Human impact on natural landscapes through urbanization and agricultural expansion are becoming more and more dramatic and are the cause of serious environmental problems. This volume examines the effect of landscape disturbance on plant and animal diversity in the five mediterranean-climate regions of the world. It begins with three introductory chapters broadly reviewing the issues of landscape degradation. Further contributions describe regional land use conflicts in each of the five regions. Landscape disturbance and plant diversity, and landscape disturbance and animal diversity are treated in separate chapters. Four contributions deal with demography and ecophysiology in vegetation succession following disturbance. The volume closes with a consideration of the future addressing aspects of environmental politics.

The first book that examines the impact of human landscape disturbance on biodiversity within mediterranean-climate ecosystems

Inhalt
1 Landscape Disturbance in Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems: An Overview.- 2 From Biodiversity to Ecodiversity Holistic Conservation of the Biological and Cultural Diversity of Mediterranean Landscapes.- 3 Ecological Indicators of Landscape Degradation.- 4 Land Use Conflicts in the Western Cape Region of South Africa.- 5 Impacts of Land Use on Biodiversity in Southwestern Australia.- 6 Land Use Conflicts in California.- 7 Abandoned Lands and Land Use Conflicts in Southern France.- 8 Land Use Changes and Conflicts in the Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems of Western Crete.- 9 Land Use Changes and Conflicts in Central Chile.- 10 Local Endemism and Plant Conservation in the Cape Floristic Region.- 11 Managing Biodiversity on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa: A Hotspot Under Pressure.- 12 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology of Coastal Transition Zones from Mediterranean to Desert Ecosystems: An Intercontinental Comparison.- 13 Distribution and Ecology of Geophytes in Chile. Conservation Threats to Geophytes in Mediterranean-Type Regions.- 14 Coupling Demography, Physiology and Evolution in Chaparral Shrubs.- 15 Physiological Ecology of Mediterranean Seeds: Links with Ex Situ Conservation of Plants.- 16 Aspects of Demography in Post-Fire Mediterranean Plant Communities of Greece.- 17 Ecophysiological Processes and Demographic Patterns in the Structuring of California Chaparral.- 18 Insect Population Changes and Conservation in the Disturbed Landscapes of Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems.- 19 Loss of Vertebrate Diversity Following European Settlement of Australian Mediterranean Regions.- 20 Bird Diversity in a Changing Landscape (Tuscany, Italy).- 21 Patterns of Mammalian Biodiversity, Urbanization, and Land Use in Southern California.- 22 Biodiversity in Fluctuating Dry-LandEnvironments: Basic and Applied Aspects.- 23 Politics and Environment in Mediterranean-Climate Regions.- Species Index.