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In February 2022, the Ukrainian seismic network already faced multiple critical issues and its modernization was needed. The war exacerbated all existing issues and accelerated the need for a fundamental reorganization and modernization. In this presentation we will report on the network’s status and draft reconstruction plans. As of January 5th 2023, the Ukrainian seismic network has been damaged by the war as follows:partial or complete destruction of facilities and infrastructure caused by power and internet outages; inability to serve stations; complete destruction of Zmiinyi Island (Snake Island) infrastructure where one seismograph was installed; internal and external migration of people involved in the maintenance of stations; delayed standardization of existing seismic stations. While relatively quiescent, the Ukrainian territory needs an operational seismic network for safety and research purposes. Ukraine hosts a great number of industrial and agricultural facilities critical for the world’s food supply, as well as four nuclear power plants with 15 reactors are located. Seismicity in Ukraine is aligned along the Alpide seismic orogenic belt across the southern and western part of the territory. In addition, significant intraplate earthquakes are recorded in Central and Eastern Ukraine where heavy industries and iron ore mining are concentrated.The Ukrainian seismic network is currently divided into three autonomous branches that make up the seismic network of the Institute of Geophysics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NAS): Carpathian, Crimean and Central. Unfortunately, these branches were not combined into one unified national network. The base station for observations in Central Ukraine is the IRIS KIEV seismic station (IU, Global Seismograph Network), which is operated by the Institute of Geophysics with support from the US Geological Survey Seismological Laboratory (Albuquerque).The main goals of modernizing the network must focus on: access to seismological data; long-term data accessibility; calculation of seismic risk; geodynamic and seismic monitoring; surveillance of hazardous facilities. A modernized seismic network is not only a mean of surveillance, but also as a fundamental infrastructure for academic geophysical research in Ukraine.The integration and data exchange in the European and international community require certificated, industry-standardized seismic instruments and up-to-date digital infrastructure. The seismic network of the Institute of Geophysics of the NAS is equipped with outdated and non-certificated seismic instruments that degrade instrumental data and hamper the exchange of observational materials and scientific analyses with the global community.The first steps for the modernization of the Ukrainian seismic network started in 2019 with the initiation of a unified platform to process data. For this purpose, the industry-standard SeisComP seismic network software was adopted. In Nov. 2022, we purchased four low-cost Raspberry Shake Seismographs (RS3D) that will be tested in different setting across the territory of Ukraine. Deployment of budget seismometers is a stop-gap measure for both data collection and education in Ukraine.

Landscape Evolution Models (LEMs) are prime tools to simulate the evolution of source-to-sink systems through ranges of spatial and temporal scales. Plethora of different empirical laws have been successfully applied to describe the different parts of these systems: fluvial erosion, sediment transport and deposition, hillslope diffusion, or hydrology. Numerical frameworks exist to facilitate the combination of different subsets of laws, mostly by superposing grids of fluxes calculated independently. However the exercise becomes increasingly challenging when the different laws are inter-connected: for example when a lake breaks the upstream-downstream continuum of the amount of sediment and water it receives and transmits; or when erosional efficiency depends of the composition of a sediment flux affected by multiple processes. In this contribution, we present a method mixing the advantages of cellular-automata and graph theory to address such cases. We demonstrate how the former guarantees finite knowledge of all fluxes independently from the process-law implemented in the model while the latter offer a wide range of tools to process numerical landscapes, including landscapes with closed basins. We provide three scenario largely benefiting from our method: i) one where lake systems are primary controls on Landscape evolution, ii) one where sediment provenance is closely monitored through the stratigraphy and iii) one where heterogeneous provenance influences fluvial incision dynamically. We finally outline the way forward to make this method more generic and flexible.

Mozambique biodiversity richness plays a pivotal role to achieve the sustainable development of the country. However, Mozambique’s flora and fauna diversity still remains broadly unknown and poorly documented. To properly address this issue, one of the strategic needs expressed by the Mozambican institutions was the development of a national biodiversity data repository to aggregate, manage and make data available online. Thus, a sustainable infrastructure for the standardisation, aggregation, organisation and sharing of primary biodiversity data was developed. Named the “Biodiversity Network of Mozambique” (BioNoMo), such a tool serves as a national repository of biodiversity data and aggregates occurrence records of plants and animals in the country obtained from floristic and faunistic observations and from specimens of biological collections. In this paper, the authors present the structure and data of BioNoMO, including software details, the process of data gathering and aggregation, the taxonomic coverage and the WebGIS development. Currently, aggregating a total of 273,172 records, including 85,092 occurrence records of plants and 188,080 occurrence records of animals (41.2% terrestrial, 58,8% aquatic), BioNoMo represents the largest aggregator of primary biodiversity data in Mozambique and it is planned to grow further by aggregating new datasets.

Today’s Mediterranean landscapes result from the interaction between ecosystems and anthropogenic activities. This study aims to assess how the land-use changes between the mid-nineteenth and end o...

Coral reef construction results from interactions between the biosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. Reefs constructed during Quaternary sea-level variations and displaced by rock uplift produce stair-cased morphologies called reefal sequences. The stratigraphy and morphology of these sequences is often used to infer eustatic variations and vertical deformation.Because few coral terraces have been precisely dated and high resolution topo-bathymetry is scarce along most coastlines, morphostratigraphic interpretations of reefal sequences usually seek to constrain only the elevation and age of relative sea level highstands and average rate of vertical deformation. Numerical modelling of reef development can help elucidate the continuous evolution of coral reefs through glacio-eustatic cycles.However, controls on coral reef growth and morphology are still strongly debated. Eustatic variations, vertical deformation of the lithosphere, geometry of the accommodation space, ecology of the reef, temperature, wave regime, turbidity and other factors may all affect reef type (e.g., barrier or fringing), volume and geometry.In order to quantify controls on coral reef development, we compiled a global dataset of coral reef morphometrics from satellite imagery and measurements of potential controlling factors (e.g., slope of the bedrock, rate of vertical deformation, wave power, sea-surface temperature, reef growth rate).Our first results highlight a strong control of the geometry of the accommodation space on modern reefs morphology, especially on the reef type and the location of the reef crest. This geometry results from the combination of the initial topography and antecedent constructions, which result from the interactions between eustatic variations, rate of vertical deformation and reef growth. A vast majority of barrier reefs, as well as the widest reef complexes, are located on antecedent reef platforms reoccupied during periods of sea-level rise. Conclusions arising from this study will help validate our reef growth modelling, as well as its temporal and spatial resolution. This model could then not only improve the interpretation of the morphostratigraphic record, but also clarify the ability of coral reefs to keep-up with the future sea-level rise and protect coastlines from wave erosion.

Source to sink systems involve processes happening at very large timescales and the current state of the earth only represents a brief snapshot of it through space and time. These processes encompass any of those involved in the removal, transport and deposition of material from sources to sinks. The relatively stable incising valleys of the upland source landscapes allow for very efficient mathematical expressions to model their evolution over geological timescales. The transport part of the system is more challenging to study and resists radical simplification. Softer and lower-relief compared to their upstream counterparts, they are much more dynamics and undergo convoluted cycles of erosion/deposition/remobilisation only leaving sparse clues. The presence (or absence) of materials from identified provenance in the transport zone is commonly used to interpret landscapes connectivity through time. However, recent studies suggest that the dynamic nature of the transport section can make apparent provenance data ambiguous and misleading.In this contribution, we leverage the ability of a newly developed cellular automata landscape evolution modelling framework, CHONK, to investigate the transport zone. CHONK is a landscape evolution modelling framework combining advantages of cellular-automata methods with common eulerian ones. Equations are implemented in a cell referential and cells are processed in a lake-aware multiple flow topological order. Because everything happens within a cell before communicating with downstream landscape, this framework allows fine tracking of sediment provenance through space and time, unconditionally to which law is implemented, or how complex the landscape structure.We set up a basic mountain range with its foreland, exhume a discrete pluton of different rock type and track the pathways of the sediments through time, including in a stratigraphy allowing remobilisation. We show how, even in this simplistic setting, complex and stochastic patterns of sediment pathways arise. We explore at which degree these patterns are predictable and at extents they are stochastic – in other word we track the variability of the proportion of sediment coming from the pluton at given locations through time. Finally, adding more complexity to the settings with variable tectonic and climatic cycles, intermediate sink (lakes) and heterogeneous lithologies, we offer a perspective on the framework’s potential to study the role of sediment flux in shaping the landscape and its record in novel ways.

Simple elastic dislocation models have been widely used to describe the surface displacements associated with subduction zone earthquake cycles. To first order, these assume a portion of the plate interface is locked during the interseismic period, inducing subsidence in the offshore domain and uplift in the onshore region. In contrast, megathrust earthquakes will impart the opposite surface displacement with offshore uplift and onshore subsidence. Such a purely elastic description of the earthquake cycle implies that interseismic deformation should be entirely compensated by large megathrust earthquakes, amounting to effectively zero deformation over numerous cycles. Recent studies however propose that spatial patterns of interseismic (short-term) deformation are reflected in long-term trends of coastal uplift (Jolivet et al., 2020), as well as in the morphology of subduction margins, which is shaped over 100s of kyrs by the interaction of tectonic and surface processes (Malatesta et al., 2021). This suggests that the repetition of seemingly elastic cycles somehow leads to non-recoverable long-term deformation.We postulate that a small increment of inelastic deformation accumulates during each interseismic phase, leading to a long-term unbalance of co-, post- and interseismic strain. To test this hypothesis, we evaluate the variations in upper plate stress imparted by down-dip gradients in megathrust locking during the interseismic period in the Chile and Cascadia subduction zones. We add these changes to the estimated background stress state of the upper plate, and assess the extent of frictional yielding within the forearc as a function of interseismic slip deficit and upper plate strength. We find that the onset of yielding in the late interseismic phase coincides with observed areas of microseismicity at these subduction margins, typically located above the downdip end of the locked zone.We then estimate the permanent surface uplift imparted by this upper plate yielding employing a statistical approach. We model frictional yielding of the forearc as incremental slip on a population of small faults whose spatial distribution reflects the fraction of the interseismic phase duration spent at yield. We further assume that the temporal distribution of these slip follows a Gutenberg-Richter distribution of parameters consistent with the observed microseismicity. Upon summing the displacements due to each of these dislocations, we estimate the irreversible surface displacement field associated with multiple seismic cycle. This ultimately amounts to permanent uplift concentrated above the transition from freely slipping to fully coupled megathrust, and is consistent with the geometry and rates of long-term uplift recorded in Chile. We also demonstrate how our model can explain the recently reported correlation between location of downdip locking limit and shelf break in many active margins.

Socotra Island, in the western Indian Ocean, harbors high biodiversity and endemism and makes up the largest part of the Socotra archipelago UNESCO World Heritage site. Its climatic, pedological, and geomorphological characteristics, together with the long geological isolation and inaccessibility, led to the flourishing of unique tree diversity, with great cultural and ecological value. Lately, trees on Socotra are facing new threats linked to the abandonment of traditional management practices, climate change impacts, and growing human pressure. This study assesses the relative influence of environmental factors and human activity as drivers of tree cover and density, which can be used to support land management policies for the conservation of this key local resource. Tree cover and density were assessed on a total of 3600 plots of 0.5 ha each, laid on a regular grid covering the entire area of the island through Collect Earth, a free open source software tool that allows an augmented visual interpretation of high-resolution satellite images. A total of 770,000 trees, with an average of 2.14 trees/ha, were estimated on the island. The collected data was validated by ground surveys in 26 plots. The relative influence of selected predictors (seven environmental, two anthropic) on tree cover and density was analyzed through logistic and survival regression. Tree cover and density were found to be impacted positively by steeper slopes, higher rainfall, and marked precipitation seasonality and negatively by relatively warmer temperatures and a higher sand content in the soil. Distance of each plot from the nearest road and settlement was calculated and neither of these anthropic predictors emerged as significant, indicating that the limited number of trees present are not currently as affected by anthropic pressure, but, instead, their presence is mostly limited by the harsh climatic and pedological factors. However, as human population and development increase, periods of drought rise, and extreme and random climatic events intensify, these additional stresses on the environment could negatively impact the availability of natural resources in the terrestrial environment. Lastly, potential recommendations to the existing conservation policies and Socotra Conservation Zoning Plan are discussed based on the results.

Aim: To propose a Finite Mixture Model (FMM) as an additional approach for classifying large datasets of georeferenced vegetation plots from complex vegetation systems. Study area: The Italian peninsula including the two main islands (Sicily and Sardinia), but excluding the Alps and the Po plain. Methods: We used a database of 5,593 georeferenced plots and 1,586 vascular species of forest vegetation, created in TURBOVEG by storing published and unpublished phytosociological plots collected over the last 30 years. The plots were classified according to species composition and environmental variables using a FMM. Classification results were compared with those obtained by TWINSPAN algorithm. Groups were characterized in terms of ecological parameters, dominant and diagnostic species using the fidelity coefficient. Interpretation of resulting forest vegetation types was supported by a predictive map, produced using discriminant functions on environmental predictors, and by a non‐metric multidimensional scaling ordination. Results: FMM clustering obtained 24 groups that were compared with those from TWINSPAN, and similarities were found only at a higher classification level corresponding to the main orders of the Italian broadleaf forest vegetation: Fagetalia sylvaticae, Carpinetalia betuli, Quercetalia pubescenti-petraeae and Quercetalia ilicis. At lower syntaxonomic level, these 24 groups were referred to alliances and sub-alliances. Conclusions: Despite a greater computational complexity, FMM appears to be an effective alternative to the traditional classification methods through the incorporation of modelling in the classificatory process. This allows classification of both the co-occurrence of species and environmental factors so that groups are identified not only on their species composition, as in the case of TWINSPAN, but also on their specific environmental niche. Taxonomic reference: Conti et al. (2005). Abbreviations: CLM = Community-level models; FMM = Finite Mixture Model; NMDS = non‐metric multidimensional scaling.

Marine terraces are a cornerstone for the study of paleo sea level and crustal deformation. Commonly, individual erosive marine terraces are attributed to unique sea level high-stands. This stems from early reasoning that erosive marine platforms could only be significantly widened at the beginning of an interglacial. However, this implies that wave erosion is insignificant during the vast majority of sea level history. Here, we postulate that the total duration of sea level occupation at a bedrock elevation is a proxy for the erosion potential. The total duration of sea level occupation (hence wave erosion) depends strongly on rock uplift rate. Certain rock uplift rates may promote the generation and preservation of particular terraces while others prevent it. The elevations and widths of terraces eroded during specific sea level stands may vary widely from site to site and depend on local rock uplift rate. This leads to potential misidentification of terraces if each terrace in a sequence is assumed to form uniquely at successive interglacial high stands and to reflect their elevations. Representing a proxy for the entire erosion potential of sea level history allows us to address creation/preservation biases at different rock uplift rates.

Video S1, a description of the code with a link to its repository, and an English translation of Yoshikawa et al. (1964) paper.

The modification of precipitation regimes and the increase in summer aridity under the predicted climate change scenarios are hypothesized to have repercussions on the semi-extensive pastoral systems of Mediterranean grasslands, leading to change in forage quantity/quality, increased interannual variability in phytomass production, reduction of the carrying capacity of rangelands, and worsening of animal welfare. The research aims were to find what climatic features affect changes in the annual peak of Aboveground Net Primary Production (ANPP), and how topographic variables and management conditions influence these variations in a pastoral system of central Apennines (Italy). We monitored Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) variations at the peak of phytomass production using Landsat satellite images, used as a proxy for ANPP changes in the most productive phase of the growing season, when herds are carried to pastures and hay-meadows are mown, on a dataset of 10,000 randomly sampled pixels (30 × 30 m), in the years 2003, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2013−2015. We investigated the relation between NDVI and climatic variables, topographic parameters, vegetation physiognomy, and management type, using generalized linear mixed-effects modeling, variation partitioning, and correlation analysis. We observed an increase in average yearly temperatures and high variability in the rainfall seasonal distribution pattern, particularly of spring precipitation. Climatic fluctuations influenced the overall amount of forage production more than management and topographic conditions. The spring variation of climatic variables (precipitation in March, drought stress in April and May), the drought and cold stress intensities in the previous year and the cold stress in the preceding winter were the main drivers of NDVI change. The landform factors interacted with climate variability in determining the amplitude of NDVI changes, which were the widest in semi-flat mountain tops and flat valley bottoms and the smallest in south-facing slopes. The effect of the climatic variables on NDVI was different depending on the management condition, suggesting that grassland management partially filters the climatic drivers of changes in forage production. Based on our results, the most productive grassland communities and the areas used for grazing by domestic herbivores could be the most impacted by the predicted climate changes for the Mediterranean basin, potentially reducing the economic sustainability of semi-extensive farming in the Apennine mountains.

Background: Genetic resources are important for the livelihood of the rural population in developing countries and have an economic potential that, through an efficient Access and Benefit Sharing regime, can support sustainable economic development. Considering the wealth of genetic resources in Mozambique, its eligibility for Access and Benefit Sharing projects has been explored. Methods: The socio-economic status of the Changana community of the Limpopo National Park area was studied through a 500 questionnaires socio-economic survey. Considering the livelihood role that plant genetic resources could play for the local rural population, an ethnobotanical survey was conducted, with the support of villagers knowledgeable of wild plant resources and their use. Results: Several criticalities in the living condition of local communities and a generalized lack of adequate economic incomes have emerged from the socio-economic analysis. A list of 101 plant species with important commercial possibilities, mainly related to medical, food and cosmetic sectors, was provided by the ethnobotanical survey. Around 95% of the plant studied which could have effective medical properties showed the greatest potential.Conclusion: A significant potential for Mozambique to be included in Access and Benefit Sharing initiatives was recognized. The present work can contribute to the identification of Access and Benefit Sharing pilot projects, toward the evaluation of the policy efficacy and implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in the Country. The Limpopo National Park area can support Access and Benefit Sharing projects toward the economic development of the indigenous and local communities and the conservation of the Country’s biodiversity.

Socotra, the largest of four islands in the Socotra archipelago (Yemen), is characterized by high geo-morphological and biological diversity. Traditional management of land resources has been impacted by cultural shifts, globalization and urban expansion. In addition, the island has been affected by climate impacts, such as droughts and recent cyclones causing significant economic and environmental damage. Our study presents an analysis of the dynamics of the vegetation on the island for the period 2001–2019 and highlights the status of different landscapes. We used Earth Observation techniques and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index to assess land productivity dynamics basing on vegetation indexes derived from average resolution satellite images. The results show that although the arid landscapes of Socotra seem resilient, over 30% of the central mountainous areas of the Hageher (hosting a unique and high biodiversity) are decreasing in productivity, whereas in the lowlands (where plant diversity is relatively lower) productivity has increased significantly for the same time period, up to 40% in some areas. Given the difference in biological diversity of the sites, this study can help prioritize conservation areas and activities, which are crucial for Socotra’s terrestrial environment. The methodology applied could be replicated for continuous monitoring in the future.

In protected areas of the African savanna tree cover, structure and species composition are influenced by a combination of many different variables. These include complex and multi-scaled interplay of environmental factors such as water and nutrient availability, fire, herbivory and, when occurring, direct human disturbance. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the spatial variability of tree cover and density in three neighboring Southern African National Parks (Kruger, Limpopo, and Gonarezhou) characterized by similar environmental conditions but different management plans. We sampled 3382 plots of 0.5 ha across the three parks using an innovative methodology defined as augmented visual interpretation, based on a free and open source software. This software, named Collect Earth, allows access to very high spatial and temporal resolution imagery archives. Spatial variability of tree cover and density was analyzed comparing the three parks and the two bioclimatic regions (semiarid and dry subhumid) characterizing them. The effect of relevant environmental variables such as edaphic factors, precipitation and fire frequency was also assessed. Kruger National Park is characterized by the lowest values of tree cover and density among the three Parks. Contrary to what was expected and the general trend of Southern Africa, the dry subhumid zone showed lower values of tree cover and density than the semiarid zone. Such variability is hypothesized to be related to the different managements of the three parks within the general environmental template characterizing the African savanna as well as differences in tree species composition between the two climatic zones.

Anogramma leptophylla is one of the rarest fern species in Balkan Peninsula. In Croatia, several localities were noted prior to this study, when its presence was confirmed with a discovery of a small population on the island of Mljet (Southern Adriatic). This was, after almost 80 years, the first reliable finding of this species along Eastern Adriatic. The establishment of A. leptophylla on the western part of the island of Mljet may be attributable to certain favourable environmental conditions, but essentially to higher air and soil humidity. Its unusual bryophyte-like life strategy, with short-living annual sporophytes, facilitates its survival under Mediterranean climate, generally unfavourable for pteridophytes.

In low-mountain secondary grasslands of central Apennines, grazing cessation and undergrazing foster Brachypodium rupestre invasion, threatening the 6210* habitat (92/43/EEC Directive). The research aim was to understand the effect of multi-annual mowing and litter removal on recovery of coenological composition of a B. rupestre-invaded grassland. One hectare of grassland was mown, in late June and October, for 6 years, removing litter and hay. Before the first yearly mowing, we collected species and litter cover in 30 randomly selected plots (0.5 × 0.5 m). Festuco-Brometea/Festuco-Ononidetea species promptly increased, in number and abundance, in response to B. rupestre and litter removal, but decreased in the second half of the treatment, being partly replaced by Molinio-Arrhenatheretea species, progressively fostered by litter reduction. Litter removal also explained the increase in abundance of Sedo-Scleranthetea/Helianthemetea guttati species, whose richness peaked at treatment end, indicating the potential for higher species richness and the formation of patches of 6110* and 6220* habitats. Fringe and successional species decreased in richness and abundance, without a linear trend. The number of diagnostic taxa of the 6210* habitat increased significantly with the reduction of B. rupestre and litter, although the frequency/abundance of most of them did not change significantly, indicating that the studied community could be still considered habitat of community interest, although in a low conservation status. The treatment was effective in restoring grassland composition, although the achievement and maintenance of a favourable conservation status for the 6210* habitat require a long-term management planning, including sheep grazing during late spring/summer.

Alien plants invasion has negative impacts on the structure and functionality of ecosystems. Understanding the determinants of this process is fundamental for addressing environmental issues, such as the water availability in South Africa’s catchments. Both environmental and anthropogenic factors determine the invasion of alien species; however, their relative importance has to be quantified. The aim of this paper was to estimate the importance of 32 explanatory variables in predicting the distribution of the major invasive alien plant species (IAPS) of South Africa, through the use of Species Distribution Models. We used data from the National Invasive Alien Plants Survey, delineated at a quaternary catchment level, coupled with climatic, land cover, edaphic, and anthropogenic variables. Using two-part generalized linear models, we compared the accuracy of two different sets of variables in predicting the spatial distribution of IAPS; the first included environmental correlates alone, and the second included both environmental and anthropogenic variables. Using Random Forest, we explored the relative importance of the variables in producing a map of potential distribution of IAPS. Results showed that the inclusion of anthropogenic variables did not significantly improve model predictions. The most important variables influencing the distribution of IAPS appeared to be the climatic ones. The modeled potential distribution was analyzed in relation to provinces, biomes, and species’ minimum residence time.

In the Peruvian highlands, climate change and inadequate management are causing land degradation and collapse of the pastoral system. Our research project was aimed at assessing the impact of grazing on dry Puna ecosystem, as understanding and predicting vegetation changes in harsh environments in the face of different disturbance regimes is required for aware and effective management. The study area was the Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve. Two experimental areas were selected, characterized by deep soils with gentle slopes and by shallow soils with steeper slopes. In each area, sites with low and high disturbance regimes were identified, and vegetation was sampled using 10 × 10 m plots. The results indicated that the environmental constraints have a marked influence on the species composition, while disturbance quantitatively affects diversity. The floristic changes observed under different disturbance intensities are mainly related to the functional differentiation of the plant communities an...

Facilitation processes constitute basic elements of vegetation dynamics in harsh systems. Recent studies in tropical alpine environments demonstrated how pioneer plant species defined as "ecosystem engineers" are capable of enhancing landscape-level richness by adding new species to the community through the modification of microhabitats, and also provided hints about the alternation of different ecosystem engineers over time. Nevertheless, most of the existing works analysed different ecosystem engineers separately, without considering the interaction of different ecosystem engineers. Focusing on the altitudinal limit of Peruvian Dry Puna vegetation, we hypothesized that positive interactions structure plant communities by facilitation cascades involving different ecosystem engineers, determining the evolution of the microhabitat patches in terms of abiotic resources and beneficiary species hosted. To analyze successional mechanisms, we used a "space-for-time" substitution to account for changes over time, and analyzed data on soil texture, composition, and temperature, facilitated species and their interaction with nurse species, and surface area of engineered patches by means of chemical analyses, indicator species analysis, and rarefaction curves. A successional process, resulting from the dynamic interaction of different ecosystem engineers, which determined a progressive amelioration of soil conditions (e.g. nitrogen and organic matter content, and temperature), was the main driver of species assemblage at the community scale, enhancing species richness. Cushion plants act as pioneers, by starting the successional processes that continue with shrubs and tussocks. Tussock grasses have sometimes been found to be capable of creating microhabitat patches independently. The dynamics of species assemblage seem to follow the nested assemblage mechanism, in which the first foundation species to colonize a habitat provides a novel substrate for colonization by other foundation species through a facilitation cascade process.

Aims Facilitation is a key process in vegetation dynamics, driving the response to natural and anthropogenic pressures. In harsh-grazed systems, palatable plants mainly survive when nested under unpalatable tussocks and shrubs. The magnitude and direction of positive interactions are driven by resource availability, extent of herbivory and type of nurse species. We hypothesized that different combinations of disturbance and environmental stress affect community composition in the dry Puna (southern Peruvian Andes) by modifying nurse types and plant interactions in magnitude and specific associations. We investigated whether different combinations of stress and disturbance influence species richness, type and frequency of occurrence of nurse and beneficiary species and magnitude and patterns of plant interactions; whether nurse species influence these interactions and target species change their interactions under different combinations of stress and disturbance and whether plant functional traits differ in the studied communities and influence the pattern of spatial interactions. Methods We selected three plant communities subject to different precipitation and management regimes: in each we laid a number of transects proportional to its extension. Data collected include species presence/absence, type of spatial interactions with nurse species and functional traits. We calculated species richness and rarefaction patterns, described the patterns of plant–plant spatial interactions and investigated the associations between nurse and other species in the three communities using indicator species analysis (ISA). We performed ISA and correlation analysis to investigate whether plant functional traits influenced facilitative interactions. Important Findings We found that different combinations of stress and disturbance shaped a complex set of responses, including changes in the nurse species set. Nurse composition influenced magnitude and direction of plant interactions under different stress intensities. Heavy disturbance increased the relative importance of facilitation, even if the overall number of facilitated species decreased. Under equivalent disturbance regimes, increased abiotic stress led to a greater importance of facilitation. Different combinations of stress and disturbance affected the community assemblage also by changing the behaviour of some non-nurse species. Both heavy disturbance and strong stress led to a decrease of trait states; with certain combinations of stress and disturbance, preferential distribution of these states was observed. We also found Journal of Plant Ecology Advance Access published September 23, 2015

The ecological land scape classification (ELC) allows the identification of homogeneous land units (LUs), which are fundamental for investigation and management purposes. ELC is particularly relevant in international cooperation programmes targeting areas characterized by very scarce and scattered thematic information. In this study, three techniques are compared to find the best classification of LUs of Socotra Island (Yemen): a Self-Organizing Map neural network, the Clustering LARge Applications method and a Two-Step clustering algorithm. In this way, three LU maps of Socotra Island were produced and the relationship between LUs and plant communities, as identified by a phytosociologiacl investigation, was analysed. Based on evaluation procedures, TS method emerged as the most suitable being able to better discriminate the plant communities so as to reach a trade-off between classification complexity and class homogeneity. Even though the identification of LUs depends on the selection of the classifica...

Questions In order to preserve the ecosystem functioning of semi-natural sub-Mediterranean calcareous grasslands of the Central Apennines, it is vital to understand how functional diversity (FD) changes in relation to different types of disturbance. To compare the effects of sheep grazing and those of late-summer mowing, we asked: do different types of disturbance (grazing and mowing) affect FD; are FD and species diversity positively correlated in both grazed and mown grasslands; do FD and species diversity take different paths in the two disturbance regimes; and are different FD values related to changes in the composition of traits linked to competitive ability, resource acquisition and resistance strategies? Location Grazed and mown sites in the Central Apennines (Italy). Methods We performed redundancy analysis and indicator species analysis to characterize the trait composition of the two disturbance regimes. We calculated FD for each selected trait and a compound FD for multiple traits, using Rao's quadratic entropy index. Differences in FD between disturbance regimes were tested with a nested ANOVA. We performed a regression analysis between FD and species diversity indices under the two disturbance types. Results Species and functional diversity were positively correlated in both disturbance types. FD was generally less correlated with species diversity variations in mown grasslands than in grazed ones, suggesting that late mowing leads to higher levels of functional redundancy (i.e. to a wider overlap of species functional composition). Late mowing promoted higher species and functional diversities and a wider variety of functional traits in the plant community. Grazing, besides negatively affecting the species diversity of grasslands, reduced their FD by favouring the dominance of traits related to avoidance and tolerance strategies. Conclusion The continuation of late mowing is recommended to preserve the richness and variability of functional groups and the ecosystem functioning of sub-Mediterranean grasslands.

Socotra Island (Yemen), a global biodiversity hotspot, is characterized by high geo- morphological and biological diversity. In this study, we present a high-resolution vegetation map of the island based on combining vegetation analysis and classification with remote sensing. Two different image classification approaches were tested to assess the most accurate one in mapping the vegetation mosaic of Socotra. Spectral signatures of the vegetation classes were obtained through a Gaussian mixture distribution model, and a sequential maximum a posteriori (SMAP) classification was applied to account for the heterogeneity and the complex spatial pattern of the arid vegetation. This approach was compared to the traditional maximum like- lihood (ML) classification. Satellite data were represented by a RapidEye image with 5 m pixel resolution and five spectral bands. Classified vegetation releves were used to obtain the training and evaluation sets for the main plant communities. Postclassification sorting was performed to adjust the classification through various rule-based operations. Twenty- eight classes were mapped, and SMAP, with an accuracy of 87%, proved to be more effective than ML (accuracy: 66%). The resulting map will represent an important instrument for the elaboration of conservation strategies and the sustainable use of natural resources in the island. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original pub- lication, including its DOI. (DOI: 10.1117/1.JRS.7.073527)

In the last decades, biodiversity is facing many threats related to the expansion and development of human populations. With the aim of mainstreaming conservation together with sustainable development, several conflicting necessities related to the economic, social, environmental and institutional objectives of the society have to be balanced within complex decisionmaking contexts. Conventional approaches hardly cope with these demands, and therefore conceptual models are required for understanding ecosystems form and functions and how human activities impact on them. International organisations committed to conservation and development initiatives have recognised the importance and effectiveness of an integrated, participative and adaptive approach to ecosystem management. In this perspective, computerised tools to facilitate an overall view and support informed and aware decisions are required. The Systemic Spatial Decision Support System, here presented, is a comprehensive tool for a holistic, multi-scale, spatially explicit and tailor-made approach to such complex decisional environments. The core methodology builds upon several years of experience in international conservation and development projects supported by the Italian Development Cooperation, and is complemented by an ad hoc, easily customisable software shell. Its characteristics provide an ideal framework for an effective administration of biodiversity conservation initiatives, as well as for training and consolidating expert knowledge.