Best management practices to face degradated territories occupied by Cistus ladanifer shrublands – Portugal case study

Abstract

Land degradation in Mediterranean Basin is clearly connected to the resilience of perturbed ecosystems, contributing to land abandonment, recurrent fires and biodiversity loss, with the prevalence of secondary shrublands that tend to occupy large areas. This is the case of Cistus ladanifer .shrublands, one of the most widespread shrub communities in Iberian Peninsula and a poor, uniform and resilient system. Here we analyze the impact of several management practices in the recovery of territories largely occupied by this shrublands. We tested “nonintervention”, “cut”, “fire”, “mechanical mobilization” and “pasture” in 100 m2 plots of Cistus ladaniferus L., in Central Portugal, being followed since 1993. Flora was analyzed using Braun–Blanquet’s methodology and the plots compared with hierarchical cluster analysis and PCA. An ANOVA analysis was also performed to investigate differences in management practices, between plots and between two periods of time. The results show that extensive grazing or continuous cut have a high impact on plant diversity and community structure, been extensive grazing, the best way to improve plant diversity in a short period of time, using less resources