<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Modelling farming system dynamics in High Nature Value Farmland under policy change</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Agriculture, Ecosystems &amp; Environment</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2014</style></year></dates><publisher><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Elsevier B.V.</style></publisher><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">183</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">138-144</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Abstract Understanding the factors driving changes in farm management is needed for designing policies and subsidy schemes to protect High Nature Value Farmland (HNVF). We describe farming system dynamics in HNVF of southern Portugal, between 2000–2002 and 2008–2010, encompassing a period of major policy transformations introduced by the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union in 2003. We also assess how farming system dynamics was modulated by structural, biophysical and policy factors constraining agricultural options. Farming systems changed in about 40% of the farmed area during the period of study. Overall, there was a marked transition from arable systems to either specialized livestock or permanent crop systems, involving major declines in the traditional system of dry cereal rotations and sheep grazing. Transitions were influenced by farm size, soil quality and coverage by open oak woodlands, while there was little effect of agri-environment schemes and legal regulations specifically targeted to support the traditional farming system. Despite these changes, agricultural intensity remained essentially stable, though there was a marked decline in land-use heterogeneity with likely negative impacts on biodiversity. Observed changes agree with ex-ante impact assessments of the CAP reform in Iberian cereal steppes, which suggested that decoupling of payments from production could promote shifts from the traditional cereal–fallow–sheep system towards specialized livestock grazing systems. Effectively protecting HNFV may thus require a better integration of horizontal policies and agri-environment schemes.</style></abstract><notes><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">From Duplicate 1 ( Modelling farming system dynamics in High Nature Value Farmland under policy change - Ribeiro, Paulo Flores; Santos, José Lima; Bugalho, Miguel N.; Santana, Joana; Reino, Luís; Beja, Pedro; Moreira, Francisco )</style></notes><research-notes><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">From Duplicate 1 ( Modelling farming system dynamics in High Nature Value Farmland under policy change - Ribeiro, Paulo Flores; Santos, José Lima; Bugalho, Miguel N.; Santana, Joana; Reino, Luís; Beja, Pedro; Moreira, Francisco )</style></research-notes></record><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Long-term responses of Mediterranean birds to forest fuel management</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Journal of Applied Ecology</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2012</style></year></dates><publisher><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Blackwell Publishing Ltd</style></publisher><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">49</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">632-643</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1. Mechanical management of forest fuels is increasingly used in the Euro-Mediterranean region in response to the abandonment of traditional agroforestry and the concurrent increase in fire hazard. Although fuel management may have positive side effects for biodiversity, its long-term impacts remain largely unknown. 2. We used a 70-year post-management chronosequence to investigate the influence of time since fuel management and management frequency on bird assemblages in cork oak Quercus suber forests. 3. Fuel management strongly affected bird species richness, abundances and assemblage composition, with rapid changes often occurring during the first 10–20 years, followed in the next decades by a slow convergence to pre-management levels. 4. In winter, overall species richness and abundance, and that of frugivores and shrub foragers, were negatively affected by recent and recurrent management, only recovering in stands unmanaged for &gt;50 years. In spring, insectivore abundance and the richness and abundance of shrub foragers declined immediately following management, increased to a maximum about 20 years later, and declined thereafter. Breeding granivores and ground foragers were the only groups that benefitted from fuel management. There were no overall effects on species of conservation concern, although a few species with unfavourable status benefitted from fuel management. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our study confirmed that mechanical fuel management has positive effects on some early-successional bird species of conservation concern, although its effects were limited. These benefits should be compared with the strong negative impacts on key bird species such as wintering frugivores, which play a pivotal role in ecosystems by promoting seed dispersal. To reconcile the positive and negative aspects, fuel management should be used to create heterogeneous mosaics of forest patches encompassing a range of sizes (10–100 ha) and successional stages of understorey vegetation, including stands undisturbed for &gt;50 years. This management strategy will likely maintain conditions for a wide range of species with contrasting ecological requirements while also reducing fire hazard.</style></abstract></record><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Beja, Pedro</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Gordinho, Luís</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Reino, Luís</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Loureiro, Filipa</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Santos-Reis, Margarida</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Borralho, Rui</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Predator abundance in relation to small game management in southern Portugal: conservation implications</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">European Journal of Wildlife Research</style></secondary-title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">birds of prey</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">carnivores</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">conservation conflict</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">hunting</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">predator control</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2008</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2008///</style></date></pub-dates></dates><urls><web-urls><url><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">http://www.springerlink.com/index/10.1007/s10344-008-0236-1</style></url></web-urls></urls><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">55</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">227 - 238</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">The interaction between hunting interests and legally protected predators is often a contentious conservation problem, requiring detailed understanding of predator responses to game management. This issue was addressed in southern Portugal in a treatment-control natural experiment, whereby the abundances of small game, corvids, birds of prey and carnivores were compared in 12 game estates (&gt;500 ha) and 12 matching areas with similar sizes and land uses but no gamemanagement. European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), Iberian hares (Lepus granatensis) and, less so, red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa) were far more numerous in game estates than elsewhere. Among legally controlled species, there were less Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) but more red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in game estates, though the latter were primary targets of predator culling. Fox abundance within game estates varied inversely with an index of management intensity (density of small game feeding sites) and increased along with hare abundance. As for protected species, only common kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) and genets (Genetta genetta) were fewer in game estates. The abundance of raptors within game estates varied inversely with gamekeeper density, whereas that of common buzzards (Buteo buteo) increased along with rabbit abundance. Overall, there was little evidence that game management reduced local predator abundances, except in the most intensively managed estates. Game estates provided concentrations of prey that was scarce elsewhere, which may have favoured increased abundances of some predators. Further investigations are needed to find out whether high prey densities may attract predators to game estates with increased mortality risk, which may thus become population sinks for protected species.</style></abstract><issue><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">3</style></issue></record><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Predator abundance in relation to small game management in southern Portugal: conservation implications</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">European Journal of Wildlife Research</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2008</style></year></dates><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">55</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">227-238</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">The interaction between hunting interests and legally protected predators is often a contentious conservation problem, requiring detailed understanding of predator responses to game management. This issue was addressed in southern Portugal in a treatment-control natural experiment, whereby the abundances of small game, corvids, birds of prey and carnivores were compared in 12 game estates (&gt;500 ha) and 12 matching areas with similar sizes and land uses but no gamemanagement. European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), Iberian hares (Lepus granatensis) and, less so, red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa) were far more numerous in game estates than elsewhere. Among legally controlled species, there were less Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) but more red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in game estates, though the latter were primary targets of predator culling. Fox abundance within game estates varied inversely with an index of management intensity (density of small game feeding sites) and increased along with hare abundance. As for protected species, only common kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) and genets (Genetta genetta) were fewer in game estates. The abundance of raptors within game estates varied inversely with gamekeeper density, whereas that of common buzzards (Buteo buteo) increased along with rabbit abundance. Overall, there was little evidence that game management reduced local predator abundances, except in the most intensively managed estates. Game estates provided concentrations of prey that was scarce elsewhere, which may have favoured increased abundances of some predators. Further investigations are needed to find out whether high prey densities may attract predators to game estates with increased mortality risk, which may thus become population sinks for protected species.</style></abstract></record></records></xml>