Browsing by Author "Caldas, Francisco Barreto"
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- Conservation Management of EU Priority Habitats after Collapse of Traditional Pastoralism: Navigating Socioecological Transitions in Mountain RangelandPublication . Honrado, João P.; Lomba, Angela; Alves, Paulo Jorge Mendes; Aguiar, Carlos; Monteiro-Henriques, T.; Cerqueira, Yvonne; Monteiro, Paulo; Caldas, Francisco BarretoAgricultural abandonment is a major driver of change in rural landscapes. Assumed to provide beneficial results to the environment and the conservation of biota, rural abandonment triggers landscape and biotic homogenization and loss of valuable species and habitats. This article focuses on the ecological effects and conservation challenges of shifts in extensive grazing regimes on marginal pastureland of Mediterranean mountains. We conceptualize a navigated socioecological transition toward conservation-oriented management after the collapse of historical land systems. The article provides examples from the LIFE+ project “Higro,” developed in mountainous protected areas in Portugal, of how management for conservation could sustain disturbance-dependent habitats. We argue that actively and regularly managing large habitat areas should be envisaged as a short-term approach to limit the immediate effects of rural abandonment. A gradual integration of conservation targets with other activities in changing rural economies is necessary to foster long-term conservation of species and habitats, building on the link between conservation-oriented habitat management and ecosystem services in rural landscapes. Conservation goals should run alongside recovery of social systems and innovation applied to traditional sources of income. This parallel development would contribute to building up social-ecological resilience by maintaining a diversity of social and ecological capital in rural areas.
- A fitossociologia e a monitorização da biodiversidade às escalas regional, nacional e europeiaPublication . Honrado, João José; Alves, Paulo Jorge Mendes; Aguiar, Carlos; Gonçalves, João Francisco; Alonso, Joaquim; Caldas, Francisco BarretoAs alterações ambientais multi-escalares produzem modificações mais ou menos profundas nos padrões espacio-temporais de distribuição e abundância das espécies e na composição, atributos, funções e distribuição das biocenoses e dos ecossistemas. São particularmente sensíveis, nos nossos dias, as mudanças induzidas pelas alterações do clima à escala global, e pelas invasões biológicas e alterações nos padrões locais e regionais de ocupação e uso do solo. Num contexto de crescente aproximação entre as políticas sectoriais de conservação da natureza, de ordenamento do território e de desenvolvimento rural, as ferramentas de informação sobre o património natural e os promotores das suas dinâmicas revelam-se fundamentais para o correcto planeamento do território e para uma gestão ecologicamente sustentável da paisagem. O território Português possui uma excepcional diversidade de ecossistemas, que albergam uma notável quantidade de espécies de flora e fauna.
- Higro demonstrative actions for the conservation of priority habitats in northern mountain areas in PortugalPublication . Geraldes, Miguel; Neto, Carlos; Monteiro, Paulo; Honrado, João José; Caldas, Francisco Barreto; Aguiar, CarlosAn innovative methodology is being tested towards the restoration and conservation of 200 ha of mountain priority habitats: hygrophilous heather-gorse dominated shrublands [(4020) ‘*temperate Atlantic wet heaths with Erica ciliaris and Erica tetralix’] and higrophile moor matgrasses [(6230) ‘*species-rich Nardus grasslands on silicious substrates’]. These experiments comprise 35 ha in the Atlantic Biogeographical Region - SCI “Serra de Arga” (PTCON0039) - and 50 ha on SCI “Serra de Montemuro” (PTCON0025) and 115 ha on SCI “Alvão-Marão” (PTCON0003) in the Mediterranean Biogeographical Region, located at the supra-temperate and supra-mediterranean levels on granitic mountains from the Northern Portugal, whose meso-higrophile and higrophile heather-gorse shrublands are nowadays in steep regression. The experiment comprehends the assemblage of 10 km of removable fences; the selective control of grass and shrub formations on 50 ha; the restoration of the natural hydrology on 100 ha (using artificial levees); and the promotion of extensive grazing along a path on 100 ha, all ruled by contract with the landowners. A preparatory stage has undergone, collecting and mapping data on the biogeography, climate, topography, lithology, land-use history, species, and habitats. A repport was produced over the reference status (1st stage of the Project). This presentation shows the preliminary results, carrying new information into the discussion about the most suitable techniques, implemented together or by themselves, in different intensities and periodicities, in order to induce vegetation diversity and the conservation of rare vascular plants (e.g. Genista berberidea, Gentiana pneumonanthe) and invertebrates (e.g. Maculinea alcon). Albeit burning, draining and grazing in mountain areas pose threats to the higrophile formations of Erica ciliaris, E. tetralix, Calluna vulgaris (usually with Ulex minor and, less often, Genista anglica, G. berberidea, and G. micrantha), these activities seem to benefit mat moorgrasses (e.g. Agrostis hesperica, Nardus stricta), sedges (e.g. Carex asturica, C. pilulifera), rushes (e.g. Juncus squarrosus) and herbaceous dicotyledons (e.g. genuses Cirsium, Polygala, Potentilla). Grazing is an activity in decline; still it does render vital services for well-conserved montain priority habitats. The challenge is, thus, to find ways that allow short and medium-term profitable grazing and, at the same time, ensure the ecological balance.
- Juresian riparian birch woodlands: Carici reuterianae-Betuletum celtibericae as. nova.Publication . Honrado, João José; Alves, Paulo Jorge Mendes; Aguiar, Carlos; Ortiz, S.; Caldas, Francisco BarretoThe Portuguese areas of the Juresian Sector (sensu Rivas-Martínez et al., Itinera Geobotanica, 2002) include a considerable diversity of deciduous woodlands predominated by the Iberian birch (Betula celtiberica). In a recent study of the vegetation of the Peneda-Gerês mountain range (Honrado, Flora e Vegetação do Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês, 2003), six different birch-woodland types were recognised and classified according to both dynamic (climactic vs. secondary/ /seral formations) and synecologic (climatophilous vs. edapho-hygrophilous formations) characters. In the same study, riparian birch woodlands of the Juresian Sector were preliminarily described as a new association (Carici reuterianae-Betuletum celtibericae).