<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Morphometric and biochemical contributions to the structuration and systematics of the Holm oak Quercus ilex L. specific complex</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">ACTA BOTANICA GALLICA</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2001</style></year></dates><publisher><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">SOC BOTANIQUE FRANCE</style></publisher><pub-location><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">FACULTE DE PHARMACIE, BP 83, F-59006 LILLE-CEDEX, FRANCE</style></pub-location><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">148</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">289-317</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">The ecological amplitude and the biological variability of the Holm oak are such that any systematic characterization is hazardous. This study, conducted from eleven origins representative of the Western Mediterranean area, is novel by its pluridisciplinary and statistical approach. Chemical (foliar flavonoids) and morphometric data (dry weight, lengthening, veins of the leaves) support the same conclusion that the ``variability{''} of the Holm oak is structured by Ford sensu polymorphism. The distinction between ilex and rotundifolia remains pertinent from a first order perspective, but the second taxon should also be sub-divided into two distinct entities, the first in the Iberian peninsula, the other in North Africa. We consider the Holm oak as a specific complex comprising three taxa: ilex L.; rotundifolia emend. and maghrebiana subsp. nov. Although the Pyrenees constituted a barrier between ilex and rotundifolia, hybridisations and mutual introgressions doubtless explain certain abnormalities in Catalonia and Languedoc, A primarily morphometric determination key is proposed, though to be entirely rigorous only a population-based and multivariate-based approach, with inclusion of the biochemical parameters, can hope to address with sufficiently subtlety a problem of this complexity.</style></abstract></record><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Les grandes structures de végétation en région méditerranéenne: facteurs déterminants dans leur mise en place post-glaciaire</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Geobios</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1999</style></year></dates><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">6</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">19-32</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">The present-day large vegetation units, taking into account their historical value, can, at least partly, be compared with those which have taken place since the end of the Wiirm. The present-day pre-steppic forests, pre- forest units and actual forests enable us to understand: the progressive evolution of the woody vegetation, at least up to the Atlantic, according to the global climatic changes; its regressive evolution in connexion with the increasing anthropic pressure during the following periods. This anthropic pressure, nearly stabilised at the end of the last cen- tury, has been getting weaker in most of the north mediterranean countries, inducing a clear biological revival, whe- reas, in the southern ones, man's action goes on intensifying, due to an uncontrolled increase in population. The pro- blem set by the steppes, matorrals and grasslands has also been taken into consideration but historical data are often too fewer to allow an accurate reconstruction. The present-day dynamism of these formations enables us to understand that their spreading has been and nowadays still remains under the direct influence of man's action, particularly by the way of voluntary fires, grazing and land-clearings.</style></abstract></record><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Changes and disturbances of forest ecosystems caused by human activities in the western part of the Mediterranean basin</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Plant Ecology</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1990</style></year></dates><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">87</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">151-173</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">The development of socio-economic activity over the past ten years in the Mediterranean region has induced severe changes in the main natural forest ecosystems. In the northern Mediterranean, rural depopulation has accelerated since the end of the second World War, particularly since the establishment of Common Market agricultural policies, and led to an under-utilization of species causing a strong biological resurgence of the forest, even at high altitudes. This means that, at the present time, the extension of expansion model coniferous forests is favored by their capacities for spatial, biological and ecological selection. Along with this, the under-utilization of sclero- phyllous (resistance model) and deciduous (stabilization model) oak coppices has led to the establishment of new forest structures and architectures which are notably different from the main climatic groups defined up to now by phytosociological and synchronic methods. Two new forms of disturbances have appeared: - increasingly important wild fires have replaced disturbances caused by burn beating and are at the origin of the very strong spatial and temporal heterogeneity of current forest species. - In addition, the geographical continuity of the main groups of same-aged sclerophyllous and deciduous species, due to their non-use over the past ten years, has accelerated a phytosanitary imbalance by an increase in the action of pests. In the southern Mediterranean, particularly in North Africa, demographic pressure and grazing have widely disturbed the main forest ecosystems which show a continual regression of their surface. Many forest tree species with a low spatial and biological selection, such as Mediterranean firs and black pines (Pinus nigra subsp, mauritanica), are threatened with extinction, as are the deciduous oak forests which, considering the climatic stress and edaphic constraints, are permanently in a state of imbalance. Human disturbances induce a complete modification of structures and architectures tending towards the instal- lation of simplified forest models (trees-grasses) where tree regeneration is nearly impossible. The sclero- phyllous coppices well-adapted to stress are also threatened by shorter and shorter cutting cycles and by the high usage of tree canopies for grazing. - The forest understory structures have witnessed a decrease in their characteristic sylvatic species and the matorralization of most of the forests can be seen by the replacement of typical forest groups by preforest groups (Tetraclinis forests, Aleppo pine forests). - New geopedological constraints linked to the removal of the surface soil layer combined with regular climatic stress (duration of drought periods) strongly decrease the resilience of these ecosystems which are under continual pressure (unbalanced models). - In diverse regions, particulary in semi-arid bioclimates, hyperdegradation affects the shrub cover which disappears for a time in favor of perennial grasses (forest steppization): Andropogon div. sp., Ampelodesmos, Stipa div. sp. In all bioclimatic groups, the increase in grazing pressure throughout the southern Mediterranean ecosystems can even lead to the total disappearance of perennial species from the ecosystem with the exception of the dominant tree. Regardless of the altitude or ecosystem, invasive therophytes are then the only plants to occupy the understory and indicate hyperdegradation (forest therophytization).</style></abstract></record></records></xml>