<?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><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Archer, Steven R</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Predick, Katharine I</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">An ecosystem services perspective on brush management : research priorities for competing land-use objectives</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Journal of Ecology</style></secondary-title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">bush clearing</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">drylands</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">ecosystem services</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Shrub encroachment</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">state change</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">vegetation change</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">woody plant encroachment</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">woody weeds</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2014</style></year></dates><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1394-1407</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1. The vegetation of semi-arid and arid landscapes is often comprised of mixtures of herbaceous and woody vegetation. Since the early 1900s, shifts from herbaceous to woody plant dominance, termed woody plant encroachment and widely regarded as a state change, have occurred world-wide. This shift presents challenges to the conservation of grassland and savanna ecosystems and to animal production in commercial ranching systems and pastoral societies. 2. Dryland management focused on cattle and sheep grazing has historically attempted to reduce the abundance of encroaching woody vegetation (hereafter, ‘brush management’) with the intent of reversing declines in forage production, stream flow or groundwater recharge. Here, we assess the known and potential consequences of brush management actions, both positive and negative, on a broader suite of ecosystem services, the scientific challenges to quantifying these services and the trade-offs among them. 3. Our synthesis suggests that despite considerable investments accompanying the application of brush management practices, the recovery of key ecosystem services may be short-lived or absent. However, in the absence of such interventions, those and other ecosystem services may be compromised, and the persistence of grassland and savanna ecosystem types and their endemic plants and animals threatened. 4. Addressing the challenges posed by woody plant encroachment will require integrated manage- ment systems using diverse theoretical principles to design the type, timing and spatial arrangement of initial management actions and follow-up treatments. These management activities will need to balance cultural traditions and preferences, socio-economic constraints and potentially competing land-use objectives. 5. Synthesis. Our ability to predict ecosystem responses to management aimed at recovering ecosystem services where grasslands and savannas have been invaded by native or exotic woody plants is limited for many attributes (e.g. primary production, land surface–atmosphere interactions, biodiversity conser- vation) and inconsistent for others (e.g. forage production, herbaceous diversity, water quality/quantity, soil erosion, carbon sequestration). The ecological community is challenged with generating robust information about the response of ecosystem services and their interactions if we are to position land managers and policymakers to make objective, science-based decisions regarding the many trade-offs and competing objectives for the conservation and dynamic management of grasslands and savannas.</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%">Sala, Osvaldo E</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Maestre, Fernando T</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Grass – woodland transitions : determinants and consequences for ecosystem functioning and provisioning of services</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Journal of Ecology</style></secondary-title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">climate change</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">ecosystem services</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">ecosystem–water dynamics</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">fire</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Grasslands</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">inva- sion ecology</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">primary production</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">shrublands</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">vegetation shifts</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">woody-plant encroachment</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2014</style></year></dates><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">102</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1357-1362</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1. A large fraction of grasslands world-wide is undergoing a rapid shift from herbaceous to woody- plant dominance, while in other parts of the world, the opposite transition from woodland to grassland is the dominant phenomenon. These shifts have received increasing attention in the ecological litera- ture during the last two decades due to their global extent and their impacts on ecosystem functioning. 2. This Special Feature includes a series of contributions on key topics within the study of grass– woodland transitions, including three articles addressing the drivers of these vegetation shifts and another three evaluating their ecological consequences. These articles, which include reviews, mod- elling and empirical studies, highlight the multiplicity of approaches and spatial scales being cur- rently used when studying grass–woodland transitions. 3. The first articles focus on the role of fire in driving the dynamics of mesic grasslands in the USA, on the effects of climate change on the transition zones between treeless vegetation, savanna and forest in tropical and subtropical Americas and on the role of the internal structure of vegetation as a determinant of grassland–woodland transitions. The articles devoted to exploring the conse- quences include a modelling study on the ecohydrological consequences of shrub removal in wes- tern North America and an empirical study aiming at understanding how abiotic and biotic attributes influence above-ground net productivity across Patagonian grasslands and shrublands, as well as a review of the consequences of brush management on the provision of ecosystem services. 4. Synthesis. Identifying the best actions to avoid or take advantage of grass–woodland transitions requires a mechanistic understanding of both the drivers of these shifts and their ecological conse- quences. The collection of reviews, empirical and modelling studies included in this Special Feature contributes to forecasting how ongoing global change will affect grass–woodland transitions and their consequences for the provisioning of ecosystem services from drylands, which account for a large fraction of Earth’s surface.</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%">Colombaroli, Daniele</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Tinner, Willy</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Determining the long-term changes in biodiversity and provisioning services along a transect from Central Europe to the Mediterranean.</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Holocene</style></secondary-title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">climate</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">ecosystem services</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">evenness-detrended palynological richness</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">fire</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">land use</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">plant diversity</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2013</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2013///</style></date></pub-dates></dates><urls><web-urls><url><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">10.1177/0959683613496290http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=a9h&amp;AN=90827171&amp;lang=pt-br&amp;site=ehost-live&amp;scope=site</style></url></web-urls></urls><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">23</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1625 - 1634</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Climate, land use and fire are strong determinants of plant diversity, potentially resulting in local extinctions, including rare endemic and economically valuable species. While climate and land use are decisive for vegetation composition and thus the species pool, fire disturbance can lead to landscape fragmentation, affecting the provisioning of important ecosystem services such as timber and raw natural resources. We use multi-proxy palaeoecological data with high taxonomic and temporal resolution across an environmental gradient to assess the long-term impact of major climate shifts, land use and fire disturbance on past vegetation openness and plant diversity (evenness and richness). Evenness of taxa is inferred by calculating the probability of interspecific encounter (PIE) of pollen and spores and species richness by palynological richness (PRI). To account for evenness distortions of PRI, we developed a new palaeodiversity measure, which is evenness-detrended palynological richness (DE-PRI). Reconstructed species richness increases from north to south regardless of time, mirroring the biodiversity increase across the gradient from temperate deciduous to subtropical evergreen vegetation. Climatic changes after the end of the last ice age contributed to biodiversity dynamics, usually by promoting species richness and evenness in response to warming. The data reveal that the promotion of diverse open-land ecosystems increased when human disturbance became determinant, while forests became less diverse. Our results imply that the today’s biodiversity has been shaped by anthropogenic forcing over the millennia. Future management strategies aiming at a successful conservation of biodiversity should therefore consider the millennia-lasting role of anthropogenic fire and human activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]</style></abstract><issue><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">11</style></issue><notes><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">The following values have no corresponding Zotero field:&lt;br/&gt;publisher: Sage Publications, Ltd.</style></notes></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%">Navarro, Laetitia M</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Pereira, Henrique M</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Rewilding Abandoned Landscapes in Europe</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Ecosystems</style></secondary-title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">ecosystem services</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">farmland abandonment</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">land sharing</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">land sparing</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Land-use change</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">passive management</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2012</style></year></dates><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">15</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">900-912</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">For millennia, mankind has shaped landscapes, particularly through agriculture. In Europe, the age-old interaction between humans and ecosystems strongly inﬂuenced the cultural heritage. Yet European farmland is now being abandoned, especially in remote areas. The loss of the traditional agricultural landscapes and its consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem services is generating concerns in both the scientiﬁc community and the public. Here we ask to what extent farmland abandonment can be considered as an opportunity for rewilding ecosystems. We analyze the perceptions of traditional agriculture in Europe and their inﬂuence in land management policies. We argue that, contrary to the common perception, traditional agriculture practices were not environmentally friendly and that the standards of living of rural populations were low. We suggest that current policies to maintain extensive farming landscapes underestimate the human labor needed to sustain these landscapes and the recent and future dynamics of the socio-economic drivers behind abandonment. We examine the potential beneﬁts for ecosystems and people from rewilding. We identify species that could beneﬁt from land abandonment and forest regeneration and the ecosystem services that could be provided such as carbon sequestration and recreation. Finally, we discuss the challenges associated with rewilding, including the need to maintain open areas, the ﬁre risks, and the conﬂicts between people and wildlife. Despite these challenges, we argue that rewilding should be recognized by policy-makers as one of the possible land management options in Europe, particularly on marginal areas.</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%">Orgiazzi, Alberto</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Lumini, Erica</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Nilsson, R Henrik</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Girlanda, Mariangela</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Vizzini, Alfredo</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Bonfante, Paola</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Bianciotto, Valeria</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Unravelling Soil Fungal Communities from Different Mediterranean Land-Use Backgrounds</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">PLoS ONE</style></secondary-title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">air pollution</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">ecosystem services</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">ecosystems</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Forests</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Grazing Lands (citation)</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Italy</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">land use</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Micro Organisms</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Soil Capability</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2012</style></year></dates><publisher><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Public Library of Science</style></publisher><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">7</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">e34847</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">&lt;sec&gt;&lt;title&gt;Background&lt;/title&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fungi strongly influence ecosystem structure and functioning, playing a key role in many ecological services as decomposers, plant mutualists and pathogens. The Mediterranean area is a biodiversity hotspot that is increasingly threatened by intense land use. Therefore, to achieve a balance between conservation and human development, a better understanding of the impact of land use on the underlying fungal communities is needed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/sec&gt;&lt;sec&gt;&lt;title&gt;Methodology/Principal Findings&lt;/title&gt;&lt;p&gt;We used parallel pyrosequencing of the nuclear ribosomal ITS regions to characterize the fungal communities in five soils subjected to different anthropogenic impact in a typical Mediterranean landscape: a natural cork-oak forest, a pasture, a managed meadow, and two vineyards. Marked differences in the distribution of taxon assemblages among the different sites and communities were found. Data analyses consistently indicated a sharp distinction of the fungal community of the cork oak forest soil from those described in the other soils. Each soil showed features of the fungal assemblages retrieved which can be easily related to the above-ground settings: ectomycorrhizal phylotypes were numerous in natural sites covered by trees, but were nearly completely missing from the anthropogenic and grass-covered sites; similarly, coprophilous fungi were common in grazed sites.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/sec&gt;&lt;sec&gt;&lt;title&gt;Conclusions/Significance&lt;/title&gt;&lt;p&gt;Data suggest that investigation on the below-ground fungal community may provide useful elements on the above-ground features such as vegetation coverage and agronomic procedures, allowing to assess the cost of anthropogenic land use to hidden diversity in soil. Datasets provided in this study may contribute to future searches for fungal bio-indicators as biodiversity markers of a specific site or a land-use degree.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/sec&gt;</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%">Bugalho, Miguel N.</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Caldeira, Maria C.</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Pereira, João S.</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Aronson, James</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Pausas, Juli G.</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Mediterranean cork oak savannas require human use to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment</style></secondary-title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Biodiversity conservation</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Carbon storage</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Cork oak savannas</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">ecosystem services</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Management practices</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Quercus suber</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Shrub encroachment (voyant)</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2011</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2011///</style></date></pub-dates></dates><urls><web-urls><url><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/100084</style></url></web-urls></urls><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">9</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">278 - 286</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Mediterranean cork oak savannas, which are found only in southwestern Europe and northwestern Africa, are ecosystems of high socioeconomic and conservation value. Characterized by sparse tree cover and a diversity of understory vegetation – ranging from shrub formations to grasslands – that support high levels of biodiversity, these ecosystems require active management and use by humans to ensure their continued existence. The most important product of these savannas is cork, a non-timber forest product that is periodically harvested without requiring tree felling. Market devaluation of, and lower demand for, cork are causing a decline in management, or even abandonment, of southwestern Europe’s cork oak savannas. Subsequent shrub encroachment into the savanna’s grassland components reduces biodiversity and degrades the services provided by these ecosystems. In contrast, poverty-driven overuse is degrading cork oak savannas in northwestern Africa. “Payment for ecosystem services” schemes, such as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+) programs, could produce novel economic incentives to promote sustainable use and conservation of Mediterranean cork oak savanna ecosystems in both Europe and Africa.</style></abstract><issue><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">5</style></issue></record></records></xml>