MED-LDM project

Introduction

Wildfires and the mediterranean region

The current fire regime, with a high impact of large wildfires, is one of the main problems for the maintenance of Mediterranean ecosystems. The impact of fire on the structure of a given landscape and on species distributions is relatively complex. As landscapes are complex entities, for a given set of environmental conditions (topograph

y and climate), landscape structure is the result of interactions between the abiotic (perturbations) and the biotic components (vegetations and fauna). In turn, landscape structure strongly determines the character of these interactions. Predicting the response of species distribution in dynamic landscapes requires the integration of different approaches, methodologies and experiences to account for interactions between different processes acting on these systems.

Study area

Catalonia, with a geographical extent of 32000 km², is situated at the NE part of the Iberian Peninsula, on the western part of the Mediterranean basin. The area is dominated by a mediterranean climate. Whereas winters are rather mild, warm and dry summers favourish critical periods in relation to fire risk.

The catalan territory comprises a wide diversity of habitats, which are spatially arranged in a landscape mosaic. Physiographically, there are ranges with high mountains, coastal ranges and a central depression, which is occupied by extensive agricultural zones. The dominant species in Catalan forests belong to the Quercus and Pinus genera. Extensive areas of mediterranean shrublands exist too. There is a strong landscape fragmentation caused both by human activity and forest wildfires.

Objectives

In the MED-LDM project we want to use Mediterranean landscapes affected by fires, but including interactions between different components of global change (i.e climate change and land use changes) as a model study to develop a method that allows species dynamic distribution modelling to be integrated in a landscape scenario platform.

There are three main objectives of the project:

1. Develop spatially explicit landscape dynamic models that integrate the main ecological and socioeconomic drivers of change of Mediterranean forest landscapes.

2. Building dynamic distribution models linked to scenario development.

3. Testing explicit hypothesis of the effects of global change on biodiversity and ecosystem services.