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A chronosequence study of vegetation dynamics on vine and caper terraces of Pantelleria Island (Sicily)
2006
The vegetation of fallow fields of different age in the terraced agricultural landscape of Pantelleria Island (Sicily) was analysed via vegetation relevés. Five age classes in N-facing as well as in S-facing slopes of both vine and caper fallows were differentiated. The main questions were to determine the sequence of plant communities in time and to test some environmental factors for their influence on the course and the speed of succession. The results show that undisturbed abandoned terraces are subject to rapid renaturation: 50 to 80 years old fallows are now covered by dense maquis communities. Both N- and S-facing slopes seem to converge to a Quercus ilex woodland as the climax commu…
Vegetation dynamics on abandoned terraces of Sicily: the course and driving forces of succession
2007
In Mediterranean Europe, terrace landscapes can be found where 1) the orography is characterized by hills or mountains, 2) there is a high amount of stone outcrops and 3) the human need for agricultural production was quite high till the recent past. During the last century, many of these landscapes have been abandoned, due to their unsuitability for mechanized, intensive agriculture and due to the general land abandonment trend which arised in large parts of Europe. Since with land abandonment start secondary succession processes, the plant and animal communities linked to agroecosystems are replaced by other species which find their habitat in the developing succession stages. This proces…