Abstract

Grasslands are an important element of European landscapes and environment. In the lastdecades, several causes have contributed to their decline among which the intensification ofagriculture activities. The National Park of Alta Murgia represents a typical agro-pastoralkarst system where the conversion to arable lands caused a drastic decline of semi-naturalrocky grasslands of high naturalistic value that traditionally were used for sheep grazing. Thischange of land use created much concern about the lack of biodiversity and soil degradation.Thus, the Park Authority promotes reconversions of arable lands into grasslands to safeguardbiodiversity, increase pastoralism and enhance the multi-functionality of farms. This studyevaluates the conservation and pastoral value of plant communities in former arable landsderived from grasslands conversion (by crushing the rocky substrate) and subsequentlyabandoned. We selected seven sites of these abandoned arable lands, no longer ploughed orsown for three to five or twelve to fifteen years. In order to have a comparison with situationsof low anthropic pressures, other five sites were selected in nearby natural rocky grasslands,without evidence of soil disturbance. Further two sites were selected in lands manuallycleared from stones and taken out of crop production for more than fifty years. Vegetationsamples were carried out according to the standard phytosociological method. Shannon andRichness indexes, ecological and phytogeographical quality and pastoral value werecalculated. The ecological quality was calculated through the ratio between cover ofdiagnostic taxa of the higher syntaxonomic units characterizing the undisturbed pastures andtotal cover. The phytogeographical value was evaluated considering the cover of endemic,sub-endemic and rare taxa out of the total cover value of each plant sample. For thecalculation of pastoral value, we referred to Daget and Poissonet (1969), considering thepalatability of taxa on a scale ranging from 0 to 5 according to data found in scientificliterature.From a conservation perspective, sites originated from the conversion of rocky pastures bycrushing of the rocky surface showed marked differences from undisturbed grasslands, evenafter 15 years from abandonment. Lands manually cleared and abandoned for more than fiftyyears, did not show appreciable differences from semi-natural grasslands, conserving manytaxa of high conservation value. On the other hand, fields originated from grasslandsconversion showed higher pastoral value. This paper emphasizes the need for safeguardingthe rocky substrates and their remnant typical grassland communities, even in the so-calledquote. Results are useful for the sustainable management of the agro-pastoral system of AltaMurgia, taking into account the ecological and economic role of those lands whose rockysubstrate had been crushed

Autore Pugliese

• Terzi Massimo

Tutti gli autori

• M. Fracchiolla; M. Terzi; F.S. D'Amico; L. Tedone; E. Cazzato

Titolo volume/Rivista

Italian journal of agronomy

Anno di pubblicazione

2017

ISSN

2039-6805

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Scopus

Non Disponibile

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Settori ERC

Non Disponibile

Codici ASJC

Non Disponibile