Land abandonment in European mountains threatens habitats shaped for centuries by low-intensity agriculture and grazing. Hence, it is important to identify spatiotemporal patterns in rural abandonment, and relate them to biophysical and socioeconomic drivers. We pursued these goals in the theoretical context of transitions from traditional to productivist and then to post-productivist agriculture. We conducted a case study in a representative of southern Europe sub-mountainous marginal area that was once traditionally exploited (Pindus range, Epirus, Greece). Land cover was mapped from the outset of abandonment (years 1945, 1970, 1996 and 2015), and we subsequently calculated landscape metrics. An Intensity Analysis facilitated the comparison of rates of land cover change between time periods. By employing random forest modelling, we related socioeconomic, physiographic, geological and climatic predictors to land type occurrence and succession intensity. We found that farmland decreased from 30% to 3% during the 70 years of the study period, and that forest increased from 22% to 63%. The landscape’s heterogeneity, ecotone diversity, and spatial aggregation decreased. Abandonment and succession accelerated and relocated to lower elevation, especially during the latest time period, which was related to a second depopulation wave and livestock decrease. The remaining lowland farmlands were of productivist agriculture, and no widespread post-productivist regime was found. Thus, our study supports the view that policies, which have been mainly based on the linear transition of agricultural regimes in northern Europe, must take into account southern European mountains, where widespread abandonment can coexist with limited intensification and extensification.

Land use and cover (LUC) of southern European mountains is dramatically changing, mainly due to observed socioeconomic demands and climatic changes. It is therefore important to understand LUC changes to accurately predict future landscapes and their threats. Simulation models of LUC change are ideal for this task because they allow the in silico experimentation under different socioeconomic and climatic scenarios. In the present study, we employed the trans-CLUE-S model, to predict for 2055 the LUC of a typical southern European sub-mountainous area, which has experienced widespread abandonment until recently. Four demand scenarios were tested, and under each demand scenario, we compared three climatic scenarios, ranging from less to more warm and dry conditions. We found that farmland declined from 3.2% of the landscape in 2015 to 0.4% in 2055 under the business-as-usual demand scenario, whereas forest further increased from 62.6% to 79%. For any demand scenario, differences in LUC between maps predicted under different climatic scenarios constituted less than 10% of the landscape. In the less than 10% that differed, mainly farmland and forest shifted to higher elevation under a warmer and drier climate, whereas grassland and scrubland to lower. Such insights by modelling analyses like the present study’s can improve the planning and implementation of management and restoration policies which will attempt to conserve ecosystem services and mitigate the negative effects of socioeconomic and climatic changes in the mountainous regions of southern Europe.

Mediterranean landscapes were drastically affected by high levels of abandonment of agricultural and other land practices during the last century. These changes in land use can have significant effects on diversity patterns by altering disturbance and competition equilibria within plant communities at the landscape level. Particularly, such changes have been found to affect the patterns of phylogenetic diversity and structure by causing nonrandom losses of species through filtering effects and landscape homogenization. By investigating diversity patterns across a region submitted to high levels of land use changes, located in a (sub‐) mountainous area of northwestern Greece (northern Pindus), we aimed at understanding the patterns of phylogenetic diversity and structure in relation to land abandonment and the subsequent recovery of natural vegetation. We sampled 250 vegetation plots equally divided in grasslands and forests, distributed across the different classes of land use occurring in the general study area based on the period since the last change in land use. Standardized metrics of Faith's phylogenetic diversity, mean phylogenetic distance, and mean nearest taxon distance were used to investigate phylogenetic diversity patterns across communities and different land‐use regimes. A Principal Coordinates of Phylogenetic Structure analysis was employed to evaluate the variation in lineage composition among communities, and boosted regression trees were used to identify the relative influence of community differentiation (as captured by the classification of sampling plots in ecologically and floristically distinct vegetation communities), plant life strategies (competition, stress tolerance, and disturbance), and climatic, topographic, and soil variables on phylogenetic diversity metrics. Community differentiation was identified as the main driver of phylogenetic patterns. Additionally, phylogenetic diversity and structure were observed as having a statistically significantly negative correlation with disturbance, a statistically significantly positive correlation with stress tolerance, and a weaker positive correlation with competition. Phylogenetic clustering was observed for the early successional grassland communities submitted to stronger effects of disturbance, while phylogenetic randomness (or rarely overdispersion) was observed in forest communities submitted to stronger effects of competition. Finally, phylogenetic clustering of grassland communities was more evident shortly after land abandonment.

Aesculus hippocastanumL. (European Horse-chestnut) constitutes a biogeographical relict species of the Balkan Peninsula, occurring in isolated and topographically distinct localities in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and North Macedonia. Despite its great botanical, ornamental and pharmaceutical value, a thorough investigation ofAe. hippocastanumhabitat diversity in its native distribution range has not been conducted yet. The present study aims at the syntaxonomic classification and ecological features of plant communities dominated by this species across its overall native distribution range. On the basis of 55 phytosociological relevés, five ecologically, floristically, and spatially well differentiated clusters were identified, with the main revealed gradients of differentiation being geographic location (longitude, latitude), altitude, annual precipitation and precipitation seasonality. The distinct microhabitats with a special refugial character where these plant communities occur meet the species’ requirement for relatively high air and soil humidity. They have allowed the preservation ofAe. hippocastanumthrough time highlighting their great conservational value. The last one could be useful for the implementation of some appropriate measures for effective conservation of these communities.