. Using graph theory to analyse and assess changes in Mediterranean woodland connectivity. Landscape Ecol 35, 1291–1308 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01014-8

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