15 Montado Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research Platform (PT)

• Dominant ecosystem: Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrub
• Access: LTSER Montado platform integrates five research and monitoring stations ranging from 25 to 200 km from Lisbon
• DEIMS site code: LTER_EU_PT_001

A savannah-like forested landscape dominated by cork and holm oaks, shaped by traditional land use practices to create a unique agro-silvo-pastoral ecosystem (named “Montado” or “dehesa” in Spain), that combines forest harvesting, livestock husbandry, pastures and crops, with other uses (e.g. hunting). Scientific focus: Research aims to understand how Montado functions and how its ability to provide ecosystem services responds to land-use changes under a desertification scenario. Research addresses ecological indicators based on biodiversity changes, functional groups as early-warning indicators of climate change and desertification, N critical levels and loads, and ecological restoration. Approaches include: multi-scale analyses, combined use of available datasets and field-collected data, use of functional groups and/or traits, testing the adequacy of the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis to explain the high biodiversity of traditionally managed ‘montado’, use of climate gradients to assess the co-effect of dryness on ecological services and multi-tiered models for ecosystem services analysis.

Contact

Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon (FFCUL)
 Margarida Santos-Reis, mmreis@fc.ul.pt

Further information

• Video about Montado LTSER site (courtesy of OPERAs project)