The Mediterranean region has been shaped by human activity and mantained by traditional practices of land use for centuries. This has affected the distribution of plants and the landscape. Arising from the work undertaken as part of the ModMED research project under the Environment programme of the European Commission, this book details the rapid changes that have taken place in the vegetation of the Mediterranean during the last half-century.

PART 1 OVERVIEW OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN.1. Large Scale Post-Glacial Distribution of Vegetation Structures in the Mediterranean Region (Pierre Quezel).2. Forest History in the Mediterranean Region (Gaetano Di Pasquale, Paolo Di Martino and Stefano Mazzoleni).PART II SOUTHERN LANDSCAPES: GENERAL ISSUES3. Forest Cover Changes in the Maghreb Countries with Special Reference to Morocco (Mohamed Rejdali).4. Long-Term Observation of Mediterranean Ecosystems with Satellite Remote Sensing (J. Hill, P. Hostert and A. Roder).PART III SOUTHERN LANDSCAPES: CASE STUDIES5. Landscape Dynamics in a Semi-arid Mediterranean Catchment (SE Spain) (Andreu Bonet, Juan Bellot and Juan Pena).6. Recent Landscape Evolution in Dehesa Woodlands of Western Spain (P. Regato-Pajares, S. Jimenez-Caballero, M. Castejon and R. Elena-Rossello).7. Landscape Dynamics in South-Eastern Sicily in the Last 150 Years: The Case of the Iblei Mountains (Gaetano Di Pasquale, Giuseppe Garfi and Antonello Migliozzi).8. Land Use Changes and Landscape Dynamics in Western Crete (V. P. Papanastasis, I. Ispikoudis, M. Arianoutsou, P. Kakouros and A. Kazaklis).9. Man-Landscape Relationships in Mediterranean Areas: A Study of Landscape Changes in the Mount Carmel (Maxim Shoshany, Naftaly Goldshlager, Pua Kutiel and Daniel Grossman).PART IV NORTHERN LANDSCAPES: GENERAL ISSUES10. The Impact of Changes in Land-Use on Ecological Patterns in the Provence (Mediterranean France) (Thierry Tatoni, Frederic Medail, Philippe Roche and Marcel Barbero).11. Vegetation Dynamics and Land Use in Epirus (Sander Van Der Leeuw).PART V NORTHERN LANDSCAPES: CASE STUDIES12. Recent Changes of Coastal and Sub-mountain Vegetation Landscape in Campania and Molise Regions in Southern Italy (Stefano Mazzoleni, Paolo Di Martino, Sandro Strumia, Maurizio Buonanno and Maria Bellelli).13. Consequences of Rural Abandonment in a Northern Apennines Landscape (Tuscany, Italy) (Giuliana Torta).14. Changes in the Forested Agricultural Landscape of the Pisan Hills (Tuscany, Italy) (Andrea Bertacchi and Antonino Onnis).15. Historical Vegetation Dynamics: Archive and Pollen Evidence for Ancient Grassland and Plantation in Nineteenth Century Liguria (NW Italy) (Diego Moreno, Carlo Montanari, Maria Angela Guido and Giuseppina Poggi).16. Rural Changes and Landscape in Serra Da Malcata, Central East of Portugal (J. Luis Coelho-Silva, Francisco Castro Rego, Sofia Castelbranco Silveira, Paula C. Cardoso Gon+alves and Carlos Alberto Machado).17. Landscape Dynamics in the area of Serra Da Arrabida and the Sado River Estuary (Paulo Godinho Ferreira, Mario Almeida, Alexandra Fernandes, Paola Codipietro and Francisco Castro Rego).18. Changes in Landscape Structure of the Natural Park of Alvao (Portugal) (Isabel Timoteo, Joao Bento, Francisco Castro Rego and Adelaide Fernandes).PART VI EDGE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN AREA19. Land Abandonment and the Spreading of the Forest in the Eastern French Pyrenees in the 19th-20th Century (Jean Paul Metaili' and Martin Paegelow)20. The Natural Dynamics of Abandoned Chestnut Stands in Southern Switzerland (Marco Conedera, Pietro Stanga, Berhard Oester and Peter Bachmann).21. Forest Cover Progression, Land-Use and Socio-Economic Changes on the Edge of the Mediterranean (Lidija Globevnik, Mitja Kaligaric and Andrej Sovinc).PART VII EPILOGUE22. Climate change land use change and the "desertification" of Mediterranean Europe (Mark Mulligan, Sophia M. Burke and M. Concepcion Ramos).