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During recent decades, tree mortality and dieback have been reported in forest ecosystems across global biomes. Although numerous forest species, including those of the genus Quercus, have been affected by hotter and drier conditions in the Mediterranean Basin during the last decades, there is scarce information regarding the interactive role of past management and climate across large areas of south-western Europe. Here, we examined the influence of several climatic factors (mean annual temperature, annual precipitation) over the last 3 decades, latitude, land management and site conditions on the cork oak (Quercus suber L.) population dynamics given their high ecological and economic relevance. We sampled 20 plots across contrasting environmental conditions in SW Iberian Peninsula with different land property (public vs. private) to characterize cork oak tree size, stand density, mortality ratio and regeneration. We observed widespread effects of latitude (8.9% at northern vs. 15.6% at southern plots) and land property (6.9% in private properties vs. 13.9% in public ones) on tree mortality. Tree density and basal area differed with latitude, with higher values (307.2 trees ha-1 and 38.4 m2 ha-1, respectively) at northern populations. In addition, the more intense cork-focused productive management resulted in higher tree sizes in private (mean DBH = 47.3 cm) than in public (mean DBH = 37.8 cm) plots. Tree regeneration was higher in northern forests (94.9 ± 25.2 vs. 26.0 ± 6.1 saplings ha-1 for the southern location), being this difference more pronounced in public plots. These findings highlight the importance of sustainable forest management in public and private forests for further reduction of mortality processes, as well as for enhancing the regeneration aimed to the conservation of cork oak under forecasted drier conditions of these economically invaluable Mediterranean forests.

In the south of Bahia state, a large part of the native Atlantic Forest areas has been modified for the cultivation of cocoa (Theobroma cacao). These crops are cultivated under the shade of the canopy of native trees, a system locally known as the “cabruca” agroforestry system. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship of Odonata assemblages (adults and larvae) in cocoa farming areas and to identify the relationships of these species with local and spatial environmental variables of the monitored sites. Altogether, adult and larvae were sampled at 22 sites. Physical and physicochemical water variables were recorded for each site. A total of 1336 dragonflies were collected, of which 20 were Zygoptera species and 30 were adult Anisoptera representatives. The different life stages were related to environmental variables such as conductivity, watercourse channel width, and dissolved oxygen. The space predictors were also associated with the assemblages, mainly for adults. The present study identified that cabruca areas maintain a great diversity of dragonflies, including species that are considered to be forest specialists and more sensitive to landscape changes. The characteristics of this cropping system are considered to be favorable for the conservation of the biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest.

Bactrocera oleae is the main pest in olive groves, and its management requires a sustainable perspective to reduce the use of chemical products. Landscape context is being considered as an important driver of pest reduction, but results on B. oleae show inconsistency to date. Most of landscape-pest control studies focus on the dynamics of the pests within the focal crop, ignoring these dynamics in other land uses. Here we present a study in which we analyze the seasonal population dynamics of the olive pest B. oleae in the most important land uses of a typical olive landscape in Portugal. We found that B. oleae is present in all the land uses and the dynamics are very similar to those in the olive groves. However, the presence of these land uses in the landscape did not display any increase in B. oleae abundance within the olive groves. In contrast, a landscape mainly composed by olive groves increased the abundance of this pest. Importantly, more diverse landscapes surrounding olive groves reduce the abundance of the olive fly. Based on these findings, we can conclude that B. oleae is present in all the land uses of the studied landscape but that this presence does not imply an increase of B. oleae in olive groves. Indeed, other land uses can promote landscape diversification which is a driver of the reduction of B. oleae populations in olive groves. We thus encourage olive stakeholders to increase landscape diversification around their farms by promoting/restoring other crops/habitats.

This article investigates the problem of changing land uses in historical city centers, a problem which often leads to the alteration of their historical, architectural and functional physiognomy, as well as the loss of their inhabitants. It also discusses the importance of land management and proposes a multifunctional reuse model for sustainable development in abandoned or degraded areas in historic cities. This problem is found in historical centers nowadays, especially in the European South, and many theoretical texts and urban studies deal with the issue. Taking under consideration the case of the Historical “Commercial Triangle” of Athens, this article presents the results of an extensive field work, which led to the mapping and analysis of the neighborhood’s special identity. Subsequently, these results lead to the presentation of the problems caused by the dominating uses of recreation and tourism, which suppress the traditional existing commercial uses and the residency. It concludes by proposing preservation strategies for the reuse and development of the area and emphasizes the importance of a management plan aiming towards the preservation of the historical character of the commercial center and its sustainable development. The work presented in this paper is based on an assignment produced in 2020 for the purposes of the post-graduate course “Protection and Preservation of a historical urban center or settlement”, which is part of the post-graduate program “Protection of Monuments” in the School of Architecture, NTUA.

The expansion of urban areas and the growth of the urban population are challenges faced by different territorial administrations across the world. In this context, the objective of this document is to analyze land occupation and the distribution of land uses in Bogotá and 17 municipalities. Therefore, a methodology is proposed in which an accessibility indicator models the spatial structure of the territory based on employment concentrations (the sum of the number of jobs weighted by the distance between each pair of municipalities). Then, the analysis of land use is carried out using a multinomial model, with the accessibility indicator as its principal explanatory variable. In such a way, it is possible to estimate the effects associated with the location decisions of economic agents in the territory. The results will enable policy makers to identify location and relocation patterns; we found evidence of a greater probability of commercial uses within urban areas and a relocation of industrial activity towards rural areas in some municipalities.

High-throughput sequencing is commonly used to study soil microbial communities. However, different primers targeting different 16S rRNA hypervariable regions often generate different microbial communities and result in different values of diversity and community structure. This study determined the consequences of using two bacterial primers (338f/806r, targeting the V3–V4 region, and 520f/802r, targeting the V4 region) to assess bacterial communities in the soils of different land uses along a latitudinal gradient. The results showed that the variations in the soil bacterial diversity in different land uses were more evident based on the former pair. The statistical results showed that land use had no significant impact on soil bacterial diversity when primer pair 520f/802r was used. In contrast, when primer pair 338f/806r was used, the cropland and orchard soils had significantly higher operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and Shannon diversity index values than those of the shrubland and grassland soils. Similarly, the soil bacterial diversity generated by primer pair 338f/806r was significantly impacted by mean annual precipitation, soil total phosphorus (TP), soil total nitrogen (TN), and soil available phosphorus (AVP), while the soil bacterial diversity generated by primer pair 520f/802r showed no significant correlations with most of these environmental factors. Multiple regression models indicated that soil pH and soil organic carbon (SOC) shaped the soil bacterial community structure on the Loess Plateau regardless of what primer pair was used. Climatic conditions mainly affected the diversity of rare bacteria. Abundant bacteria are more sensitive than rare bacteria to environmental changes. Very little of the variation in the rare bacterial community was explained by environmental factors or geographic distance, suggesting that the communities of rare bacteria are unpredictable. The distributions of the abundant taxa were mainly determined by variations in environmental factors.

Los bosques de ribera se encuentran entre los ecosistemas más vulnerables. La restauración ecológica es necesaria para mantener los servicios que brindan. El objetivo principal del presente estudio fue generar un mapa de zonas ribereñas para identificar bosques, áreas transformadas y oportunidades para la restauración de estos ecosistemas en Tucumán, Argentina. Comparamos diferentes anchos de zonas de amortiguación (ZdA): según requisitos legales (60 m) y sugerencias científico-técnicas (100 y 250 m). Para explorar la superficie de unidades de producción agrícola (UPA, lotes catastrales) ubicadas en las ZdA, analizamos diferentes regiones agroecológicas y porcentajes de superficie ocupada en las UPA. La cobertura del suelo se cartografió a partir de una clasificación supervisada de imágenes Sentinel en Google Earth Engine. Nuestros resultados revelaron que entre un 40 y un 60 % de las zonas ribereñas, principalmente ocupadas por agricultura, necesitarían ser restauradas para alcanzar a cubrir los 60 y 250 m de ZdA, respectivamente. Considerando la ZdA de 60 m, las riberas se encuentran ocupadas por usos agrícolas y urbanos en un 23.5 % (1959 ha) en el pedemonte, 50.9 % (7784 ha) en la llanura húmeda, y 36.8 % (3113 ha) en la llanura seca. Los resultados sugieren que se deben realizar diferentes esfuerzos para una restauración eficiente en las distintas regiones agroecológicas. La restauración necesaria para cubrir el requisito legal podría ser una meta alcanzable considerando objetivos globales y regionales. La mayoría de las UPA incluyeron menos del 20 % de su superficie en una zona ribereña. Sin embargo, se recomienda incluir abordajes socio-ecológicos en los proyectos de restauración a fin de conocer las visiones de los productores, proponer compensaciones y evitar restricciones importantes para la producción agrícola local. El mapeo realizado será una herramienta valiosa para la implementación de proyectos de restauración para un área prioritaria en Argentina. Riparian forests are among the most vulnerable ecosystems. Ecological restoration is needed to maintain the ecosystem services they provide. The main goal of the present study was to generate a map of riparian zones identifying forest and transformed areas as a base for their restoration in Tucumán, Argentina. We compared different buffers width: one according to legal requirement (60 m) and two scientific-technical suggestions (100 and 250 m). To explore the occupation of the agronomic production units (cadastral units) by the buffers, we analyzed riparian land cover among different agro-ecological regions and the percentage of production units area affected. Land cover maps were performed through a supervised classification of Sentinel in Google Earth Engine. Our results revealed that between a 40 and 60 percent of the riparian zones, mainly covered by agriculture, need to be restored to reach the 60 and 250 m of buffer strip respectively. Considering the 60 m buffer, riparian zones were covered by agricultural and urban uses in a 23.5% (1959 ha) in the foothills, 50.9% (7784 ha) in the wet plains, and 36.8% (3113 ha) in the dry plains. Therefore, different efforts must be made for an efficient and effective restoration. The amount of area needed to restore the legal requirement could be an attainable objective considering the global and regional restoration goals. In addition, majority of the production units included less than 20% of their surface in a riparian zone. However, we suggest including socio-ecological approaches for restoration projects to know social actors perceptions and avoid major restriction for agronomic production. The cartography performed will be a valuable tool for the implementation of restoration projects for a priority area in Argentina. Fil: Pero, Edgardo Javier Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Biodiversidad Neotropical. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo. Instituto de Biodiversidad Neotropical. Instituto de Biodiversidad Neotropical; Argentina Fil: Casagranda, Maria Elvira. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentina Fil: Cristobal, Luciana María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Biodiversidad Neotropical. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo. Instituto de Biodiversidad Neotropical. Instituto de Biodiversidad Neotropical; Argentina Fil: Wottitz, Aldana. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Facultad de Ciencias Forestales; Argentina Fil: Gasparri, Nestor Ignacio. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentina

Made available in DSpace on 2020-12-12T02:40:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2020-04-01 Many studies assess the impact of anthropogenic activities in water bodies using methods that focus on physical, chemical and microbiological characteristics of water. The use of benthic invertebrates as tools for biomonitoring protocols helps the understanding of those impacts, when these modifications cannot be explained only by the water characteristics. We analyzed the environmental characteristics and invertebrate fauna structure in an 80 m extension of streams located in four micro-basins. This reach-scale analysis included streams of three riparian vegetation conservation states: preserved in both riverbanks (forested), removed in both riverbanks for pasture (pasture), and one riverbank with riparian vegetation and another with pasture (intermediate). The environmental data analysis indicated a clear separation between the forested and pasture streams, emphasizing the interaction of the state of riparian vegetation’s preservation with some habitat characteristics, such as width, substrate type and shelter for the fauna. Our initial hypothesis about the benthic invertebrates’ structure was to find in streams with conserved riparian vegetation a benthic fauna composed mainly by groups more specialized and dependent on coarse substrate and plant material imported from the forest and used as shelter and food resource. This hypothesis was confirmed, with higher abundance of groups sensitive to pollution, such as Plecoptera and Trichoptera, mainly in preserved streams. However, when analyzed together the environmental characteristics and the OTUs that best explained the land uses’ differences (RDA analysis), in two micro-basins there was more fauna’s similarity between intermediate and pasture profiles, and in the other two the three profiles differed from each other. These differences may be related not only to reach-scale physical characteristics, but also to catchment-scale attributes of each micro-basin, as the invertebrate distribution and abundance are influenced by a variety of physical/biological factors at different scales. Thus, the study of the possible influence of riparian vegetation conservation states on habitat characteristics and benthic invertebrate structure seems to be dependent on the spatial scale analyzed. Department of Zoology Institute of Bioscience UNESP - Univ Estadual Paulista Department of Zoology Institute of Bioscience UNESP - Univ Estadual Paulista

Anthropogenic activities, such as grazing by domestic animals, are considered drivers of environmental changes that may influence the structure of interaction networks. The study of individual-based networks allows testing how species-level interaction patterns emerge from the pooled interaction modes of individuals within populations. Exponential random graph models (ERGMs) examine the global structure of networks by allowing the inclusion of specific node (i.e. interacting partners) properties as explanatory covariates. Here we assessed the structure of individual plant–frugivore interaction networks and the ecological variables that influence the mode of interactions under different land-use (grazed versus ungrazed protected areas). We quantified the number of visits, the number of fruits removed per visit and the interaction strength of mammal frugivore species at each individual tree. Additionally we quantified ecological variables at the individual, microhabitat, neighborhood and habitat scales that generated interaction network structure under the different land uses. Individual plant–frugivore networks were significantly modular in both land uses but the number of modules was higher in the grazed areas. We found interaction networks for grazed and ungrazed lands were structured by phenotypic traits of individual trees, by the microhabitat beneath the tree canopy and were affected by habitat modifications of anthropogenic origin. The neighborhood surrounding each individual plant influenced plant–frugivore interactions only at the grazed-land trees. We conclude that anthropogenic land uses influence the topological patterns of plant–frugivore networks and the frugivore visitation to trees through modification of both habitat complexity and the ecological traits underlying interactions between individual plants and frugivore species., This work was supported by CONICET (PIP 112-201101-00601, PIP 112-201201-00270 CO), a doctoral fellowship from CONICET to MFM, Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (PICT-2013-0478, PUE 0042) and a grant from Neotropical Grassland Conservancy (NGC) to MFM. Analysis and writing were conducted while MFM was in a PhD research stay at the Integrative Ecology Group, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC). PJ acknowledges a Spanish MINECO Severo Ochoa Excellence Award (SEV-2012-0262), and a Junta de Andalucía Excellence Grant (RNM-5731) for support.

A novel method is proposed for the development of ecosystem specific water quality indices in accordance with specific guidelines for the protection of aquatic life and with the capacity to demonstrate annual cycles, spatial and temporal variations, and trends in water quality. An ecosystem-specific water quality index for the Santiago-Guadalajara River (SGR-WQI) was developed using a method based entirely on multivariate statistical methods and historical data distributions. The SGR-WQI was developed using data from 13 water quality monitoring stations in the Santiago-Guadalajara River basin, collected monthly from 2009 to 2019 by the State Water Commission of Jalisco, Mexico. The behaviour of 44 water quality parameters was statistically analyzed. It was found that 17 of the parameters best represented the water quality of the River. Parameter selection also considered the legal limits, established by the Government of Mexico, for the protection of aquatic life. To consider the protection of aquatic biota in the assessment of the index, a method was proposed to incorporate these limits in the development of rating curves providing the WQI with high sensitivity to parameter values that are outside the legal limits. Furthermore, a well-structured method based on multivariate statistical techniques was used to determine the parameter weights that best distinguish between sampling points and seasons, clearly reflecting temporal and spatial variability, as well as to demonstrate the annual cycle and trends in water quality. Colour maps were generated from the calculated SGR-WQI values, showing those sections of the river with lower water quality, and thus providing a simple visual to assist in management of the River system. The methodology proposed can be used elsewhere to develop ecosystem specific water quality indices that evaluate surface water for protection of aquatic life in accordance with local limits/standards/guidelines and that adequately reflect spatial and temporal variability in agreement with the specific context.

The Metropolitan Area of Quito has experienced exponential growth in recent decades, especially in peri-urban sectors. The literature has described this process as “urban sprawl”, a phenomenon that is changing the landscape by increasing land consumption and forming conurbations with the nearest populated centers. This article proposes a new, broader and more complex metropolitan structure for the metropolis of Quito, the linking of neighboring and conurbed areas to the form a new metropolitan area based on the case study of the Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ). This new metropolitan area identification considers the interpretation of satellite images and the classification of land uses, highlighting the main urban growth areas located outside, but contiguous to the administrative limit of the DMQ, over a period of 19 years (1998 to 2017), the demographics analysis, particularly the densification of new urban peripheral areas close to the DMQ border and the mobility links of population, goods and services between human settlements that allows the configuration of urban corridors and the integration of the territory. The main findings evaluated are the need to evaluate urban planning strategies aimed at sustainable development.

In France, the geographical map called the étatmajor map, drawn between 1818 and 1866, covers the whole country in 273 sheets. The realization of this immense task was ordered under Louis XVIII, in 1817, having in mind at first civil and military needs. Corsica was the last region mapped in France (between 1864 and 1866) ; it is represented by 22 sheets published at a scale 1 : 40.000. These maps choose a new way to represent the slopes. However, today, they are a great source of spatialised data indicating land uses, such as agriculture, vineyards, swamps, scrublands, forests but also urbanisation. At that time, Corsican territory was very open with 83% of the land area not covered by trees and in particular pastoral activity, human footprint had strongly modified the landscapes (60% of land area was pasture lands). 20% of Corsica was cultivated, and there was already more than 7.000ha of vineyards. Concerning forest lands, 150 years ago, it represented about 154.000ha, while current estimation gives more than 500.000ha (IGN-National Geographical Institute-2013). Thus, forest cover has been multiplied by 3 during this period. Calculation based on reference date corresponding to the date of the état-major map, ancient forests have an estimated area of 80.000ha in Corsica. Mountain forest stands show the best continuity in time of forest cover, especially those dominated by Corsican pine and beech. On the contrary, cork-oak forest stands present the strongest deforestation due to urbanisation and agricultural development of the territory. Another interesting piece of information brought by the état-major map is the presence of forests in the subalpine level (between 1.600 and 2.100m above sea level), where they are absent today. However, for the past few decades, we observe an upward recolonisation of some forest tree species, such as mountain-ash (Sorbus aucuparia subsp. praemorsa (Guss) Nyman.) and sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus L.) at this elevation, obviously in relation to decreasing intensity of mountain grazing., En France, la carte géographique d’état-major, levée de 1818 à 1866, couvre l’ensemble du pays en 273 feuilles. C’est sous Louis XVIII que la réalisation de cet immense chantier a commencé, en 1817, pour répondre au départ à des besoins civils et militaires. La Corse a été la dernière région française cartographiée (entre 1864 et 1866) ; elle est représentée par 22 feuilles de minutes éditées au 1 : 40 000. La reproduction du relief est la grande nouveauté apportée par ces cartes. Mais elles sont surtout une formidable source de données historiques spatialisées qui nous indique l’occupation du sol par les cultures, les vignes, les marais, les maquis, les forêts ou encore les habitations. À cette époque, le territoire était très ouvert avec 83 % de la surface non boisée où les activités humaines, notamment pastorales, marquaient fortement le paysage (60 % du territoire en pacage ou en parcours). 20 % de la Corse était cultivée et il y avait déjà plus de 7 000 ha de vignes. Concernant la part de la forêt, il y a 150 ans, elle représentait près de 154 000 ha, alors qu’aujourd’hui on l’estime à plus de 500 000 ha (IGN 2013). C’est-à-dire qu’elle a été multipliée par un coefficient 3 pendant cette période. Calculée avec comme date de référence celle de la carte d’état-major, la part des forêts anciennes serait égale à 80 000 ha en Corse. Ce sont vraiment les essences de montagne qui ont gardé le plus longtemps un continuum de leur état boisé, avec les forêts de pin laricio (Pinus nigra subsp. laricio Maire) et de hêtre (Fagus sylvatica L.). A contrario, ce sont les suberaies (chênes-lièges, Quercus suber L.) qui ont payé le plus fort tribut au développement urbanistique et agricole du territoire. Une autre information intéressante que nous apportent les données de l’état-major, est la présence de forêts à l’étage subalpin (entre 1 600 et 2 100 m d’altitude) que l’on ne retrouve plus aujourd’hui. Cependant, depuis quelques décennies, on observe une remontée de quelques essences forestières comme le sorbier des oiseleurs (Sorbus aucuparia subsp. praemorsa (Guss) Nyman.) et l’érable sycomore (Acer pseudoplatanus L.) à ces altitudes, fortement liée à la déprise des territoires d’estives., Panaïotis Christophe, Barthet Thomas, Vallauri Daniel, Hugot Laetitia, Gauberville Christian, Reymann Julie, O’Deye-Guizien Kévin, Delbosc Pauline. Carte d’état-major de la Corse (1864-1866). Occupation du sol et première analyse des forêts anciennes. In: Ecologia mediterranea, tome 43 n°1, 2017. pp. 49-64.

The intensification of agriculture has significant environmental consequences. This intensification entails the simplification and homogenisation of the landscape, which leads to strong negative impacts at ecosystem level, including declines in animal biodiversity. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of different land uses on reptilian and amphibian biodiversity patterns at a regional scale by analysing a large database on the presence of amphibians and reptiles in Andalusia (southern Spain). GIS techniques and the Ecological-Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA) were applied in order to assess whether the habitat was suitable for each reptilian and amphibian species, when the land use variables were excluded. The incongruence between the potential and the observed species richness was then correlated with the main types of land use in Andalusia. Our results showed that irrigated and unirrigated olive groves were associated with a biodiversity deficit of amphibians and reptiles respectively, whereas natural forests and pastures, along with more heterogeneous crops areas, were more suitable. A clustering analysis showed that generalist species were related to olive groves whereas rare and specialist species were related to land uses related to natural vegetation. In summary, our results indicate that large areas covered by olives groves harbour less amphibian and reptilian diversity, thus suggesting that agro-environmental schemes should be carried to promote the species richness in these crops., This work was supported by the project (AGL 2012-40128-C03-01) and EU–FEDER funds. AJC holds an FPI pre-doctoral scholarship.

Many ornamental species growing in cities have considerable allergenic potential and pose a risk to allergy sufferers. Such species include members of the genus Platanus, or London plane tree, which is increasingly prevalent in a number of southern European cities. Analysis of airborne pollen concentrations enables biological air quality to be assessed, and also provides information on the local distribution of vegetation. The aim of this study was to analyze trends in annual Platanus pollen concentrations in central Spain and to determine the extent to which they are linked to the presence of this species in urban green spaces. The results point to a correlation between the growing number of plane trees and an increase both in the annual pollen index and in the number of days on which allergy sufferers are at risk. Analysis suggests that variations in the diversity and abundance of allergenic ornamental species in urban green spaces may account for the trends observed in the dynamics and behavior of airborne pollen from these species. The results obtained in studies of this kind should be reflected in urban green-space management plans, in order to decrease the allergenic load and thus both reduce exposure to allergenic pollen and improve air quality in these spaces.

Los pequeños ríos de los Andes tropicales se han estudiado escasamente y poco se conoce sobre la composición, diversidad y estructura de sus comunidades de macrófitas. En esta investigación se estudiaron las comunidades de plantas acuáticas de 18 pequeños ríos andinos pertenecientes a las cuencas de los ríos La Vieja (Quindío) y Otún (Risaralda) en la ecorregión cafetera colombiana. Se buscó evaluar el efecto del uso del suelo sobre la estructura de las comunidades de macrófitas. Para ello se seleccionaron ríos que nacen y discurren exclusivamente en cada uno de los usos del suelo dominantes en cada cuenca. El muestreo se realizó en dos épocas climáticas distintas del año 2006. La vegetación acuática encontrada en las dos cuencas (54 especies, pertenecientes a 25 familias) presentó riqueza y abundancia menores que las reportadas en otros sistemas acuáticos tropicales y estuvo dominada por especies con alta capacidad de adaptación a ambientes cambiantes o alterados. Se encontró que variables ambientales de los ríos asociadas con el tipo de uso del suelo, como la temperatura, la conductividad y el tipo de sustrato, fueron las que principalmente explicaron la estructura de las comunidades de macrófitas. Los ríos de zonas ganaderas, con dominancia de sustrato fino y valores más altos de temperatura y conductividad, presentaron mayor riqueza y abundancia de especies que los ríos de zonas con uso forestal, caracterizados por una alta cobertura arbórea del cauce, menor temperatura, baja concentración de nutrientes y predominancia de sustrato rocoso. Small streams of tropical Andes have been poorly studied. Therefore, there is little information about the structure, dynamics and function of their macrophyte communities. In this research, aquatic plant communities of 18 Andean streams of La Vieja (Quindío) and Otún (Risaralda) river basins were studied; those are some of the basins most affected by anthropic activities in the country. Streams were selected according to their association with the main land’s uses of the region in both basins. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of land use on the structure of macrophyte communities. Streams running exclusively through each land use were selected. Sampling was done in two different climatic seasons of year 2006. Vegetation found (54 species belonging to 25 families) was dominated by species with high capability of adaptation to changing and disturbed environments. Richness and abundance of macrophytes were lower than those reported in other tropical aquatic systems. Variables associated with land use, such as temperature, conductivity and type of substrate of the streams mainly explained the structure of the macrophyte communities: streams running on meat-cattle areas -with higher temperatures, conductivity and dominance of sandy-slimy substrates- had higher macrophyte species richness and abundance than streams of protected-forest areas, with higher coverage by riparian vegetation, lower temperatures and conductivity and rocky substrates.

At the present time, Greece does not have a cadaster. This unique situation at the European level is the most evident manifestation of a social and politico-historical conflict concerning the application of the rights on land. This uncertainty of the land status is originated primarily from the disputed limits of the forests and particularly from their limits with the urban. One of the consequences of this phenomenon is the encroachment and clearing of forests for the construction, resulting unsustainable transformations on the urban, ecological and landscape level. Even if this statement makes an object of public debate, it is treated only as a technical problem, this of the establishment of a cadaster. In the same time, social and cognitive stakes are raising. In this perspective, the principal objective of this thesis is to explore the sociopolitical and epistemological aspects of the questions, what is forest, how we attribute its character and how we delimit it. More broadly, this thesis tents to inscribe the relation between the forest ant the city into a political dimension. In order to answer to this problematic, the thesis puts into perspective the two sectors of public action, the forest and the urban, through an approach crossing the political geography of the environment, sociology of professions, sociology of sciences. Firstly, on the level of institutions and their effects, the research analyses the interaction between the forest and the urban policies, as well their European perspectives through archivist and bibliographic researches. It pays a particular attention to the disputed status of tenure and use of the land exploring the application of the technical and administrative devices of registry and of definition of forest. Secondly, the research field is extended by taking into account the cognitive principles that consist both the foundation and the product of these policies. The cognitive principles are explored through the study of the organization and the professional and scientific practices of expert groups. The material of analysis is the collective discourse, developed by the scientific or professional bodies of the expert groups, as well as the interviews taken from their members. The purpose of analysis is the comprehension of the role of expert groups in the game of actors and the relation with other groups with a public role, mainly the ecology movement and the jurists. Furthermore, the thesis examines the territorial aspects of these relations. On one hand it studies the case of the Parnitha mountain, a national forest park into the periurban region of Athens. On the other hand it examines the protected regions of the Natura 2000 network, treating cartographic, demographic and landscape data.In a chronological point of view, two periods are distinguished. In the first part the work explores the genealogy of the object starting with the proclamation of the Greek independent state for arriving at the insertion of the environmentalism. In the second part the problematic concerns the period starting 1974 (end of dictatorship). Firstly until the 1990’s, which is the period of institutionalization of the environment until the turn point of intersectional and territorialized policies in the frame of sustainable development; secondly, from 1990’s until the economic crisis of 2010.; Actuellement, la Grèce n’a pas de cadastre. Cette situation unique à l’échelle européenne est la manifestation la plus patente d’un conflit social et politico-historique autour de l’application des droits de propriété et des usages du sol. L’incertitude autour du statut du sol est majoritairement liée aux limites disputées des forêts et particulièrement leurs limites avec l’urbain. Une des conséquences du phénomène est l’empiétement et le défrichage des forêts pour la construction, entraînant des transformations socio-urbaines, écologiques et paysagères insoutenables. Si ce constat fait l’objet d’un débat sur la scène publique, il est traité seulement en tant que problème technique pour la création d’un cadastre. En revanche, des enjeux politiques, sociaux et cognitifs sont soulevés et méritent notre attention. Dans la perspective d’inscrire le rapport ville-forêt dans une dimension politique, l’objectif principal de cette thèse est d’explorer les aspects sociopolitiques et épistémologiques des questions suivantes : qu’est-ce qu’une forêt, comment son caractère lui est attribué et comment il est délimité. MéthodologieJe réponds à cette problématique à travers une approche au croisement de la géographie politique de l’environnement, de la sociologie des professions et la sociologie des sciences. En premier lieu, j’utilise la notion d’action publique. Elle me permet d’une part d’étudier l’interaction entre les politiques de l’Etat, les acteurs et leurs concepts et d’autre part de saisir les politiques de l’Etat en les liant aux procédures d’application et à leurs effets. Une autre raison qui m’a incitée à multiplier les angles d’approche à travers la notion d’action publique réside dans le fait qu’il existe peu d’études en Grèce sur la forêt en tant que construction sociopolitique. Autrement dit, je tente à travers mon approche de définir un champ de recherche dynamique plus large, dans la mesure où mon approche génère des résultats à plusieurs niveaux. En deuxième lieu, je cherche à mettre en perspective les deux secteurs de l’action publique, à savoir le forestier d’un côté et l’urbain de l’autre et à mettre en évidence les points d’intersection. En effet, la conception de la ville et celle de la campagne s’insèrent dans un même cadre de systèmes socio-écologiques. Cela implique l’étude de la dimension sociale dans les écosystèmes naturels ainsi que l’étude de la dimension écologique dans les villes.C’est pour cette raison que l’objet ‘forêt’ a été précisé : la forêt est une ressource naturelle qui est investie de politiques sectorielles et institutionnelles, avec un corps de spécialistes. De plus, elle est traversée par une structure socio-productive et foncière de bien commun inscrite dans son passé qui influence son statut contemporain. Ce caractère était d’ailleurs présent dans les revendications des mouvements sociaux écologiques contre des réformes qui restreignaient les terrains qualifiés de forestiers. En ce sens, cette structure politique et scientifique investit à la forêt, m’offre un point de vue privilégié pour décoder la construction sociale et scientifique des notions de la nature et de la ville et saisir les mécanismes qui les délimitent. En troisième lieu, j’étudie les territoires à l’intersection de l’action publique pour la forêt et de l’action publique pour la ville. Cette étude est basée d’une part sur une approche dynamique des territoires - ils reçoivent et ils génèrent l’action publique -, d’autre part elle part du constat que les systèmes socio-écologiques créent des inégalités environnementales qui s’inscrivent dans les territoires. Or ces inégalités environnementales ne tiennent pas seulement des inégalités d’accès aux ressources naturelles mais aussi des inégalités à la définition même de ces ressources. C’est pour cela que mon étude porte une attention particulière à la question de où naissent les politiques et les concepts.DémarcheDans une première partie, j’explore la généalogie de mon objet, c'est-à-dire avant l’environnementalisme. Dans une deuxième partie, j’explore mon objet après 1974, c'est-à-dire la fin de la dictature des colonels. D’abord jusqu’aux années 1990, au tournant des politiques de développement durable, ensuite jusqu’à la fin des années 2010 et le début de la crise économique. Au cours de ma recherche sur les politiques sectorielles et ses institutions, j’essaye d’une part de comprendre les logiques, les objectifs et les effets derrière les lois et les turbulences de l’administration, d’autre part je tente de dénaturaliser et déconstruire les techniques de ces politiques. Ce travail s’appuie sur une bibliographie sectorielle et juridique que je tente de compléter avec une histoire de l’application, de l’économie forestière, de la démographie et notamment avec des informations sur la construction dans les forêts à partir de l’entre-deux-guerres. Concernant ma recherche sur les acteurs, je dresse le portrait collectif des spécialistes. J’étudie les groupes d’experts parce qu’ils ont une position cruciale dans la production, la légitimation et la validation des politiques et des concepts dans la pratique. J’explore leur origine sociale, les rapports entre eux et avec d’autres groupes sociaux, notamment les juristes et le mouvement écologique, leurs pratiques et leurs attitudes professionnelles et scientifiques, notamment sur la construction dans les forêts. Pour ce travail, je traite le discours collectif des spécialistes apparu dans les revues scientifiques et dans les actes des colloques après les années 1970. Enfin, l’enquête de terrain se déroule en deux parties. D’abord sur le mont Parnès de l’Attique qui se trouve dans l’espace périurbain de la capitale et qui est aussi un parc naturel. Cette enquête me permet d’étudier un type de territoire, menacé par la construction périurbaine, pour la protection duquel les politiques normatives forestières sont nées. Je recours à une palette de sources : travaux d’histoire locale, archives, données démographiques, cartes, observations, entretiens. L’enquête sur les Régions Protégées du réseau européen Natura me permet d’analyser les nouveaux modes de gestion inter-sectionnels et territorialisés à partir les années 1990 et leur relation avec les agents traditionnels. Elle s’appuie sur une documentation d’études de gestion et d’entretiens avec des agents de l’écologie, de la gestion territoriale et de l’administration. RésultatsMon étude sur l’urbanisation du mont Parnès montre que la construction dans les forêts commence dans l’entre-deux-guerres, destinée initialement aux couches sociales aisées, puis progressivement aux couches moyennes. En revanche, l’expansion de la ville à travers l’action des plus pauvres s’est effectuée sur les terrains agricoles et les friches. Ce type d’urbanisation dans la forêt s’inspire de l’idéal des cités-jardins mais sans son contenu de réforme sociale. Il est né d’un « goût » pour la forêt chez les élites, romantique et anti-urbain. Il occupe les clairières agro-forestières de la montagne qui relèvent à l’origine d’un régime de propriété et d’usage communautaire datant de l’empire ottoman. D’ailleurs, l’accès privilégié à cette ressource agro-forestière a été la base majoritaire du pouvoir politique et de l’essor démographique de l’espace montagnard jusqu’au 20ème siècle. Dans le cas des forêts de l’Attique, le foncier a orienté l’urbanisation, mais aussi le statut de protection du parc forestier national.Ma recherche sur les deux politiques sectorielles, la forestière et l’urbaine, montre qu’elles sont fondées sur l’image des modèles européens. Toutefois, toutes les deux sont confrontées à la réalité sociale et écologique d’un pays différent des pays d’origine. La politique forestière se fonde tout au long du 19ème siècle sur la base du productivisme sylvicole. Or elle doit gérer une ressource qui appartient au pâturage organisé en communauté. La politique urbaine s’est construite après la guerre sur les principes de la planification centrale mais elle doit gérer une urbanisation spontanée.Malgré cette distance entre les idéaux et la réalité, la communauté des forestiers est restée plus critique que les urbanistes face à l’adoption des modèles européens. Le fait que l’ensemble des professionnels travaille pour l’État, ainsi que la proximité avec les courants paysans, lui ont permis de construire une conscience professionnelle basée sur l’intérêt public et l’indépendance nationale. Notamment pendant l’entre-deux-guerres, les forestiers ont formulé des savoirs et des pratiques qui les éloignaient du productivisme sylvicole et les ont rendu « écologues avant la lettre ». Au contraire les urbanistes grecs, issus d’une formation architecturale, se sont étroitement alignés sur les notions et les pratiques de la planification urbaine européenne, sans les adapter. Ensuite ma recherche sur la période d’après l’insertion de l’environnementalisme montre que malgré ce passé du secteur forestier, dans les années 1970, l’administration de l’environnement se fonde sur la filière des ingénieurs de l’espace qui ont endossé le rôle décisionnel en préservant le rôle de « gardiens » pour les forestiers. Les politiques environnementales se traduisent notamment par la voie normative. Les dispositifs techniques et juridico-administratifs de délimitation des droits et des usages au sol, comme la définition juridique forestière et le cadastre, sont investis d'une valeur politique importante et extraordinaire dans le cadre européen afin de couvrir l’impuissance et les lacunes de la politique urbaine. De cette façon, la politique forestière a joué un rôle déterminant dans la formation de l’espace anthropogénique. Or, en se focalisant sur la confrontation avec la construction, elle a imposé la politique urbaine au monde rural, même quand celui-ci souffrait des problèmes contraires (désertification humaine, abandon de la terre, boisement naturel). Enfin, le caractère normatif et absolu des politiques entrave la régulation et provoque des manipulations renouvelées, car chaque fois qu’on tente de fixer les droits au sol, des revendications nouvelles s’éveillent et multiplient les points de contestation. L’environnement fait l’objet de deux approches différentes pour les deux communautés d’experts. La communauté des forestiers incorpore l’environnementalisme via la nouvelle notion de la forêt, issue de l’écologie forestière, pour inscrire le maximum des terrains sous la protection forestière en tant que propriété publique. Elle le fait au moyen d’une action syndicaliste puissante et avec un esprit au fort caractère identitaire, très marqué par l’opposition aux réformes de la définition de la forêt. La communauté des urbanistes s’aligne sur le dogme du fonctionnalisme. Dans ce contexte, la nature est réduite à la fonction de vert urbain en zonage, la forêt est considérée comme extérieure et échappe à la vue de l’urbanisme officiel. Le fait que, contrairement aux forestiers, les urbanistes exercent leur profession en libéral, les rend moins combattants face à la construction dans les forêts. Or, même les urbanistes critiques sous-estiment les conséquences écologiques du phénomène, sans faire la distinction avec la question de la construction spontanée populaire.Ensuite, je montre que pendant la période des courants du développement durable, à partir des années 1990, le service forestier, sans être reformé, est particulièrement visé par les politiques néolibérales de restriction des services publics. La politique spatialisée semble être valorisée, mais seulement en apparence. Les faibles tentatives de franchir la ligne dure entre l’espace urbain et l’espace naturel prennent fin avec la crise des années 2010.Pourtant, de nouvelles notions de la forêt émergent en dépassant les cloisonnements sectoriels. Elles traitent la forêt comme un usage de sol parmi d’autres tout en valorisant des écosystèmes de végétation basse méditerranéenne. Ces mutations se reflètent sur l’institutionnalisation de nouvelles régions protégées et sur leurs modes de gestion renouvelées. Ma recherche sur la nouvelle gestion inter-sectionnelle et territorialisée des régions protégées instituée dans les années 2000 montre la complexité et la fragilité de la transition. Le fait que plusieurs agents chargés de la gestion de ces régions constatent que le service forestier est plus compétent pour la gestion de ces régions le prouve. Enfin, malgré cette prise de conscience, surtout chez les aménageurs, du problème de la distinction dure entre les politiques forestières et d’aménagement du territoire et malgré les tentatives pour l'adoucir, les politiques étatiques, les forestiers et les urbanistes ne se sont pas rencontrés.Pourtant ma recherche sur le jeu d’acteurs sur le terrain du mont Parnès montre que les mouvements sociaux qui participent également aux revendications écologiques contre la dégradation de la protection forestière et aux revendications pour les droits de la vie urbaine constituent une possibilité de rencontre de l’action publique pour la forêt et pour la ville. A partir de la crise environnementale de l’incendie de 2007, ces groupes ont construit des liaisons d’action et cognitives nouvelles en créant, dans la pratique, le droit à l’environnement en tant que droit à l’espace public.

The present continuous anthropogenic pressure has resulted in an enhancement of nutrient inputs into rivers and streams. This situation has worsened, mainly in agricultural areas, causing an accelerated eutrophication. Macroinvertebrate feeding strategies reflect the species’ adaptations to environments. For a characterization of the macroinvertebrate trophic response to eutrophication, we added nitrogen and phosphorus into the La Choza stream and examined the gut contents of those taxa in order to analyze dietary alterations and assign each macroinvertebrate to a functional feeding group (FFG). Complementary C and N stable isotopes analysis was carried out. The gut contents of all taxa studied contained principally detritus, but statistical analyses indicated significant differences before and after fertilization in some taxa. At the control site, and the treatment site before fertilization, the FFGs maintained constant proportions, the gathering-collector species being dominant in all samples. After fertilization the composition of the taxa at the treatment site varied. The δ13C isotopes values showed that most taxa used detritus as a basal resource. δ15N values were generally coincident with gut content analyses. These results provide a prediction of the functional responses of macroinvertebrates to the environmental consequences expected from accelerated land use. The functional responses constitute a powerful tool to assess eutrophication and its consequences in temperate plain streams. Fil: Ocon, Carolina Silvia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología; Argentina Fil: López Van Oosterom, Maria Vanesa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología; Argentina Fil: Muñoz, Isabel. Universidad de Barcelona. Facultad de Biología; España Fil: Rodrigues Capitulo, Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología; Argentina

Adaptation to climate change includes addressing sea level rise and increased storm surges in many coastal areas. Mangroves can substantially reduce the vulnerability of the adjacent coastal land from inundation and erosion. However, climate change poses a large threat to mangroves. This paper quantifies the coastal protection provided by mangroves for 42 developing countries in the current climate, and a future climate change scenario with a one-meter sea level rise and 10 percent intensification of storms. The benefits of the coastal protection provided by mangroves are measured in terms of population and gross domestic product at a reduced risk from inundation; the loss of benefits under climate change is measured as the increased population and gross domestic product at risk. The findings demonstrate that although sea level rise and increased storm intensity would increase storm surge areas and the amounts of built resources at risk, the greatest impact is the expected loss of mangroves. Under current climate and mangrove coverage, 3.5 million people and roughly $400 million in gross domestic product of are at risk. In the future climate change scenario, the vulnerable population and gross domestic product at risk would increase by 103 and 233 percent, respectively. The greatest risk is in East Asia, especially in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Myanmar.

The city of eThekwini or Durban has undergone a period of rapid urbanization that has contributed to the degradation of the city’s natural environment. Climate change is placing further strains on the city’s ability to manage the urban environment. The urban environmental profile of eThekwini has been prepared as the first component of the assignment promoting green urban development in Africa: enhancing the relationship between urbanization, environmental assets and ecosystem services, a project being conducted under the leadership of the World Bank. An overall objective of this project is to link the study of urban environmental issues with the advancement of more sustainable urban growth. The profile summarizes the existing quality of the terrestrial and other aquatic environmental assets, identifies the key drivers that are the cause of their vulnerability, and describes the key institutional challenges and constraining factors that limit the city’s ability to address environmental management challenges. Identification of the key environmental assets and key drivers of environmental degradation within the city required a more comprehensive review of reports on urban planning and infrastructure services. The urban environmental profile is organized as follows: section one gives introduction. Section two, eThekwini context, sets the background, and context of the study of Durban, providing an overview of the impacts of urbanization and climate change and drawing the link to the urban environment. Section three, quality of the environmental assets of eThekwini describes the state of the key environmental assets of eThekwini: the terrestrial assets, aquatic assets, coastal assets, and the air, and attempts to infer the associated historic and current trends. Section four, drivers of environmental vulnerability and degradation describes the key issues that are driving degradation, the impacts caused, and the reason for these challenges. Section five, institutional issues and challenges describes the key factors that constrain the eThekwini‘s ability to effectively address environmental management challenges. Section six, key findings provides a synthesis of key findings of the study.

Interannual climate variations have been important drivers of wildfire occurrence in ponderosa pine forests across western North America for at least 400 years, but at finer scales of mountain ranges and landscapes human land uses sometimes over-rode climate influences. We reconstruct and analyse effects of high human population densities in forests of the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico from ca 1300 CE to Present. Prior to the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, human land uses reduced the occurrence of widespread fires while simultaneously adding more ignitions resulting in many small-extent fires. During the 18th and 19th centuries, wet/dry oscillations and their effects on fuels dynamics controlled widespread fire occurrence. In the late 19th century, intensive livestock grazing disrupted fuels continuity and fire spread and then active fire suppression maintained the absence of widespread surface fires during most of the 20th century. The abundance and continuity of fuels is the most important controlling variable in fire regimes of these semi-arid forests. Reduction of widespread fires owing to reduction of fuel continuity emerges as a hallmark of extensive human impacts on past forests and fire regimes. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’.

The Lake Chad Climate resilience action plan outlines the concept that there is a need to turn Lake Chad into a rural hub for regional development in parallel to the restoration of peace and security. The Plan intends to contribute significantly to food security, employment, and the social inclusion of the youth by improving, in a sustainable way, the living conditions of populations settled on the Lake’s banks and islands as well as the resilience of a system characterized by a strong demographic growth, high hydrological variability, and climate uncertainty. To achieve it, the Action Plan proposes actions in seven Priority Themes based on observations and knowledge currently available. The four riparian States plus the Central African Republic and Libya, local powers (local governments or customary authorities), Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), and the civil society will be responsible for implementing the proposed actions. The Plan includes enhancing the capacity of LCBC in terms of data collection, sharing of information, and carrying out analyses useful to governance of the basin`s shared natural resources. The success of this Plan requires continuing on-going efforts to strengthen the LCBC. The tentatively estimated cost of the Lake Chad Action Plan is about 916 million Euros.

Agricultural policies have impacts on land use, the economy, and the environment and their analysis requires disaggregated data at the local level with geographical references. Thus, this study proposes a model for disaggregating agricultural data, which develops a supervised classification of satellite images by using a survey and empirical knowledge. To ensure the consistency with multiple sources of information, a minimum cross-entropy process was used. The proposed model was applied using two supervised classification algorithms and a more informative set of biophysical information. The results were validated and analyzed by considering various sources of information, showing that an entropy approach combined with supervised classifications may provide a reliable data disaggregation. Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia [UID/ECO/04007/2013]; FEDER/COMPETE [POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007659] POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007659

This study evaluates the effects of agricultural and urban activities on the structure and composition of benthic communities of streams in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Benthic macroinvertebrates were collected in streams influenced by urbanization and agriculture and in streams with no anthropogenic disturbances (reference streams). Organism density was superior in urban streams when compared with streams in the other two areas. The taxonomic richness and Shannon diversity index were higher in reference streams. The benthic fauna composition was significantly different among land uses. The classification and ordination analyses corroborated the results of variance analyses demonstrating the formation of clusters corresponding to streams with similar land use. Seasonality was also found to influence the benthic community, though in a lesser degree than land use.

The aim of this work was to study the influence of the sugar cane cultivation on the macroinvertebrate communities of 11 streams under different land uses. Analysis of the sediment (organic matter contents and metals) and water complemented the study. Ninety six macroinvertebrates taxa were identified, of which 54 were Chironomidae and 42 of other aquatic macroinvertebrates. The streams located in the areas of sugar cane culture and pasture presented low taxa and a great participation of Chironomidae (78% of the total). In contrast, the streams located in the areas with riparian vegetation presented a rich aquatic fauna with less participation of Chironomidae (60% of the total). Keywords : Stream macroinvertebrates, sugar cane, land uses, riparian vegetation * Author for correspondence INTRODUCTION Brazilian colonization occurred without a specific planning and, as a consequence, natural resources, particularly forests, were greatly affected, especially by the economic interests. In the Brazilian history, the native land cover vegetation was removed and substituted by the agriculture, mainly of the sugar cane and also pastures. These processes result in deforestation, especially in the Brazilian southeast region (Martins, 2001). In Brazil, the sugar cane cultivation passed for different periods, always presenting an increasing cultivated area. From 1901 to 1950, the production increased five times. From 1950 to 1970, the cultivated area quadruplicated. In 1975, with the implantation of the Proalcohol Program, the production of the sugar cane grew up from 68 million tons/year to 223 million tons in the year of 1991 (Carvalho, 1993). In the last 15 years, sugar cane cultivation still continues to expand, reaching more than 338 million of tons (Carvalho Filho, 2000). Brazil is the main producer of the sugar cane, with 27% of the worldwide production (Institute of Agro-industrial Development, 1998). In Brazil, the sugar cane is the main source of sugar (sucrose) and for alcohol production through a fermentative process. The produced alcohol is exported to other countries and also is used as an alternative and renewable combustible for transport (Carvalho Filho, 2000). In the southeast Brazilian region, mainly in the state of Sao Paulo, the sugar cane culture has also been enlarged. The annual production of the state of Sao Paulo is of about 200x10

The city of Kampala has undergone a period of rapid urbanization that has contributed to the degradation of the city’s natural environment. The urban environmental profile for Kampala has been prepared as the first component of the assignment promoting green urban development in Africa: enhancing the relationship between urbanization, environmental assets, and ecosystem services, a project being conducted under the leadership of the World Bank. An overall objective of this project is to link the study of urban environmental issues with the advancement of more sustainable urban growth. The profile summarizes the existing quality of the wetlands and other aquatic and terrestrial environmental assets, identifies the key drivers that are the cause of their vulnerability, and describes the key institutional challenges and constraining factors that limit the city’s ability to address environmental management challenges. Identification of the key environmental assets and key drivers of environmental degradation within the city required a more comprehensive review of reports on urban planning and infrastructure services. The city has recently made progress in the development of key infrastructure systems such as solid waste management and sanitation. The report is organized as follows: section one gives introduction. Section two sets the background and context for Kampala, providing an overview of the impacts of rapid urbanization and climate change, drawing linkages to urban environmental assets. Section three, quality of the environmental assets of Kampala describes the state of the key environmental assets, including the terrestrial assets, aquatic assets, and air quality, and attempts to infer the associated historic and current trends. Section four, drivers of environmental vulnerability and degradation describes the key issues that are driving degradation and the impacts caused. Section five, institutional issues and challenges describes the key factors that constrain Kampala‘s ability to effectively address environmental management challenges. Section six, provides a synthesis of key findings.

This report presents the water and climate adaptation plan (WATCAP) developed for the Sava river basin (SRB) as result of a study undertaken by the World Bank. The WATCAP is intended to help to bridge the gap between the climate change predictions for the SRB and the decision makers in current and planned water management investment projects that will be affected by changing climate trends. The purpose of the report is to: (i) assist stakeholders and decision makers in assessing and planning for the risks generated by climate change impacts on water resources; (ii) provide a basis for future plans and studies of adaptation to climate change impacts in the SRB; and (iii) stimulate cooperation and debate across the basin toward additional and more detailed studies on climate change impacts at the regional and basin scale. The SRB is projected to experience small increases in water use by the public water supply, industry, energy, and agricultural and irrigation sectors. However, it is widely expected that new hydropower plants (HPPs) will be constructed in the near future, making energy (primarily through hydropower) the most important water use in the SRB.

Liberia had an estimated 4.3 million hectares of forests in 2011, comprising approximately 50 percent of Liberia’s landmass. These forests support very high levels of biodiversity, provide a wide range of ecosystem services (for example, bush meat, medicines, construction materials, and charcoal), and generate employment and revenue from commercial and chainsaw logging. Encouraging inward investment while striking a sound balance between different interests, respecting the legal and customary rights of local people, and conserving biodiversity represents a major challenge. This project focuses on the mining sector, which has the potential to become a significant engine for growth and broader-based development. It explores the feasibility of implementing a national biodiversity offset scheme in Liberia to help minimize adverse impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services resulting from mining. A Liberian national offset scheme will entail the application of a common methodology to ensure that conservation benefits are at least equivalent to biodiversity losses due to mining investments. The report is presented in seven chapters. Chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two discusses the conservation imperatives for Liberia and conveys a sense of the quality and extent of biodiversity within Liberia. Chapter three describes the challenge of securing conservation outcomes in Liberia as well as the prevalence of threats to biodiversity. Chapter four discusses the potential for biodiversity offsets to help secure conservation outcomes. Chapter five covers the legal, policy, and institutional framework in support of biodiversity offsets. Chapter six discusses the methodological aspects of implementing a national biodiversity offset scheme, together with the challenges of securing and effectively managing sources of funding. Chapter seven summarizes the report’s suggested next steps to implement a road map for biodiversity offsets in Liberia.

The increase in urban land and the continuous increment of road network experienced by littoral zones contribute to the loss, degradation and isolation of both terrestrial and aquatic habitats in which amphibians spend the different stages of their life cycle. The aim of this study is to explain the relationship between the characteristics of 17 seasonal ponds located in the Atlantic littoral of Cádiz province (SW Spain), the land uses in their surroundings, the road network, and the diversity of amphibian species. Our results show that amphibian richness is higher in larger ponds with longer hydroperiods, surrounded by forest and scrubland, and away from the nearest road. Roads, and in particular secondary roads, have a great and negative impact on amphibian richness because the shorter the distance between the pond and the road was, the fewer breeding species were found. From the data obtained in this study, we have classified the ponds according to their status of conservation. This classification demonstrates that 94% of the studied ponds require immediate measures to be taken in order to reduce the negative impact of habitat fragmentation caused by roads. Finally, in order to maintain healthy amphibian populations at the long term, forests and scrublands surrounding ponds must be protected, and connectivity among ponds, as well as with the terrestrial habitats in the vicinity, must be ensured. Preventing amphibians from road kills during their migration movements can be achieved by means of constructing underpasses and tunnels in hot spots., La proliferación de zonas urbanizadas y la expansión de la red de carreteras en zonas costeras contribuyen a la pérdida, degradación y aislamiento de los hábitats tanto terrestres como acuáticos utilizados por los anfibios en las diferentes fases de su ciclo vital. El objetivo de este estudio es explicar la relación entre las características de 17 charcas temporales ubicadas en el litoral atlántico de la provincia de Cádiz (SO de España), los usos del suelo en su entorno, la red de carreteras y la diversidad de especies de anfibios. Nuestros resultados muestran que la riqueza de anfibios es mayor en charcas más grandes y con hidroperiodos más prolongados, rodeadas de zonas forestales y de matorral, y alejadas de las carreteras. Las carreteras, en particular las secundarias, tienen un fuerte impacto negativo sobre la riqueza de anfibios, como muestra el hecho de que cuanto menor es la distancia entre la charca y la carretera, menor es el número de especies de anfibios presentes. A partir de los datos obtenidos, clasificamos las charcas de acuerdo a su estado de conservación. Esta clasificación demuestra que el 94% de las charcas estudiadas requiere la toma inmediata de medidas con el fin de reducir el impacto negativo de la fragmentación del hábitat causada por las carreteras. Por último, para mantener poblaciones de anfibios saludables a largo plazo, es preciso proteger los bosques y zonas de matorral del entorno de las charcas, así como la conectividad entre charcas y con el medio terrestre cercano. La construcción de túneles y pasos subterráneos en puntos negros de atropello puede servir para prevenir la mortalidad de anfibios en las carreteras

Se ha realizado la delimitación y valoración de los usos del suelo en la cuenca hidrográfica de 22 humedales de la comarca del Alto Guadalquivir. Para dicha valoración se ha diferenciado entre cultivos (herbáceos y arbóreos); vegetación natural (monte bajo), terrenos forestales, pastizales, humedales desecados y terrenos urbanizados. El olivar es la actividad que mayor ocupación de suelo presenta en el territorio estudiado. Las actividades regularmente desarrolladas en el cultivo intensivo del olivar provocan el incremento de perturbaciones que repercuten sobre toda la cuenca de drenaje y particularmente en la calidad de las aguas y la conservación del humedal. Los resultados obtenidos se discuten en el contexto de la conservación de los humedales de la comarca del Alto Guadalquivir. Drainage basin demarcation and the land uses identification have been carried out in 22 wetlands from the Alto Guadalquivir area. The land uses identified were crops (herbaceous and tree crops); natural vegetation; forests; grazing land; desiccated wetland and urban areas. Olive tree growing was the predominant soil use detected. The regular activities carried out in the olive intensive agriculture generate increased perturbations over the whole drainage basin and especially on the water quality and wetland conservation. The results obtained are discussed within the context of the Alto Guadalquivir wetland conservation.

Trabalhos com ecologia de riachos tem buscado compreender os padrões de distribuição das comunidades aquáticas procurando responder de que forma os fatores locais e regionais, influenciam na ocorrência e persistência de determinadas espécies nesses ecossistemas. Este estudo investigou a influência dos usos e ocupação da terra sobre a comunidade de Chironomidae em riachos em duas áreas de drenagem no sul do Brasil. Larvas de Chironomidae foram coletadas em riachos de 1a e 2a ordens. A zona ripária dos riachos (30 m em ambas as margens) teve sua paisagem analisada utilizando técnicas de geoprocessamento e diferentes usos e ocupação da terra foram classificados e quantificados. Os usos e ocupação da terra foram diferentes entre as duas áreas de drenagem estudadas. Da mesma forma, a composição da comunidade de Chironomidae nos riachos foi diferente entre as duas áreas de drenagem. Dentre os diferentes usos e ocupação da terra quantificados, a comunidade foi influenciada principalmente pela agricultura e vegetação arbórea nativa. As variações na paisagem demonstraram que o aumento na área de agricultura e a diminuição da área de vegetação ripária são os principais atributos da paisagem que influenciam as comunidades de Chironomidae. Studies in stream ecology are aimed at understanding the patterns of distribution of aquatic communities, trying to answer how local and regional factors influence the occurrence and persistence of species in these ecosystems. This study investigated the influence of land use on the Chironomidae community in streams in two drainage areas in southern Brazil. Chironomid larvae were collected in1st and 2nd orders. The riparian zone of streams (30 m on both sides) had its landscape analyzed using GIS techniques, and land uses classified as consistent and non-consistent. The land use influence was different between the two drainage areas. Likewise, the composition of Chironomidae community in streams was different between the two drainage areas. Among the different land uses, the community was influenced mainly by agriculture and arboreous vegetation. We conclud that the aquatic communities respond to environmental changes not only at local scale but also at broader scales, such as landscape features of the surrounding areas.

This article focuses mainly on the five primary case study countries. For forest impacts, the concentration is on forest conversion to other land uses and deforestation, defined as a (temporary or permanent) removal of trees to less than 10 percent crown cover, which is similar to the Food and Agricultural Organization's (FAO's) definition. Selective logging is thus not deforestation but may degrade forests and enable conversion. All of the case study countries are tropical countries that export oil, a choice made for two reasons. First, the macroeconomic 'laboratory' of oil exporters offers a good opportunity to study links between external economic changes and forests. Oil economies often fluctuate dramatically due to heavy reliance on a single export commodity with unstable world market prices. Second, earlier studies provide support for the hypotheses that on average oil- and mineral-exporting tropical countries have more forests left and lose them at a slower rate than non-mineral-exporting countries. The article briefly reviews hypotheses and methodologies and outlines the deforestation data problems and how they were dealt with. It presents empirical results for the five primary case study countries and takes a closer look at three of the key causal linkages in the model. It then examines the role of different policy instruments and finally discusses policy insights that extend beyond the oil exporting countries.

The main subject of the present work was to carry out a hydrochemistry comparative study between two river basins in São Paulo State: the Jacaré-Guaçu Basin (21°37'-22°22'S and 47°43'-48°57'W) and the Jaú Basin (22°09'-22°28'S and 48°16'-48°47'W). Nine sampling points in the Jacaré-Guaçu River and eight in the Jaú River were established. The water sampling was performed once each two months from March/95 to September/95. The following variables were analyzed: temperature (°C), pH, conductivity (muScm--1), dissolved oxygen (mg/L) and ionic water composition. Comparatively the Jaú River showed higher spatial variability, less oxygenated water and higher mineralization, due to high pedological and geological substrate richness, point sources existence and less riparian forests. The Jacaré-Guaçu River showed less spatial variability, more oxygenated water with lower ionic concentration due to the lower geological and pedological watershed richness, absence of pollution from point sources and higher riparian forest protection.

Populations of migratory birds can be affected by events happening at both breeding and wintering grounds. The Sahel is a vast region holding a large number of wintering trans-Saharan migratory European birds, and current land-use changes there may represent a threat for these species. We used satellite tracking data from the migratory Montagu's harrier to evaluate habitat use of the species during the wintering season, and whether the current network of protected areas is effective to provide their habitat needs during that season. We also developed an ecological niche model for the species in Western-Central Sahel to check if the most suitable sites are included within current protected areas. Tracked harriers occupied a large region encompassing a total of eight countries. The most preferred habitats during winter were croplands and some natural vegetation habitats, especially grasslands. Protected areas only covered a small proportion of the overall wintering grounds of tracked harriers and the most suitable areas for the species in Western-Central Sahel. Increasing the extent of preferred natural habitats within protected areas should benefit the conservation of this and probably other insect-eating raptors. However, substantial increases in extent and number of protected areas in sub-Saharan Africa are very unlike to occur. Conservation actions in the region should therefore be mostly focused on improving land use planning and management outside protected areas, specially enhancing agricultural practices to make biodiversity conservation compatible with poverty alleviation. These can be chiefly targeted at an area of, We are indebted to Aeropuerto de Castellón for support and funding of the project on satellite tracking of Montagu’s harriers. We are grateful to Servicio de Biodiversidad of the Conselleria de Infraestructuras, Territorio y Medio Ambiente (Generalitat Valenciana) to give the permissions to conduct this study, as well as for its collaboration in the fieldwork. R.L. has a postdoctoral grant (Reference 10/12-C) co-funded by Consejería de Educación y Ciencia (Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha) and the European Social Fund.

High altitude alpine ecosystems are likely to be highly sensitive to future climate change. Understanding long-term tree stand dynamics may be a key requirement for forecasting such changes. Here, we present a high resolution record of paleobotanical macroremains covering the last 11 700 years, from a small subalpine pond situated in the inner French Alps, at 2035 m a.s.l. The early presence of larch ( Larix decidua), arolla pine ( Pinus cembra) and birch ( Betula) at this elevation, just after the end of the Younger Dryas cold transition, suggests the occurrence of either glacial tree-refugia located nearby in the northwestern Alps, or a previously unrecorded early and rapid tree migration. The 8200 cal. BP cooling event is characterized by a rapid and limited expansion of mountain pine ( Pinus mugo/uncinata type). Mixed stands of larch, birch and arolla pine established at 8300 cal. BP and were present through the mid Holocene. After the Holocene climatic optimum, at 5600 cal. BP, recurrent fires led to the development of highly dynamic and more diversified forests, with larch, birch, arolla pine, mountain pine and fir ( Abies alba). Natural and anthropogenic disturbances, e.g., fires, avalanches, slash-and-burn and other agricultural practices, influenced subsequent vegetation until the last millennium when tree-pasture established around the lake. The data indicate that the vegetation was progressively dominated by open larch woodland from 4000 years ago, and was clearly established during the Middle Ages (1250 cal. BP) up to the nineteenth century, when land began to be abandoned. The modern vegetation, dominated by larch and arolla pine and resulting from land abandonment, tends to resemble the communities that occurred from 8300 to 4000 cal. BP, before the postulated anthropogenic alteration of subalpine forest ecosystems. The plant macroremains analysis provides a unique and precise record of stand-to-local vegetation composition and dynamics that can bridge paleoecology and forest management.

The economic value of the Upper Tuul ecosystem in Mongolia reports on a study carried out under the auspices of the World Bank and the Government of Mongolia. The goal of the study was to improve understanding about the economic value of the Upper Tuul ecosystem for Ulaanbaatar's water supplies and how this might be affected by different land and resource management options in the future. The study also aims to develop and apply ecosystem valuation methods that can be used more widely in the country, to generate information about the contribution of the environment to the Mongolian economy, and to make the case for improved budget allocations for the conservation of the Upper Tuul. Integrating eco-hydrological and economic valuation techniques, the study traces through the biophysical effects and socioeconomic impacts of future land and resource degradation, and ecosystem conservation, in the upper watershed.

International audience; Soil macrofauna was surveyed in six sites characterised by different vegetation types on five occasions in the Western Ghats, India. Sampling sites included a primary forest, a weakly disturbed forest (slightly logged in the past), a highly disturbed forest (intensively logged), an Acacia auriculiformis plantation (8 years old), a pasture with high density of Phoenix humilis and a pasture without P. humilis. We showed that both land management and temporal variability induced significant changes in the soil macrofauna. Forest sites hosted larger densities of soil macroorganisms. The effect of seasons was apparent as some clear modifications in the fauna composition occurred. Some groups like earthwonns mainly exhibited temporal variability whereas others like millipedes were chiefly affected by land management options. The seasonal rhythms of soil macrofauna were poorly expressed in the pasture plots and the Acacia plantation, but were particularly clear in the forest sites. This interaction between land management and temporal patterns may be explained by some changes in the species composition associated with certain land-uses. Our approach was based on a between-within classes PCA that proved particularly useful by providing statistical tests and a hierarchy of land management and temporal rhythm effects

A resident herd of caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) inhabits the Koyukuk River valley and Kokrines Hills, which are located on the north side of the Yukon River near the Alaskan villages of Galena and Ruby. Personnel from the Alaska Departement of Fish and Game, U.S. Bureau of land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service studied this herd from October 1983 to January 1990. The highest caribou count was 258 in June 1987. The proportion of newborn calves observed during the May calving period ranged from 0 to 28% (mean=10%) whereas it ranged from 4 to 17% (mean=13%) in October. Caribou inhabited mostly coniferous forest from October through April and open habitat from May through September. Male caribou occupied fewer habitat types, travelled less distance, and remained at lower elevations than female caribou. Management concerns for this herd are discussed.

The study of the spatial patterns of species allows the examination of hypotheses on the most plausible ecological processes and factors determining their distribution. To investigate the determinants of parasite species on Mediterranean forests at regional scales, occurrence data of the European Misletoe (Viscum album) in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula) were extracted from forest inventory data and combined with different types of explanatory variables by means of generalized linear mixed models. The presence of mistletoes in stands of Pinus halepensis seems to be determined by multiple factors (climatic conditions, and characteristics of the host tree and landscape structure) operating at different spatial scales, with the availability of orchards of Olea europaea in the surroundings playing a relevant role. These results suggest that host quality and landscape structure are important mediators of plant-plant and plant-animal interactions and, therefore, management of mistletoe populations should be conducted at both local (i.e. clearing of infected host trees) and landscape scales (e.g. controlling the availability of nutrient-rich food sources that attract bird dispersers). Research and management at landscape-scales are necessary to anticipate the negative consequence of land-use changes in Mediterranean forests. El estudio de los patrones espaciales de las especies permite examinar hipótesis sobre los procesos ecológicos y factores más plausibles que determinan su distribución. Para investigar los determinantes de una especie parásita en bosques mediterráneos a escala regional, se combinaron datos sobre la presencia de muérdago (Viscum album) en Cataluña (NE de la Península Ibérica) extraídos del inventario forestal con diferentes variables explicativas por medio de modelos mixtos generalizados. La presencia de muérdago en masas de Pinus halepensis parece estar determinada por múltiples factores (condiciones climáticas, características del árbol hospedante, y estructura del paisaje) que operan a diferentes escalas espaciales, jugando los cultivos de Olea europaea un papel relevante. Los resultados sugieren que la calidad de los árboles hospedantes y la estructura del paisaje son importantes mediadores de las interacciones planta-planta y planta- animal y, por tanto, la gestión de las poblaciones de muérdago debería llevarse a cabo tanto a nivel local (es decir, cortando árboles hospedantes infectados) como de paisaje (por ejemplo, controlando la disponibilidad de hábitats ricos en nutrientes que atraen a las aves dispersantes). La investigación y gestión a escala de paisaje son necesarias para prevenir las consecuencias negativas de los cambios de uso del suelo en los bosques mediterráneos. We acknowledge financial support from the projects Consolider Montes (CSD2008-00040), and CGL2008-01275 (to L.B.) and CGL2008-04794 (to R.Z.) granted by the Spanish Ministry of Research, Science and Innovation (MICINN). N.R-P. benefited from a Beatriu de Pinós Postdoctoral Grant 2008 BP-B 00042 from the Catalan Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (Generalitat de Catalunya).