Cristina Quintas-Soriano

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• PhD in Applied and Environmental Sciences
• Ramón Y Cajal at University of Almería

Context Humans continually transform landscapes, affecting the ecosystem services (ES) they provide. Thus, the spatial relationships among services vary across landscapes. Managers and decision makers have access to a variety of tools for mapping landscapes and analyzing their capacity to provide multiple ES. Objectives This paper characterizes an...

Sacred groves are important for the conservation of biodiversity in the Middle East, as more formal approaches to protected areas have often failed in this global biodiversity hotspot. This study aims to identify the most important social values, taboos and perceived threats around sacred groves in the Kurdistan province of Iran. We test whether va...

Land abandonment is a process widespread in many regions of the world as a consequence of socio-economic conditions and changes on the use of land. Research has shown that land abandonment can have both positive and negative effects, depending on the local context, location and scale. Research has framed land abandonment either as an opportunity fo...

Landscape products link to low-input practices and traditional ecological knowledge, and have multiple functions supporting human well-being and sustainability. Here we explore seven landscape products worldwide to identify these multiple functions in the context of food commodification and landscape sustainability. We show that a landscape product...

Rural abandonment is a significant process in the Mediterranean region, posing sustainability challenges for rural and urban areas. Although there is an increase in studies focusing on the ecological implications and impacts of land abandonment and the role of rewilding, there is a knowledge gap in the study of the socio-cultural dimension of aband...

Biocultural diversity reflects the interplay among biological and cultural diversity within social-ecological systems, shaped by human societies' unique interactions with nature. This concept encompasses diverse knowledge, beliefs, practices, and values linked to local biodiversity. Despite its growing relevance, research gaps persist, including th...

Recognizing and understanding the subjective wellbeing (SWB) of individuals is essential for designing effective policies that promote human development and the sustainable management of social-ecological systems (SES). This is particularly important for smallholders, critical stewards of biodiversity who face acute livelihood challenges. This arti...

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored societies’ need for education and preparedness in addressing global environmental and health crises. Raising public awareness of the interdependence of human, animal, and environmental health is essential to engaging the public in environmental conservation and disease prevention. The One Health approach offers...

La diversidad biocultural describe la variabilidad de todas las formas de vida, abarcando simultáneamente aspectos biológicos, culturales y lingüísticos, y reconociendo como estos están interconectados dentro de los sistemas socio-ecológicos. La diversidad biocultural reconoce la relación singular entre los seres humanos y su entorno natural; y pon...

Freshwater mussels and fish support many important ecosystem processes and functions in river systems that can be framed as ecosystem services. The ecosystem services provided by mussels and fish have been widely described; however, they are often not in the public forefront. Studies that link these invisible processes with perceived social benefit...

Although dry rivers only flow after heavy rainfall, recent studies have evidenced that they provide benefits to people. However, part of society undervalues these benefits, raising the question of whether they contribute to a good quality of life (GQL). We hypothesised that the benefits of dry rivers contribute to GQL of local communities as long a...

Land abandonment and rural depopulation are escalating worldwide, presenting sustainability dilemmas for both rural and urban regions. However, there remains a dearth of research on the sociocultural dimensions of abandonment from a local standpoint. This investigation focuses on a case study conducted in southeastern Spain, wherein a social survey...

We found a research gap on the role of emotions in the management of protected areas. We proposed a spatial methodological approach to integrate human emotions in protected areas. Emotional relationships between people and protected areas are analysed using an Emotional Nonparametric Relation Index (ENRI) We found a strong correlation between the e...

Relational values are a way of recognizing and valuing the complex and interconnected relationships between people and nature, such as caregiving, place attachment and spiritual meaning, as well as the social and cultural impacts of degradation and environmental and conservation efforts. However, the implications of these values for the management...

Dry rivers are non-perennial rivers with no surface water in their channels except after heavy rainfall or snowmelt. The lack of water flow is often associated with a low provision of Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP) and a poor quality of life. However, recent review studies have found evidence of human communities thriving in dry rivers thro...

Infographic material 2 created to the communication of SCALABLE's project results. "This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101031168". https://zenodo.org/records/10046348

Booklet: Summary of infographic materials created to the communication of SCALABLE's project results. "This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101031168". https://zenodo.org/records/10124417

Infographic material 1 created to the communication of SCALABLE's project results. "This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101031168". https://zenodo.org/records/10044207

Infographic material 3 created to the communication of SCALABLE's project results. "This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101031168". https://zenodo.org/records/10048285

Infographic material 4 created to the communication of SCALABLE's project results. "This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101031168". https://zenodo.org/records/10046428

Biocultural diversity (BCD) is the diversity of life in all its biological, cultural, and linguistic facets, intertwined within a complex social-ecological system. It acknowledges the interconnectedness of human societies with the natural world, resulting in distinct knowledge, practices, and values linked to local biodiversity. While research on B...

Understanding the nature's values and landscape preferences that determine the connection between people and nature may provide key insights to unravel some of the major sustainability challenges. However, knowledge of such factors, how they vary across landscapes, or whether they reflect more fundamental causes of (dis) connection from nature is s...

The Mediterranean region is facing major challenges for soil conservation and sustainable agriculture. Conservation agriculture (CA), including reduced soil disturbance, can help conserve soils and improve soil fertility, but its adoption in the Mediterranean region is limited. Examining farmers’ perceptions of soil and underlying sociocultural fac...

Landscapes can lead to different emotions towards nature that in turn shape people's environmental behavior and decision processes. This study explores the role of emotions that Mediterranean landscapes foster in people and to what extent these emotions are associated with human-nature connectedness (HNC). We conducted 176 face-to-face surveys to e...

Understanding the disconnection between people and nature represents one of the most important challenges for humanity. The scientific contribution of Fernando González Bernáldez, a Spanish naturalist by vocation and dedication, was built on the need to experience and understand conservation through the affective relationships that people develop i...

En base a la investigación Biodiversidad, economía y empleo en España. Análisis y perspectivas de futuro (Oteros et al, 2022), nos centramos en las dimensiones de cambio de modelo productivo y, especialmente, en las ocupaciones y en el empleo, respetuosas con la biodiversidad. El objetivo consiste en: a) Examinar la inversión, gasto y tipo de actua...

Landscape approaches are gaining momentum in both scientific and policy agendas. However, landscape approaches comprise a multitude of concepts, approaches and principles, which are in part similar, in some parts different or even contradictory. In this paper, we used a Q-method questionnaire to explore how landscape approaches are understood and e...

Globally, around 0.78 billion rural people live in close proximity to forests and have been considered “forest-dwelling” and/or “forest dependent”. Forest dependency has so far been mainly studied in material terms, while the non-material relationships to forests have been addressed less frequently. To fill this gap, the general objective of this s...

Human population has become the predominant force causing the decline of ecosystems and biodiversity. People’s disconnection from nature has been proposed as one of the roots underpinning human actions that lead to this environmental degradation. The lack of interaction with nature can reduce our emotional affinity towards the environment and clear...

El concepto de diversidad biocultural hace referencia a que la diversidad biológica y la cultural dependen la una de la otra, y que la biológica es gestionada, conservada y creada por diferentes grupos culturales y agentes sociales. Los paisajes rurales son ejemplos de conservación de diversidad biocultural. Sin embargo, actualmente están amenazado...

En un contexto generalizado de abandono de las áreas rurales hacia áreas urbanas, se considera que la región mediterránea es un área crítica dentro de Europa. El abandono rural está impulsado por complejos procesos sociales, económicos y ecológicos que generan una gran diversidad de impactos, por ejemplo sobre la biodiversidad. En los ecosistemas m...

Wildfires are increasing in severity, and magnitude in the Mediterranean Basin in recent years, reaching a yearly average of 450 000 ha over the last decade. Drivers include climate change, land-use change, and land abandonment. Wildfire mitigation requires landscape-level action as impact to each parcel is affected by the conditions of the others....

More and more people live in cities. In recent decades, this, combined with rural abandonment, has resulted in increased land ownership concentration and land grabbing , with an increase in agricultural intensification. This process is leading to an increasingly polarized landscape between abandonment of traditional farming activities and highly in...

More and more people live in cities. In recent decades, this, combined with rural abandonment, has resulted in increased land ownership concentration and land grabbing [1,2,3,4], with an increase in agricultural intensification [5,6]. This process is leading to an increasingly polarized landscape between abandonment of traditional farming activitie...

Background

In these times of strong pressure on aquatic ecosystems and water resources due to climate change and water abstraction, intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) (rivers that periodically cease to flow and/or dry) have become valuable assets. Indeed, not only do they supply water but they also offer services for humanity. Despite a growing...

The degree of coupling between the social and ecological components of social-ecological systems is seen as fundamental to understanding their functioning, interactions and trajectories. Yet, there is limited work about how to empirically understand the degree of coupling between social and ecological systems, nor the processes by which the degree...

Traditional farming landscapes in South and Central Portugal, known as montados, are affected by global socioeconomic and biophysical pressures, putting the sustainability of the systems in jeopardy. Cork oak trees (Quercus suber L.) are characteristic features of these complex agro-silvo-pastoral agroforestry systems, delivering a globally importa...

Context Global dynamics affect the sustainability of agricultural landscapes, but these cross-scale connections are understudied. Therefore, we combine food systems and landscape ecology, focusing on food products that provide a linkage between global consumers and landscapes of production (e.g., Douro Valley wine) which we call landscape products....

In the last decade, an awareness towards temporary rivers has increased globally in response to drying climates and growing human demand for water. However, social perceptions of temporary rivers have rarely been incorporated in their science and management. In this study, we advance an understanding of the socio-cultural values of temporary rivers...

Context Global dynamics affect the sustainability of agricultural landscapes, but these cross-scale connections are understudied. Therefore, we combine food systems and landscape ecology, focusing on food products that provide a linkage between global consumers and landscapes of production (e.g., Douro Valley wine) which we call landscape products....

Data used in the content analysis for the paper Impact of land transformation, management and governance on subjective wellbeing across social-ecological systems

Most protected areas are managed based on objectives related to scientific ecological knowledge of species and ecosystems. However, a core principle of sustainability science is that understanding and including local ecological knowledge, perceptions of ecosystem service provision and landscape vulnerability will improve sustainability and resilien...

The study of the relationships between freshwater organisms, pollution and public awareness has been little researched. The public’s perception of risk from pollution is a fundamental component in determining consumer behavior and promoting healthy habits. For instance, understanding how consumers perceive the risks associated with pollution can he...

Combining socio-cultural valuations of ecosystem services with ecological and monetary assessments is critical to informing decision making with an integrative and multi-pronged approach. This study examined differences in the perceptions of ecosystem service supply and diversity across eight major ecosystem types in Spain and scrutinized the socia...

Agroforestry landscapes in the Mediterranean Basin have emerged in a co-evolution between humans and nature and provide numerous ecosystem services to society. Tree crops are iconic elements of these landscapes and have frequently been managed in a sustainable way over centuries, shaping multifunctional landscapes and local people's cultural identi...

The study of the evolution and change of landscapes' ecological conditions through history has fascinated professional and amateur scientists for centuries. However, the understanding of why these changes happen and what these changes fully entail is still an emerging field of research, which nowadays broadly covers the study of the evolution of la...

Chapter 5 from the Intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams: what water managers need to know. Technical report – Cost ACTION CA 15113

In a nutshell: ▪ There is a variety of benefits that IRES provide to our societies, from the provision of materials such as water and timber, to iconic species, the regulation of biogeochemical cycles, and space for cultural manifestation and as a corridor for both wild and herded animals. ▪ Drying and rewetting processes, timing and duration of...

La influencia y legitimidad social del conocimiento científico están decreciendo globalmente. Una de las razones es la falta de interacción y comu-nicación entre los ámbitos de la ciencia, la gestión y las poblaciones locales o la sociedad en su conjunto. En los ámbitos de las políticas de soste-nibilidad y la crisis socioecológica global, esto rep...

Conservation easements are the fastest growing private conservation strategy in the United States. However, mechanisms to assess private land conservation as well as their support by the general public are not well understood. This study uses the ecosystem services framework for assessing existing private lands in Idaho and identifies areas for fut...

Context European agricultural landscapes are facing contradictory phenomena in that some areas are experiencing unsustainable land-use intensification while others are being abandoned. Specifically, agricultural intensification is increasing resulting in numerous negative environmental impacts on European soils, water and biodiversity; increased cr...

Context European agricultural landscapes are facing contradictory phenomena in that some areas are experiencing unsustainable land-use intensification while others are being abandoned. Specifically, agricultural intensification is increasing resulting in numerous negative environmental impacts on Euro-pean soils, water and biodiversity; increased c...

A projected 60% of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2030. Urbanization has major impacts on ecosystem services, and therefore human well-being, but not all groups within a community experience the impacts of urbanization on ecosystem services the same. It is important for decision-makers to understand the trade-offs that occur wit...

Recent studies have shown the opportunities and limitations of participatory mapping for ecosystem services management, although it is an incipient research area. One of the research questions yet to be addressed is whether the composition of stakeholder groups has an effect on the outputs of participatory mapping. In this study, we assessed the in...

Ecosystem service science has gained relevance among scientists, managers, and policy-makers worldwide as a way to communicate societal dependence on ecological life support systems. However, a major barrier to effective implementation of ecosystem services research is their lack of operationalization for land management and planning. This study co...

Land use decisions induce legacies that affect the welfare of future generations. Here, we present a spatial modeling approach for quantifying how past land use decisions influence provision of multiple ecosystem services based on different land use trajectories. We modeled the effect of past land use changes on water regulation, soil protection an...

Facing the challenges of environmental and social changes, sustainable management of ecosystem services is a worldwide priority. The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) approach provides a unique opportunity for promoting transdisciplinary place-based comparative research for social-ecological systems (SES) management. As part of the P...

Globally, environmental and social change in water-scarce regions challenge the sustainability of social-ecological systems. WaterSES, a sponsored working group within the Program for Ecosystem Change and Society, explores and compares the social-ecological dynamics related to water scarcity across placed-based international research sites with con...

Sustainable management of ecosystem services (ES) is a worldwide priority, especially in regions experiencing water scarcity and governance issues. ES are particular susceptible to landscape changes such as agricultural expansion or urbanization, but also by watershed decisions that prioritize water supplies for human needs. Here, as part of the PE...

The Program for Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) provides a unique opportunity for promoting transdisciplinary placed-based comparative research for social-ecological systems (SES) management. As part of the PECS project “water scarcity and governance across social-ecological systems, WaterSES”, we used four place-based SES research sites to ana...

The PECS-WaterSES compares the social-ecological dynamics causing and caused by water scarcity and governance across international research sites with conflicting local and regional water needs and governance, including arid southern Spain, the south-central Great Plains of Oklahoma (US), and the Portneuf and Treasure Valleys, Idaho (US). WaterSES...

This report presents a synthesis and integration of the key findings of the socio-economic valuation presented in the Technical Report which was completed in 2015, which is available in Spanish at the web site (http://www.ecomilenio.es). Overall, twelve ecosystem services have been valued using three main techniques: (1) a meta-analysis of the stud...

Land-use changes in the arid south-eastern Iberian Peninsula impact on the supply of various ecosystem services that support human well-being. Research into perceptions of the rapid expansion of greenhouse horticulture and the abandonment of rural and mountainous areas has highlighted trade-offs between conservation efforts and economic development...

We analyzed the state of the art in research on the economic valuation of ecosystem services in Spain. A review of 150 publications was conducted and included 649 economic value estimates. The results showed an increase in the number of scientific studies on the economic valuation of ecosystem services and a dissimilar distribution across regions....

The ecosystem services (ES) framework opens the door to common ground between ecology science and economics in facing the challenge of planetary sustainability. Application of the available methodologies and instruments reveals both the high potential and the controversies related to this new socio-ecological management approach. Feeding on the res...

Assuming the huge progress achieved in public participatory geographic information system (PPGIS) techniques and its current research gaps, this study aims to explore differences in the perception of spatial distribution of ecosystem services supply and demand between different stakeholders through collaborative mapping. The stakeholders selected i...

Worldwide water managers and policy makers are faced by the increasing demands for limited and scarce water resources, particularly in semi-arid ecosystems. This study assesses water regulation service in semi-arid ecosystems of the southeastern Iberian Peninsula. Comparisons between the supply–demand sides were analyzed across different landscape...