The Mediterranean region has been shaped by human activity and maintained by traditional practices of land use for centuries. This has affected the distribution of plants and the landscape, which can be considered as part of the European cultural landscape. Recent Dynamics of Mediterranean Vegetation and Landscape details the rapid changes that have taken place in the vegetation of the Mediterranean in the last half-century, a period in which major socio-economic development greatly affected the cultural and physical landscape.
PART 1 OVERVIEW OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN.
1. Large Scale Post-Glacial Distribution of Vegetation Structures in the Mediterranean Region (Pierre Quézel).
2. Forest History in the Mediterranean Region (Gaetano Di Pasquale, Paolo Di Martino and Stefano Mazzoleni).
PART II SOUTHERN LANDSCAPES: GENERAL ISSUES
3. 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. Röder).
PART III SOUTHERN LANDSCAPES: CASE STUDIES
5. Landscape Dynamics in a Semi-arid Mediterranean Catchment (SE Spain) (Andreu Bonet, Juan Bellot and Juan Peña).
6. Recent Landscape Evolution in Dehesa Woodlands of Western Spain (P. Regato-Pajares, S. Jiménez-Caballero, M. Castejón and R. Elena-Rosselló).
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 ISSUES
10. The Impact of Changes in Land-Use on Ecological Patterns in the Provence (Mediterranean France) (Thierry Tatoni, Frédéric Médail, Philippe Roche and Marcel Barbero).
11. Vegetation Dynamics and Land Use in Epirus (Sander Van Der Leeuw).
PART V NORTHERN LANDSCAPES: CASE STUDIES
12. 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. Luís 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 Arrábida and the Sado River Estuary (Paulo Godinho Ferreira, Mário Almeida, Alexandra Fernandes, Paola Codipietro and Francisco Castro Rego).
18. Changes in Landscape Structure of the Natural Park of Alvão (Portugal) (Isabel Timóteo, João Bento, Francisco Castro Rego and Adelaide Fernandes).
PART VI EDGE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN AREA
19. Land Abandonment and the Spreading of the Forest in the Eastern French Pyrenées 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 EPILOGUE
22. Climate change land use change and the "desertification" of Mediterranean Europe (Mark Mulligan, Sophia M. Burke and M. Concepción Ramos).
" [...] details the rapid changes that have taken place in the vegetation of the Mediterranean in the last half century [...] "
- Bois & Forets Des Tropiques, 3rd Trimester 2005
" [...] a wealth of detailed information [...] "
- The Holocene, Vol 15 (6) September 2005