InBIO/CIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, n° 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal.
Universität Leipzig, Ritterstraße 30, 36 04109 Leipzig, Germany.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Feb 10;755(Pt 1):142897. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142897. Epub 2020 Oct 14.
Rewilding has been proposed as an opportunity for biodiversity conservation in abandoned landscapes. However, rewilding is challenged by the increasing fire risk associated with more flammable landscapes, and the loss of open-habitat specialist species. Contrastingly, supporting High Nature Value farmlands (HNVf) has been also highlighted as a valuable option, but the effective implementation of agricultural policies often fails leading to uncertain scenarios wherein the effects of wildfire management remain largely unexplored. Herein, we simulated fire-landscape dynamics to evaluate how fire suppression scenarios affect fire regime and biodiversity (102 species of vertebrates) under rewilding and HNVf policies in the future (2050), in a transnational biosphere reserve (Gerês-Xurés Mountains, Portugal-Spain). Rewilding and HNVf scenarios were modulated by three different levels of fire suppression effectiveness. Then, we quantified scenario effects on fire regime (burned and suppressed areas) and biodiversity (habitat suitability change for 2050). Simulations confirm HNVf as a long-term opportunity for fire suppression (up to 30,000 ha of additional suppressed areas between 2031 and 2050 in comparison to rewilding scenario) and for conservation (benefiting around 60% of species). Rewilding benefits some species (20%), including critically endangered, vulnerable and endemic taxa, while several species (33%) also profit from open habitats created by fire. Although HNVf remains the best scenario, rewilding reinforced by low fire suppression management may provide a nature-based solution when societal support through agricultural policies fails.
重新引入野生动物被提议作为废弃景观中生物多样性保护的机会。然而，重新引入野生动物面临着与更易燃景观相关的火灾风险增加和开阔生境专家物种丧失的挑战。相比之下，支持高自然价值农田（HNVf）也被强调为一种有价值的选择，但农业政策的有效实施往往失败，导致野火管理的影响在很大程度上仍未得到探索的不确定情况。在此，我们模拟了火灾景观动态，以评估在 2050 年，在跨国生物圈保护区（葡萄牙-西班牙的热雷什山脉）中，重新引入野生动物和 HNVf 政策下，火灾抑制情景如何影响未来的火灾格局和生物多样性（102 种脊椎动物）。重新引入野生动物和 HNVf 情景通过三种不同的火灾抑制效果水平进行调节。然后，我们量化了情景对火灾格局（燃烧和抑制区域）和生物多样性（2050 年栖息地适宜性变化）的影响。模拟结果证实，HNVf 是长期火灾抑制的机会（与重新引入野生动物情景相比，2031 年至 2050 年期间增加了多达 30000 公顷的抑制区域）和保护（受益于约 60%的物种）。重新引入野生动物有益于一些物种（20%），包括极度濒危、脆弱和特有类群，而一些物种（33%）也受益于火灾产生的开阔栖息地。尽管 HNVf 仍然是最佳情景，但在农业政策未能得到社会支持的情况下，通过低强度火灾管理强化的重新引入野生动物可能提供一种基于自然的解决方案。
