The current paper presents a study on the interaction between land abandonment and soil responses to fire in old agricultural terraced landscapes. The study area, located near the Guadalest reservoir ...(E Spain), was partially affected by a forest fire in August 1998. We monitored burned and unburned areas as well as two pre-fire stand ages since agricultural abandonment: 8-15 years (dry grassland with young Pinus halepensis) and >35 years (mature pine forest). We analysed soil surface structure, water repellency and infiltrability, and we monitored plant response, runoff and sediment production for a period of 7 years after the fire. Aggregate stability increased with both time-since-abandonment and fire. Water repellency increased with land abandonment but was not affected by fire. Unburned erosion plots produced almost no runoff, even during heavy rainstorms. Fire scarcely modified runoff and erosion rates in recently abandoned terraces. A dry period following fire restricted plant recovery in burned pine forest. Burned forest plots registered runoff and sediment yields one to four orders of magnitude higher than unburned forest plots. In burned pine forest, the maximum sediment production was registered 3 years after the fire, when rainstorms took place and plant cover was still low. Old agricultural terraces colonised by pines were found to be both vulnerable to degradation as a consequence of fire and highly dependent on post-fire rain for their recovery.
Terraced landscapes with agricultural terraces are cultural landscapes with a special value. This volume presents them in pictures and words in all their diversity and attractiveness. After ...discussing the global and European dimensions of terraced landscapes and their agricultural terraces, the volume focuses on Slovenian terraced landscapes~they are discussed separately by landscape types, individual regions, and sample cases in the territory of selected settlements (pilot areas). The conclusion also draws attention to the exceptional value and appeal of non-agricultural terraced landscapes that have been shaped by nature and man.
The objective of this work is to promote a change in the assessment of cultural landscapes of agricultural terraces on islands where tourism development and the neglect of agriculture have led to ...changes (territorial, socio-economic, environmental and cultural) to their marginalization, which endanger their conservation. To do so, documents of the instruments for management of protected areas, land and heritage management are analyzed besides the scientific literature, in which various aspects of such cultural landscapes are addressed. The results show the institutional and scientific marginalization to which these landscapes have undergone in the Canaries, which contrasts with the international scene.
