Grazing Land Productivity, Floral Diversity, and Management in a Semi-Arid Mediterranean Landscape

Most grazing lands in Mediterranean ecosystems that support extensive sheep farming systems are characterized by unfavorable edapho-climatic conditions, especially semi-arid areas. Often, though, their use is far from sustainable, causing erosion and ecosystem degradation impacts. In this paper, we explore the use, productivity, flora diversity of typical four farms at Agra locality western part Lesvos Island, Greece. For a period two consecutive growing seasons (September to June), recorded herbage biomass on 16 plots with three measurements per season land cover plant productivity (biomass) inside small exclosures (cages) protected grazing. We species richness herbaceous communities within outside cages end every season, maximum growth species. also chemically analyzed for crude protein each season. Results show sizable differences among pasture as well an overall medium high degree considering relatively intensive grazing, little over different intensity. These results suggest “history” fields important, had been used arable crops past, those leveled favorable locations, were most productive diverse ones, while shallower soils inclined showed signs overuse degradation. Overall, these resilience despite use.