Greening and Browning in a Climate Change Hotspot: The Mediterranean Basin
To improve predictions of the future of ecosystems in a changing world, it is necessary to consider fine-scale processes. We propose that for the Mediterranean region (a hotspot of climate change and biodiversity), there are three local processes that have often been overlooked in predictive models and that are key to understanding vegetation changes: rural abandonment that increases wildlands, population changes that boost fire ignitions, and coastal degradation that enhances drought. These processes are not directly driven by global warming and act in different directions (greening and browning). The current balance is still toward greening, because land abandonment is buffering the browning drivers; however, it is likely to switch with increasing warming. The challenge is to mitigate the browning processes. Given that climatic warming is not directly driving these processes, local management can make a difference in reducing the overall impact on the landscape and society
Main Authors: | Pausas, J. G., Millán, Millán M. |
---|---|
Other Authors: | Pausas, J. G. [0000-0003-3533-5786] |
Format: | artículo biblioteca |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Oxford University Press
2019-01-09
|
Subjects: | Global change, Climate change, Water cycling, Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean ecosystems, Wildfires, Land abandonment, Local scale processes, |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/182414 |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Similar Items
-
A review of the combination among global change factors in forests, shrublands and pastures of the Mediterranean Region: Beyond drought effects
by: Doblas-Miranda, E., et al.
Published: (2017-01) -
Temperature and agriculture are largely associated with fire activity in Central Chile across different temporal periods
by: Gómez-González, Susana, et al.
Published: (2019-02-15) -
Socioeconomic Factors Drive Fire-Regime Variability in the Mediterranean Basin
by: Chergui, B., et al.
Published: (2018-06) -
Scarcity and multiple stressors in the Mediterranean water resources: The SCARCE and GLOBAQUA research projects
by: Navarro-Ortega, Alícia, et al.
Published: (2014) -
Hydro-geomorphological consequences of the abandonment of agricultural terraces in the Mediterranean region: Key controlling factors and landscape stability patterns
by: Moreno de las Heras, M., et al.
Published: (2019-05-15)