Land-use and spatial resilience changes in the Spanish olive socio-ecological landscape

Abstract

The spatial structure of agricultural landscapes can affect crop resilience to potential pest development. Previous studies have found several spatial landscape metrics related to the abundance of the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae, and these were combined to elaborate a spatial resilience index. In this paper, this index was calculated for olive landscapes all over Spain, for four years spanning a 50-year temporal range (1956, 1984, 1998 and 2008), using a network of 64 16-km2 plots representing olive landscapes within a bio-geo-climatic gradient. The resilience index was then modified adapting it through the weighting of spatial landscape metrics determined from the monitoring of this time-series analysis. The results showed that the values of spatial resilience of olive landscapes is predominantly low in southern Spain and medium in northeast and central Spain. The value of the index increased throughout the time-series considered, but not in the south. Expansion and concentration of olive groves, diversification of land uses, and fragmentation of landscapes have been the driving forces behind the evolution and current spatial structure of olive landscapes. The weighted resilience index constitutes a valuable tool for the socio-ecological planning of olive landscapes.