Agroforestry landscapes in the Mediterranean Basin have emerged in a co-evolution between humans and nature and provide numerous ecosystem services to society. Tree crops are iconic elements of these landscapes and have frequently been managed in a sustainable way over centuries, shaping multifunctional landscapes and local people’s cultural identities. However, many Mediterranean tree-crop landscapes are undergoing substantial land-use changes, threatening important ecosystem services as a result. The overarching goal of this study is to explore common and diverging patterns of land-use change across different tree crops (oaks, chestnuts, olives) and contrasting landscapes in the Mediterranean Basin over a 200-year period. Specifically, we aim to: (1) describe the dominant land-use change processes across these three crop types using three exemplary sites per crop; and (2) identify and classify the main drivers that determine these landscapes’ land change histories. We find a general acceleration of landscape dynamics and identify expansion, continuity, polarisation, intensification, abandonment and renaissance as dominant processes. Although each landscape history is contextualised, we observe a general trend from multifunctional tree-crop landscapes (expansion) towards intensification or abandonment in the last 70 years. The landscapes of the southern fringe of the Mediterranean Basin show predominant trends towards intensification, while the northern landscapes evolve towards abandonment. The driving forces identified are diverse and interrelated, comprising sets of socio-cultural, political, technical, economic and natural factors. We offer some key lessons for sustainable landscape management in highlighting the undervalued potential of tree crops, the inherent complexity of landscapes, the interdependencies of drivers and the importance of economic and socio-cultural driving forces.

中文翻译：

---

探索林木景观的土地利用历史：地中海盆地的跨地点比较

地中海盆地的农林业景观以人与自然的共同进化出现，并为社会提供了众多的生态系统服务。树木是这些景观的标志性元素，并且在过去的几个世纪中经常以可持续的方式进行管理，塑造了多功能景观和当地人民的文化身份。但是，许多地中海树木的景观正在发生重大的土地利用变化，从而威胁到重要的生态系统服务。这项研究的总体目标是探索200年内地中海盆地不同树木作物（橡木，栗子，橄榄）的土地利用变化的共同且不同的模式，以及对比鲜明的景观。具体来说，我们旨在：（1）使用每种作物的三个示范点描述这三种作物类型的主要土地利用变化过程；（2）确定并分类确定这些景观的土地变化历史的主要驱动因素。我们发现景观动力学普遍加速，并将扩展，连续性，两极分化，集约化，放弃和复兴视为主要过程。尽管每种景观的历史背景都有关联，但在过去的70年中，我们观察到了从多功能树种景观（扩展）到集约化或废弃的总体趋势。地中海盆地南部边缘的景观呈现出加剧的趋势，而北部景观则逐渐趋于废弃。所确定的驱动力是多种多样且相互关联的，包括各种社会文化，政治，技术，经济和自然因素。我们为可持续景观管理提供了一些重要的经验教训，重点突出了林木被低估的潜力，景观固有的复杂性，驱动程序的相互依赖性以及经济和社会文化驱动力的重要性。