Michael Vrahnakis

Floristic diversity of valonia oak silvopastoral woodlands in Greece

Valonia oak (Quercus ithaburensis subsp. macrolepis (Kotschy) Hedge and Yaltirik), a deciduous species grown in the xerothermic conditions of the east Mediterranean zone of Europe, forms woodlands of open canopy that permits adequate light to reach the ground thus sustaining an exceptionally rich flora. In Greece, these woodlands are mainly used for livestock grazing and considered important silvopastoral systems. Nowadays, most of them are abandoned and degraded as a result of inappropriate management. For the effective evaluation and sustainable management of these woodlands and the establishment of reliable monitoring systems, a detailed analysis of their plant diversity characteristics across Greece is needed. This paper aims at determining and comparing floristic diversity measures as well as at assessing the impact of human activities on vegetation and floristic diversity of the most characteristic valonia oak silvopastoral woodlands of Greece. It was found that the truncated log-normal model adequately predicts the species abundance data for eleven out of the twelve woodlands. From the statistical comparison of the diversity indices Q-statistic, Berger–Parker dominance index and Shannon-Wiener measure of equitability, three groups of these woodlands can be distinguished (a) the high-richness group of Pentalofos, Lesvos, Lakonia and Thesprotia, (b) the medium-richness group of Kriti Island, Alexandroupoli, Strofylia and Galaxidi, and (c) the low-richness group of Kea Island, Amfilohia, Almyros and Lilaia. However, the Rényi’s diversity ordering diagram showed that, generally, in low levels of entropy inconsistency is the rule and no clear pattern of diversity is extracted reflecting the impact of complex factors. Among them, those related to management seem to mostly determine plant diversity of valonia oak silvopastoral woodlands, with abiotic factors having an occasionally supporting role. Changes of species richness and evenness due to livestock grazing as well as acorn and wood harvesting are further discussed.

A conceptual business model for an agroforestry consulting company

While socioeconomic and environmental benefits of agroforestry are widely appreciated in the tropics, they were almost neglected from the plans for agronomic development implemented up to early 2000 as set by major policy schemes within the EU. However, such benefits had supported the rural economies of the Mediterranean EU countries—Greece included—in the past. Nowadays several unorganized traditional agroforestry systems persist, rather as remnants, and occupy extensive areas in Greece. Given its recognizable paramount importance as a lever for rural development, the EU included agroforestry in the forthcoming programming period of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP 2014–2020) as a greening, agro-environmental tool. While the institutional environment in Greece and the EU generally favours the initiation of agroforestry projects, farmers do not have such experience. The present paper sets as its major goals to set up and explore the major characteristics of a Business Model for an agroforestry consulting company (ACC) in Greece, by applying the Pillar/Blocks methodology of Alexander Osterwalder and his co-workers. Details on Customer Value Proposition, Customer Segmentation and Relationship, necessary Resources, Costs and Revenue streams are presented. Greening primary production, sequence of harvests, additional income, prospects for entrepreneurship, and transfer of EU provisions to the farmers are the main Value Propositions of the ACC. Dedicated personal assistance and co-creation are the relationship types expected to be developed with its customers. Key partners are local representatives, academic specialists and stakeholders, while key suppliers are tubex manufacturers, software providers and NGOs. Main revenue streams for the ACC are usage fees, subscription fees and advertising. The establishment of such a consulting company in a central location of the country, such as the region of Thessaly, where the agri-market environment appears promising, is expected to generate additional revenues for farmers that will introduce and/or maintain agroforestry systems and cause major improvements in an area with decreasing soil and water quality and deteriorating landscape values due to intensification of farming over the last decades.

The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) in 2015–2016

The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG, formerly known as European Dry Grassland Group) is an official working group of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS) and was founded in 2008. The EDGG is a network of currently 1141 members from 64 countries (26 July 2016), interested in Palaearctic natural and semi-natural grasslands from any point of view, including fauna, flora, vegetation, ecology biodiversity, conservation, land use and management. The main activities of the EDGG (see Vrahnakis et al. 2013) are (i) the facilitation of international communication between researchers, site managers, policy and decision-makers; (ii) coordination of scientific and policy-related actions in grassland research, conservation and restoration in the whole Palaearctic; (iii) promotion of the development of databases for grassland classification, best-practice in conservation and restoration; (iv) organisation of annual events, such as the Eurasian Grassland Conferences (EGCs) and Field Workshops (formerly known as EDGG Research Expeditions); and (v) dissemination of research results in Special Features of peer-reviewed international journals such as Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (Dengler et al. 2014), Biodiversity and Conservation (Habel et al. 2013, Török et al. 2016), Applied Vegetation Science (Dengler et al. 2013), Plant Biosystems (Janišova et al. 2011), Tuexenia (e.g. Becker et al. 2016) and Hacquetia (e.g. Valkó et al. 2016). Whilst we are affiliated to the IAVS, our scope is not restricted to just vegetation science but also includes all taxa that are associated with grasslands. Further information about the EDGG can be found from our web-site at http://www. edgg.org/. You can also find us on Facebook: EDGG Eurasian Dry Grassland Group. This contribution aims at summarising the major developments in the EDGG since the last report (Carboni et al. 2015). The EDGG has undergone a number of fundamental changes during 2015. First of all, whilst we are still the EDGG, “EDGG” now stands for ‘Eurasian Dry Grassland Group’, in place of the previous ‘European Dry Grassland Group’. This reflects a broadening in our geographical scope that has been evident for a considerable time, with active contributions from North Africa, the Near East and Central Asia. The grassland biome extends eastwards far beyond the borders of Europe, and our interest and activities certainly do not end at the European border. The scope of the EDGG has also been modified to cover all Palaearctic natural and seminatural grasslands, without the previous restrictions to dry grasslands and to Europe. This latter change is reflected in the sub-title we have added to the name of the organization, “Eurasian Dry Grassland Group – Grassland Research and Conservation”.

Dry Grassland Types in the Prespa National Park (Nw Greece), Including the Southernmost Occurrence of the Priority Habitat Type “Pannonic Sand Steppes” (Code 6260)

Abstract A recently completed project on the Natura 2000 sites of Prespa National Park revealed that the area hosts 49 habitat types according to the EU classification, of which eight have a narrowly restricted distribution in Greece. The priority habitat type “*6260 Pannonic sand steppes” is reported here for the first time for Greece. The new locality represents its southernmost occurrence on the Balkan Peninsula. The aim of this paper therefore is to describe the Greek stands of this habitat type, investigate the factors affecting its occurrence and discuss the associated conservation issues. This is based on a total of 87 releves sampled for this study and 8 additional releves from the literature. The releves were classified by applying TWINSPAN and ordinated using Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA). Six vegetation units could be distinguished. One of these corresponds to the habitat type *6260 and was found exclusively on inland sand dunes. Syntaxonomically, we assigned this unit to the alliance Sileno conicae-Cerastion semidecandri s.l. of the class Koelerio-Corynephoretea. Its occurrence in the study area seems to be determined by climatic factors, as well as by the sandy substrate, while anthropogenic disturbances such as grazing also appear to be beneficial to some degree. Apart from the Koelerio-Corynephoretea, another five grassland classes were distinguished in the national park, namely the Thero-Brachypodietea, Stellarietea mediae, Festuco-Brometea, Daphno-Festucetea and Juncetea trifidi. Izvleček Nedavno končani projekt o območjih Natura 2000 v Narodnem parku Prespa je pokazal, da je na območju po EU klasifikaciji 49 habitatnih tipov, od katerih jih je osem z ozko razširjenostjo v Grčiji. Pojavljanje prednostnega habitata “*6260 Panonske stepe na peščenih tleh” v Grčiji objavljamo prvič. Nova lokacija predstavlja najjužnejše pojavljanje na Balkanskem polotoku. Namen članka je opisati sestoje tega habitatnega tipa v Grčiji, preučiti dejavnike, ki vplivajo na njegovo pojavljanje in razpravljati o vprašanjih, povezanih z njegovim ohranjanjem. Raziskava temelji na 87 vegetacijskih popisih in 8 dodatnih popisih iz literature. Popise smo numerično obdelali s pomočjo TWINSPAN klasifikacije in z uporabo korespondenčne analize z odstranjenim trendom (DCA). Ločili smo šest vegetacijskih enot. Ena ustreza habitatnemu tipu in smo jo našli le na celinskih peščenih sipinah. Sintaksonomsko smo jo uvrstili v zvezo Sileno conicae-Cerastion semidecandri s.l. in razred Koelerio-Corynephoretea. Njeno pojavljanje v preučevanem območju je pogojeno s klimatskimi dejavniki in peščeno podlago, antropogene motnje, kot na primer paša, pa do neke mere nanjo vplivajo pozitivno. Poleg travišč razreda Koelerio-Corynephoretea smo v parku našli še pet travišč iz razredov Thero-Brachypodietea, Stellarietea mediae, Festuco-Brometea, Daphno-Festucetea in Juncetea trifidi.