Vol.:(0123456789) Natural Hazards https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04002-y 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER Vegetation evolution by ecological succession as a potential bioindicator of landslides relative age in Southwestern Mediterranean region Luís Filipe Lopes 1  · Sérgio Cruz Oliveira 2  · Carlos Neto 2  · José Luís Zêzere 2 Received: 12 February 2019 / Accepted: 25 April 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract Landslides have a direct impact in the ecosystems dynamics being considered one of the main vegetation perturbation processes. Our objective is to determine the relation between vegetation cover evolution and time period after landslide disturbance, and therefore to assess the potential use of vegetation evolution within landslide areas as temporal bioin- dicators of landslide activity, in order to determine landslide relative age. Four rotational slides of known relative age, located in the Grande da Pipa River basin (Arruda dos Vin- hos, Portugal) were selected. The methodology includes four main steps: (1) to identify the fora and vegetation diferences between the main landslide sectors (scarp, body, foot); (2) to fnd out if the diferences in foristic composition and vegetation structure are refected in the succession process; (3) to fnd out if the succession process has produced difer- ent seral stages along the longitudinal gradients; (4) to compare the succession process in landslide afected areas with the undisturbed adjacent areas. The data points towards a slow evolution of the vegetation in the period following the disturbance, being necessary long periods for the perturbed area reach vegetation characteristics similar to the ones of the unperturbed areas. The progressive succession is rapid in the foot, slow in the body and extremely slow in the scarp. The presence of orchids in the body may be considered as an age bioindicator of more than 15 years since landslide disturbance. In the case of the older landslide (> 50 years), it corresponds to the evolved stage close to the potential natural vegetation. Keywords Landslides · Disturbed areas · Vegetation succession · Relative age bioindicator · Phytodiversity hotspots · Mediterranean region Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s1106 9-020-04002-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Luís Filipe Lopes l.lopes@edu.ulisboa.pt 1 Centro de Ecologia Aplicada ‘Prof. Baeta Neves’, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal 2 Centre for Geographical Studies, Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning, Universidade de Lisboa, Edifício IGOT, Rua Branca Edmée Marques, 1600-276 Lisbon, Portugal