Human impact on natural landscapes through urbanization and agricultural expansion are becoming more and more dramatic and are the cause of serious environmental problems. This volume examines the effect of landscape disturbance on plant and animal diversity in the five mediterranean-climate regions of the world. It begins with three introductory chapters broadly reviewing the issues of landscape degradation. Further contributions describe regional land use conflicts in each of the five regions. Landscape disturbance and plant diversity, and landscape disturbance and animal diversity are treated in separate chapters. Four contributions deal with demography and ecophysiology in vegetation succession following disturbance. The volume closes with a consideration of the future addressing aspects of environmental politics.
Biodiversity refers to the three attributes of living environments: the variety of distinct ecosystems they contain; the number of species within them; and the range of genetic diversity within the populations of each of these species. This book presents a synthesis of ideas emerging from 15 biome-specific workshops exploring our current knowledge of the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem processes. The contributions offer an assessment of the consequences of human activities at the ecosystem level and provide an appropriate framework for making future policy decisions.
Human activities are causing species extinctions at a rate and magnitude rivaling those of past geologic extinction events. Exploring mediterranean-type ecosystems - the Mediterranean Basin, California, Chile, Australia, and South Africa - this volume addresses the question whether biological diversity plays a significant role in the functioning of natural ecosystems, and to what extent that diversity can be reduced without causing system malfunction. Comparative studies in ecosystems that are similar in certain respects, but differ in others, offer considerable scope for gaining new insights into the links between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
This book has been published by Allenvi (French National Alliance for Environmental Research) to coincide with the 22nd Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) in Marrakesh. It is the outcome of work by academic researchers on both sides of the Mediterranean and provides a remarkable scientific review of the mechanisms of climate change and its impacts on the environment, the economy, health and Mediterranean societies. It will also be valuable in developing responses that draw on “scientific evidence” to address the issues of adaptation, resource conservation, solutions and risk prevention. Reflecting the full complexity of the Mediterranean environment, the book is a major scientific contribution to the climate issue, where various scientific considerations converge to break down the boundaries between disciplines.
No other disjunct pieces of land present such striking similarities as the widely sepa 1 rated regions with a mediterranean type of climate, that is, the territories fringing the Mediterranean Sea, California, Central Chile and the southernmost strips of South Mrica and Australia. Similarities are not confined to climatic trends, but are also reflected in the physiognomy ofthe vegetation, in land use patterns and frequently in the general appearance of the landscape. The very close similarities in agricultural practices and sometimes also in rural settlements are dependent on the climatic and edaphic analogies, as well as on a certain commonality in qdtural history. This is certainly true for the Mediterranean Sea basin which in many ways represents a sort of ecological-cultural unit; this is also valid for CaUfornia and Chile, which were both settled by Spaniards and which showed periods of vigorous commercial and cultural interchanges as during the California gold rush. One other general feature is the massive interchange of cultivated and weed species of plants that has occurred between the five areas of the world that have a mediterranean-type climate, with the Mediterranean basin region itself as a major source. In spite of their limited territorial extension, probably no other parts of the world have played a more fundamental role in the history of mankind. Phoenician, Etruscan, Hellenic, Jewish, Roman, Christian andArab civilizations, among others,haveshapedmanyofman's present attitudes, including his position and perception vis-a-vis nature.
This book provides a concise but comprehensive introduction to Mediterranean-type ecosystems with the emphasis being on the organisms that dominate these regions although their management, conservation, and restoration will also be considered.
The Mediterranean region has more than 25 million hectares of Mediterranean forests and about 50 million hectares of other Mediterranean wooded lands. They make crucial contributions to rural development, poverty alleviation, food security, as well as, the agricultural, water, tourism, and energy sectors. Changes in climate, societies, and lifestyles to create appropriate financial incentives and tools. in the Mediterranean region could have serious negative consequences for forests, with the potential to lead to the loss or diminution of those contributions and to a wide range of economic, social and environmental problems. In the future, Mediterranean forests will support agriculture and human wellbeing. It is therefore crucial to improve policies, practices, and to promote sustainable management to provide social and economic benefits as well as to increase the resilience of ecosystems and societies. This new edition of the State of Mediterranean Forests aims to demonstrate the importance of Mediterranean forests to implementing solutions to tackle global issues such as climate change and population increase. Part 1: The Mediterranean landscape: importance and threats. Despite the important natural capital provided by Mediterranean forests, they are under threats from climate change and population increase and other subsidiary drivers of forest degradation. Part 2: Mediterranean forest-based solutions. Forests and landscape restoration, adaptation of forests and adaptation using forests, climate change mitigation, and conserving biodiversity are additional and complementary approaches to address the drivers of forest degradation to the benefit of populations and the environment. Part 3: Creating an enabling environment to scale up solutions. To scale up and replicate forest-based solutions, there is a need to change the way we see the role of forests in the economy, to put in place relevant policies, more widespread participatory approaches, to recognize the economic value of the goods and services provided by forests and, ultimately, to create appropriate financial incentives and tools.
