Ecological effect of riparian vegetation loss, linked to the irrigated network, in a traditional agricultural landscape of Mediterranean garden in the southeast of Spain

Background/Question/Methods

The Mediterranean garden has undergone great environmental changes in the last decades, derived from the recent urban transformation, that have affected the ecological function of natural ecosystems. The transformation of traditional land uses, that suppose the pass of an agricultural system to an abandoned or urban system, represent the most important environmental transformation because affect the water availability on the surface. The study was realized in the irrigated plain of Segura river, which includes a large area at South of Alicante province, in semiarid Spain. Presence of the water is the driving force for agricultural, urban, and touristic development. These changes affecting the sustainability of the economical traditional system and her environmental values. To analyze and evaluate the loss of riparian vegetation, in the last sixty years, photointerpretation and GIS techniques have been used. On the aerial photography, we selected 30 relevant points, with presence of riparian vegetation, and analyzed the time sequence to detect the change. Each point was square shaped and has one hectare of surface.

Results/Conclusions

During the last 60 years, the more of 50% of riparian vegetation network has been lost over the study area. In the Segura basin, strong associations were detected between the presence of riparian vegetation and traditional agricultural land uses. The human modification of the landscape mosaic and all related ecosystem processes, generate ecological changes throughout the entire Mediterranean basin. The recent urbanization process changes the natural environments by transforming the landscape and drastically reducing local biodiversity.