Carnivore Conservation Ecology

LTER Montado - Long-term socio-ecological research and monitoring in a Mediterranean cultural landscape

• WEBPAGE
• National Research Project
• 2011 to 2015

Summary:

Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) is required as many ecological processes exhibit high inter annual variability and susceptibility to rare/episodic disturbance events, both impossible to detect based on short-term observations. This is particularly true in highly dynamic ecosystems, where that variability is either due to climate unpredictability, heavy and changing human influences or a combination of both, such as in the montado landscapes. Moreover, the high variation associated with natural fluctuations hinders the modelling of precise predictions of ecosystem change for different global change scenarios.
The main core research of our proposal encompasses the classical LTER objectives and goes further, aiming to understand how montado functioning and ability to provide ecosystem services, respond to land-use changes under a desertification scenario predicted by global climate change models. The montado (dehesa in Spain) is recognized as a unique agro-silvo-pastoral ecosystem found only in the Mediterranean basin. These savannah-like landscapes are dominated by cork and holm oaks, shaped over millennia of traditional land use practices.

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Funding Institution:

Science and Technology Foundation (LTER/BIA-BEC/0048/2009).

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Partners:

CÉLIA MARINA PEDROSO GOUVEIA (IDL); RICARDO MACHADO TRIGO (IDL); AMÍLCAR MANUEL DO ROSÁRIO OLIVEIRA (CEAUL); CARLOS DO CARMO DE PORTUGAL E CASTRO DA CÂMARA (IDL); RICARDO MACHADO TRIGO (IDL).

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