Assessing the Ecosystem Health of Coastal Wetland Vegetation (Suaeda salsa) Using the Pressure State Response Model, a Case of the Liao River Estuary in China

Suaeda salsa (S. salsa) is an important ecological barrier and tourism resource in coastal wetland resources, and assessing changes in its health is beneficial for protecting the ecological health of wetlands and increasing finances. The aim was to explore improvements in the degradation of S. salsa communities in the Liao River Estuary National Nature Reserve since a wetland restoration project was carried out in Panjin, Liaoning Province, China, in 2015. In this study, landscape changes in the reserve were assessed based on Sentinel-2 images classification results from 2016 to 2019. A pressure-state-response framework was constructed to assess the annual degradation of S. salsa communities within the wetlands. The assessment results show that the area of S. salsa communities and water bodies decreased annually from 2016 to 2019, and the increased degradation indicators indicate a state of continued degradation. The area of types such as aquaculture ponds and Phragmites australis communities did not change much, while the estuarine mudflats increased year by year. The causes of S. salsa community degradation include anthropogenic impacts from abandoned aquaculture ponds and sluice control systems but also natural impacts from changes in the tidal amplitude and soil properties of the mudflats. The results also indicate that the living conditions of S. salsa in the Liao River estuary wetlands are poor and that anthropogenic disturbance is necessary to restore the original vegetation abundance.

Fragmentation and Connectivity of Island Forests in Agricultural Mediterranean Environments: A Comparative Study between the Guadalquivir Valley (Spain) and the Apulia Region (Italy)

Habitat loss and fragmentation are considered some the main threats to biodiversity. Original forests have suffered an accentuated fragmentation and agricultural homogenization, leaving only some areas of natural vegetation, relegated to strongly anthropized disconnected patches (island forests, IFs) in a hostile matrix. These patches of original vegetation could be the key for the design and management of ecological corridors to promote species migration, an essential strategy for meeting the consequences of Global Change. This study proposes a comparative analysis of the fragmentation and connectivity of IFs of Quercus in two typically Mediterranean areas of predominantly agricultural use: the Guadalquivir valley (Spain) and the Apulia region (Italy). A retrospective comparison is also carried out in the Guadalquivir valley. The aim is to develop an objective new methodology to locate the patches of most interest using quantitative and qualitative data. Reference cartography of current island forests of Quercus species was developed from several digital sources and validated with orthoimages and field observations. Fragmentation analysis was based on graph structures using the software Conefor 2.6, a reliable tool for assessment of the role of patches in the landscape. Area and distance were used as node and connector values. Dispersion distance was established as 500 m, based on the maximum dispersion of acorns. Results indicate that the Guadalquivir valley has suffered an intensive fragmentation in recent decades. Both the Guadalquivir and Apulia regions host some IFs with the relevant potential to contribute as core habitats in the creation of connections to other natural protected sites. Many residual IFs in the landscape could contribute as stepping stones in the design and management of ecological corridors. Our methodology highlights the value of IFs to develop assessment strategies using homogenized available digital cartography and common criteria for the dispersion distances in graph theory analysis. The application of this new methodology could help in the management of protected sites using highly fragmented areas to allow the species movement through inhospitable landscapes in a unique opportunity to connect the different protected areas.

Soil Hydrology Process and Rational Use of Soil Water in Desert Regions

There is a balanced plant–water relationship in the original vegetation in the desert area. With the increase in the population and social development of the desert area, people need the goods and services of the forest vegetation ecosystem. To meet the growing demand for plant community goods and services, more original vegetation has been changed into non-native vegetation, such as in the Loess Plateau in China. However, with the plant growth, sometime soil drying happens and becomes gradually serious with time in most desert regions. Serious drying of soil eventually results in soil quality degradation, vegetation decline, and crop failure, which influence the produce and supply of forest vegetation goods and services in the market in dry years or waste of soil water resources in wet years, which wastes precious natural resources. In order to use soil water rationally, soil water must be used in a sustainable way and the plant–water relationship has to be regulated for the Soil Water carrying capacity for vegetation in the key period of plant–water relationship regulation to carry out a sustainable use of natural resources, high-quality sustainable development of forest and grass, and high-quality production of fruit and crops in desert regions.

Biodiversity of Vegetation around the Mingechevir Reservoir

Mingechevir reservoir is one of the deep-water artificial reservoirs in the territory of Azerbaijani was created on the Kura River in the 50s. Before the construction of the Mingechevir reservoir, 681 species of plants belonging to 74 families and 325 genera were found here. As a result of our research in the valley in 2019-2021, only 154 species were found, belonging to 24 families and 36 genera. As a result of changes during the last 70 years of the hydrographic regime, the influence of edaphic, physical, anthropogenic factors, the original vegetation cover of the Mingechevir Valley has completely changed, and urbanization, land reclamation and other works have further accelerated these changes. If the successions that have begun are not prevented, there may be a risk of destruction of the high-pressure earth dam built in Europe using the leaching method. With the implementation of the proposed phytomeliorative measures, the bare slopes of the reservoir dam can be turned into a “green cover”.

Soil Hydrology Process and Sustainable Use of Soil Water Resources in Desert Regions

There is a balanced plant-water relationship in the primary vegetation of desert area. With the increase of population and social development in desert areas, people’s need for forest vegetation ecosystem’s goods and service have been changed. To meet the growing demand for plant community goods and services, more original vegetation has been changed into non-native vegetation such as in China loess plateau. However, with the plant growth, sometime soil drying happens and then becomes gradually serious with times in most of desert regions. Serious drying of soil eventually result in soil degradation, vegetation decline and agriculture failure，which influence the produce and supply of forest vegetation goods and service in market in dry year or waste of soil water resources in wet year, which wastes precious nature resources. In order to solve these problems, the soil water resources have to be used in sustainable way and plant-water relationship have to be regulated on Carrying Capacity of Soil Water for Vegetation in the key period of plant water relationship regulation, to carry out sustainable use of nature resources, high-quality and sustainable development of forest and grass or high-quality produce of fruit and crop in desert re-gions.

Different land-use types equally impoverish but differentially preserve grassland species and functional traits of spider assemblages

Land-use change is one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss by introducing environmental modifications, which excludes native species unable to adapt to the novel conditions. Grasslands are among the most threatened biomes; understanding the influence of different land-use types on native species is crucial to achieving sustainable management policies. We hypothesized that land-use types that partially conserve the original vegetation cover would show higher taxonomic and functional diversity and similarity with native assemblages than land-use types that replace the original vegetation cover. We compared the taxonomic and functional alpha and beta diversity of spider assemblages between soybean crops, eucalypt plantations, and cattle fields with seminatural grasslands. Through null models, we assessed the standardized effect sizes to test differences in the strength of environmental filtering among land-use types. Environmental changes introduced by different land-use types resulted in assemblages differentiated in species and trait composition, taxonomically and functionally impoverished with respect to seminatural grasslands. All land-use types drove species replacement and trait loss and replacement of grassland spiders. Each land-use showed a characteristic species and trait composition. Most of the grassland traits were not lost but were under or over-represented according to the land-use type. Only in soybean crops the formation of spider communities would be mainly driven by environmental filtering. Changes in land-use decreased species diversity and modified the composition of spider species and functional traits leading to differentiated spider assemblages. As spider species and traits varied among land-uses, a mitigation measure against grasslands biodiversity loss could be the development of productive landscapes with a mosaic of land-use types, as each of them would provide microhabitats for species with different requirements. Because land-use types mainly led to the rearrangement of grassland functional trait values, most of spider functions might be conserved in mosaics of land-use types.

Bronze Age to Medieval vegetation dynamics and landscape anthropization in the central pre-Pyrenees

The varved sediments of Lake Montcortès (central Pre-Pyrenees) have provided a continuous high-resolution record of the last ca. 3000 years. Previous chronological and sedimentological studies of this record have furnished detailed paleoenvironmental reconstructions. However, palynological studies are only available for the last millennium, when the landscape around the lake had already been transformed by humans. Therefore, the primeval vegetation of Montcortès and the history of its anthropogenic transformations remains unknown. This paper presents a palynological analysis of the interval between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Medieval period, aimed at recording the preanthropic conditions, the anthropization onset and the further landscape transformations. During the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1100 BCE to 770 BCE), the vegetation did not show any evidence of human impact. The decisive anthropogenic transformation of the Montcortès catchment vegetation and landscape started at the beginning of the Iron Age (770 BCE) and continued during Roman and Medieval times in the form of recurrent burning, grazing, cultivation, silviculture and hemp retting. Some intervals of lower human pressure were recorded, but the original vegetation never returned. The anthropization that took place during the Iron Age did not cause relevant changes in the sediment yield to the lake, but a significant limnological shift occurred, as manifested in the initiation of varve formation, a process that has been continuous until today. Climatic shifts seem to have played a secondary role in influencing vegetation and landscape changes. These results contrast with previous inferences of low anthropogenic impact until the Medieval Period, at a regional level. It could be interesting to verify whether the same pattern – i.e., Iron Age anthropization and Early Medieval intensification of human pressure – may be a recurrent pattern for mid-elevation Pyrenean landscapes below the tree line.

Long-term human impact and forest management in the Phoenician and Roman city of Utica (Tunisia) (900 BC−500 AD)

Human Colonization of new lands implied historically the diffusion of new plant species and the exploitation of local plant resources and forests by human communities. Phoenician colonization in the 1st millennium BC had important consequences in Mediterranean agriculture and the exploitation of vegetation in colonized areas. Later, Roman agriculture introduced new changes. The anthracological analysis or charcoal analysis of the archaeological record of the site of Utica can inform us about the long term transformations in vegetation in North Africa. The original vegetation, consisting mainly of Pistacia lentiscus, would see its population reduced due to the implantation of non-intensive olive production in Phoenician and Punic periods. Nevertheless, since the Roman Imperial Period there was a strong decline of natural vegetation, in correlation of the important increment of olive trees, which indicate the presence of intensive oil production, mainly to be exported to Rome. Furthermore, the appearance of walnut trees presents novel data regarding the expansion of arboriculture throughout the Mediterranean in hand with the Phoenicians during the 1st millennium BC. The anthracological analysis of Utica presents important information regarding the natural vegetation that existed when the Phoenicians arrived, and the transformation that happened throughout time, corresponding to the management of the surrounding landscape during the Phoenician, Punic, and Roman periods.

Bronze Age to Medieval vegetation dynamics and landscape anthropization in the central pre-Pyrenees

The varved sediments of Lake Montcortès (central Pre-Pyrenees) have provided a continuous high-resolution record of the last ca. 3000 years. Previous chronological and sedimentological studies of this record have furnished detailed paleoenvironmental reconstructions. However, palynological studies are only available for the last millennium, when the landscape around the lake had already been transformed by humans. Therefore, the primeval vegetation of Montcortès and the history of its anthropogenic transformations remains unknown. This paper presents a palynological analysis of the interval between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Medieval period, aimed at recording the preanthropic conditions, the anthropization onset and the further landscape transformations. During the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1100 BCE to 770 BCE), the vegetation did not show any evidence of human impact. The decisive anthropogenic transformation of the Montcortès catchment vegetation and landscape started at the beginning of the Iron Age (770 BCE) and continued during Roman and Medieval times in the form of recurrent burning, grazing, cultivation, silviculture and hemp retting. Some intervals of lower human pressure were recorded, but the original vegetation never returned. The anthropization that took place during the Iron Age did not cause relevant changes in the sediment yield to the lake, but a significant limnological shift occurred, as manifested in the initiation of varve formation, a process that has been continuous until today. Climatic shifts seem to have played a secondary role in influencing vegetation and landscape changes. These results contrast with previous inferences of low anthropogenic impact until the Medieval Period, at a regional level. It could be interesting to verify whether the same pattern – i.e., Iron Age anthropization and Early Medieval intensification of human pressure – may be a recurrent pattern for mid-elevation Pyrenean landscapes below the tree line.

Orchidaceae in a fragment of restinga on the north coast of Bahia, Brazil

Área de Proteção Ambiental das Lagoas e Dunas do Abaeté (APA Abaeté) is an urban fragment of restinga in an environmentally protected area in the municipality of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The area is impacted by irregular disposal of solid waste, clandestine removal of sand from dunes, suppression and fragmentation of original vegetation cover and urban growth of neighborhoods. A recent floristic study revealed new records of orchid species for this conservation unit but highlighted strong threats to the orchid flora. In this context, a taxonomic study of Orchidaceae in APA Abaeté was undertaken with the aim of facilitating the recognition of species in the field and supporting the establishment of more effective local conservation actions for orchids, which should include the manual dispersion of seeds and the relocation of individuals. Orchidaceae is the sixth most represented family in APA Abaeté, with 15 genera and 19 species, including Encyclia dichroma and Koellensteinia florida, endemic species of the Atlantic Forest. The most relevant morphological characteristics for the identification of species in the area are: growth type; climbing habit; caulome thickness; shape and consistency of leaf blades; inflorescence type and position; and color and resupination of flowers.