Vassilis Detsis

Recent Insular Mediterranean Landscape Evolution: A Case Study on Syros, Greece

Abstract Recent changes in the Mediterranean landscape has been triggered by changes in human activities. The first aim of this study is to identify socio-economic factors that brought about land cover change and the way the environmental characteristics of the area defined the trajectory or the lack of change and its spatio-temporal pattern. The second aim is to test whether the landscape is becoming more homogenous due to this process. The study was based on land cover maps of the area of Galissas on Syros, Greece covering the period between 1945 and 1998. The direction and the timing of change (or the lack of it) was related to rural depopulation, the emergence of greenhouse cultivation and tourism growth, and the geology and topography of each site. The underlying environmental heterogeneity has largely retained the land cover heterogeneity by mediating the processes of change.

Reforestation with Abies cephalonica Loudon: a five-year study of seedling survival

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish the effects on the survival of outplanted Abies cephalonica Loudon seedlings of seedling characteristics, site characteristics and management practices. Design/methodology/approach – The study was carried out by repeatedly monitoring survival of seedlings during a five-year period as well as establishing statistical relationships with a set of variables belonging to the aforementioned categories. It took place in plots reforested after a wildfire in the Parnitha Mt. National Park, near Athens, Greece. Findings – The odds of survival were found to be affected by bedrock type, dominant vegetation, initial seedling height and use of shading implements. Artificial shading was most important during the first year, site-related characteristics gained importance with increasing age and seedling height was of relatively constant importance. Shifts in temporal patterns of mortality and damage symptoms occurrence suggest that the mechanisms causing mortality chang...