Aida López-Sánchez

• PhD in Advanced Forestry Research
• Associate Professor at Universida Católica de Ávila

Dehesas are traditional silvo-pastoral systems with scattered oak trees that maintain considerably high biodiversity. Over the last five decades, dehesas have undergone significant management changes, causing a reduction in oak recruitment that threatens their long-term persistence. Here we examine oak regeneration in Mediterranean dehesas of Centr...

http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1TUiv5liTE~OyX Mediterranean scattered oak woodlands support relatively high biological diversity, and provide important ecosystem services. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about livestock-tree-grassland relationships, knowledge necessary for effective conservation management in these systems. To address su...

Oak woodlands of Mediterranean ecosystems, a major component of biodiversity hotspots in Europe and North America, have undergone significant land-use change in recent centuries, including an increase in grazing intensity due to the widespread presence of cattle. Simultaneously, a decrease in oak regeneration has been observed, suggesting a link be...

Mediterranean dehesas are an archetypal example of high nature value farmland in Europe. To better understand the interactions between trees and grasslands in the conservation and management of the dehesa, we measured, over 3 years, the contribution of scattered trees to the diversity and biomass dry-matter (DM) yield of the herb layer and the rela...

Los proyectos de ordenación son instrumentos de gestión de los bienes y servicios de los ecosistemas. Mediante la ordenación se pretende garantizar la persistencia, estabilidad y mejora del ecosistema mediante un aprovechamiento sostenible de sus recursos sacando el máximo de utilidades. En el libro se desarrolla la ordenación de los montes de las...

Forest fires are a major global environmental problem, especially for forest ecosystems and specifically in Mediterranean climate zones. These fires can seriously impact hydrologic processes and soil erosion, which can cause water pollution and flooding. The aim of this work is to assess the effect of forest fire on the hydrologic processes in the...

This study examines the effectiveness of five deep learning models-ViTb-19, SwinV2-t, VGG-16, ResNet-50, and DenseNet-121-in distinguishing different vegetation types in the protected grasslands of Castilla y León region, Spain, following the guidelines of the Natura 92/43/CEE directive. Among the models, ResNet-50 achieved the highest weighted ove...

Background and Aims Anthropogenic disturbances are causing a co-occurring increase in biotic (ungulate herbivory) and abiotic (drought) stressors, threatening plant reproduction in oak-dominated ecosystems. However, we wonder whether herbivory could compensate for the adverse impact of drought by reducing evapotranspiration. Thus, we investigate th...

Climate change has intensified the effects of habitat fragmentation in many ecosystems, particularly exacerbated in riparian habitats. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify keystone connectivity spots to ensure long-term conservation and sustainable management of riparian systems as they play a crucial role for landscape con-nectivity. Thi...

https://www.xicongreso.conservacionvegetal.org/libro-del-congreso/

https://www.xicongreso.conservacionvegetal.org/libro-del-congreso/

Citation: Rincón, V.; Velázquez, J.; Gülçin, D.; López-Sánchez, A.; Jiménez, C.; Özcan, A.U.; López-Almansa, J.C.; Santamaría, T.; Sánchez-Mata, D.; Çiçek, K. Mapping Priority Areas for Connectivity of Yellow-Winged Darter (Sympetrum flaveolum, Linnaeus 1758) under Climate Change. Land 2023, 12, 298. Abstract: The yellow-winged darter (Sympetrum fl...

Oak forests are facing multiple threats due to global change, with the introduction and expansion of invasive pathogens as one of the most detrimental. Here, we evaluated the use of soil biological fertiliser Biohumin® to improve the response of Quercus ilex L. to the soil-borne pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands by using one-year-old seedlings...

Here, we aimed to define ecological indicators of environmental change for monitoring the effect of a reintroduced species, the Iberian ibex ( Capra pyrenaica ), over the vegetation of a natural protected area with contrasting habitats. This species was reintroduced 30 years ago in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park, Spain, and its population h...

In the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (central Spain), the population of Iberian wild goat, also known as Spanish ibex ( Capra pyrenaica ) has grown strongly since its reintroduction three decades ago. The plant community is now under heavy browsing pressure due to this high population. A study of the presence of moss on rocks was used herein a...

Scattered oaks in traditional silvopastoral systems (i.e., “dehesas”) provide important ecological services. However, livestock intensification applied to these systems over the last century has affected the architecture of young oak plants. This unsuitable rangeland management practice jeopardizes the long-term system sustainability. Here we exami...

Worldwide, multiple ecosystems are currently affected by global change because of important anthropogenic disturbances which have quickly increased levels of abiotic (e.g. climate) and biotic stress (e.g. diseases, pests, herbivory). In particular, oak-dominated systems have experienced a general decline as a consequence of habitat destruction, mis...

This paper presents a methodology to study the connectivity that livestock trails can offer to guarantee the transit of organisms and access to pasturelands. In this regard, a connectivity analysis was carried out in two scenarios: Basic Scenario (Scenario 1: pasture) and Extended Scenario (Scenario 2: pasture + livestock trails) by using the Morph...

Mediterranean oak woodlands are currently facing unprecedented degradation threats from oak decline. The Iberian oak decline “Seca”, related to Phytophthora infection, causes crown defoliation that may adversely affect ecosystem services (ESs). We aim to improve our understanding of how Seca-induced declines in crown foliation affect the provision...

Mixed oak-beech forests are particularly valuable from an ecological and socioeconomic perspective but are increasingly exposed to anthropogenic impacts. We wonder whether anthropogenic change drivers, such as increased drought and ungulate populations affect optimal regeneration niches, species coexistence, and mixed-species forest dynamics. We co...

Question Worldwide, mixed oak woodlands regenerate poorly due to different anthropogenic impacts. Our question is whether spatial distribution (regeneration microsite) of oak recruits is determined by different biotic and abiotic stress agents and whether recruits of co‐occurring oak species may respond differently to each source of stress. Locati...

The assessment of landscape condition for large herbivores, also known as foodscapes, is fast gaining interest in conservation and landscape management programs worldwide. Although traditional approaches are now being replaced by satellite imagery, several technical issues still need to be addressed before full standardization of remote sensing met...

Traditional orchard meadows are among the most valuable cultural and agricultural systems for nature conservation in Europe. They comprise scattered fruit trees over a highly diverse herbaceous layer and provide a wide range of ecosystem services. However, they are strongly endangered due to farmland intensification and abandonment. Livestock grazi...

Mediterranean oak woodlands are currently undergoing considerable anthropogenic changes that globally threaten their long‐term persistence. Restoration efforts via assisted regeneration depend on species traits and type of stress. However, how different sources of stress vary across space (microsites) and time (intra‐ and inter‐annual variation) fo...

Abstract The phylum Oomycota comprises important tree pathogens like Phytophthora quercina, involved in central European oak decline, and Phytophthora cinnamomi shown to affect holm oaks among many other hosts. Despite the importance to study the distribution, dispersal and niche partitioning of this phylum, metabarcoding surveys, and studies consi...

Grazed woodlands provide important ecosystem services (ESs) that contribute to human well-being. Conservation towards protected bird species may sometimes threaten the preservation of protected habitats or the persistence of other threatened species. Studies evaluating the effect of species conservation programs on ecosystem services are yet unusua...

Wild ungulate populations have increased and expanded considerably in many regions, including austral woodlands and forests where deer (Cervus elaphus) have been introduced as an alternative management to traditional cattle grazing. In this study, we compared traditional cattle with introduced deer management at increasing deer densities in the “Ch...

Land use changes occurring in Europe in recent decades are generating important changes in the forest landscape characteristics and are having important effects on avian species richness and abundance. This is particularly important for some bird species of particular conservation concern that require heterogenous landscapes where breeding habitats...

The decade of the fifties of the twentieth century triggered huge changes in land use and management in ecosystems worldwide, including the iconic Mediterranean ecosystems known as dehesas. In this study, we have quantified the changes in dehesa landscape status within a geographic area of 200,000 km² covering mainly the Spanish dehesa range over t...

La dispersión de semillas a través de la avifauna facilita la expansión geográfica de numerosas especies leñosas, así como la colonización de zonas en las que se encuentran ausentes. El acebuche Olea europaea subsp. europaea var. sylvestris es un especie mediterránea y de interés en repoblaciones forestales, cuyos frutos carnosos “acebuchinas” son...

Understanding tree recruitment is crucial to assess species turnover in mixed forests and woodlands, particularly in light of current anthropogenic impact. Here, we investigate whether oak recruitment (density of young oaks) in co-existing deciduous and evergreen oaks is disproportional to the abundance of their corresponding reproductive trees, fa...

Orchards are traditional agroforestry elements in agricultural landscapes and valuable for nature conservation in Europe. However, their diversity is endangered due to farmland intensification or abandonment. Grazing management promotes plant species diversity but grazers are suspected to harm trees through debarking. We studied 42 orchards within...

Orchards are traditional but endangered agroforestry landscape elements in the continental part of Europe and of high importance for nature conservation. Trees introduce diversity into grasslands, as they establish microsites with different conditions through modification of light availability and soil chemical parameters. In orchards, livestock ma...

Streuobstgrünland ist ein für den Erhalt von Biodiversität wertvolles Element unserer Kulturlandschaft. Sein Bestand ist jedoch aufgrund von landwirtschaftlicher Intensivierung oder Aufgabe, sowie von Überalterung der Obstbaumbestände gefährdet. Die Bedeutung für faunistische Diversität wurde wiederholt betont, es mangelt bisher jedoch an wissensch...

http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1TZLT,Q4YJBuzy Scattered trees are considered keystone structures and play an important role in Mediterranean sylvopastoral systems. Such systems are associated with high biodiversity and provide important natural resources and ecosystem services. In this study, we measured the contribution of scattered trees and diffe...

La cobertura del suelo por pastos herbáceos se emplea en la caracterización de espacios pastoreados, siendo además, un indicador de sobrepastoreo y de la protección del suelo frente a la erosión hídrica. En una dehesa del centro peninsular y durante dos años con condiciones meteorológicas muy contrastadas hemos analizado el comportamiento de esta v...

Questions Oak savanna‐like systems (dehesas) are highly valuable and protected systems that are strongly compromised by a continuous failure of oak recruitment. Our question is whether different long‐term management types involving cattle, sheep and wild ungulates affect the abundance and diversity of safe microsites (shrubs) for oak recruitment. W...

Dehesas are good examples of Mediterranean ‘High Nature Value farming’ systems representing an important carbon sink. As other agroforestry systems, the extent of C sequestered will depend on the amounts of C in standing biomass of pastures, among others. The presence of scattered tree layer, along with an adequate extensively-management has an imp...

The presence of trees and adaptative management techniques play an important role within Mediterranean agroforestry ecosystems. Dehesas are good examples of Mediterranean 'High Natural Value' agriculture and produce important natural resources. Our work focuses on the influence of trees and main management techniques (stocking rate and site quality...

Mediterranean Dehesas are one of the European natural habitats associated with high diversity and they provide important natural resources and ecosystem services. In our research, we study tree contribution and grazing influence over pasture alpha diversity in a Dehesa in Central Spain. We analysed Richness and Shannon-Wiener (SW) indices within th...

Los proyectos de ordenación son instrumentos (planes) de gestión de los ecosistemas para garantizar el sostenimiento de los bienes y servicios que proporcionan. En este proyecto se desarrolla la ordenación de los montes de las márgenes del Embalse Gabriel y Galán, situadas en los términos municipales de Zarza de Granadilla, Guijo de Granadilla y Mo...

La dehesa es el sistema agroforestal español más conocido y estudiado; hoy en día está protegido por la Directiva Hábitats 43/92/CEE (6310-Dehesas perennifolias de Quercus ssp.) e incluida en la red Natura 2000. La conservación del sistema pasa por un profundo conocimiento de su dinámica y funcionamiento así como por asegurar una gestión sostenible...