Landscape dynamics in endangered cork oak woodlands in Southwestern Portugal (1958–2005) Augusta Costa Helena Pereira Manuel Madeira Received: 30 June 2008 / Accepted: 15 January 2009 / Published online: 17 February 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract Cork oak landscape dynamics were assessed over a 47-year period (1958–2005) in an endangered region of southwest Portugal using a GIS approach. The area of cork oak woodlands was maintained during this period, but shifts due to land abandonment were evident leading to transformation of cork oak agriculture areas into woodlands and of cork oak woodlands into shrublands (average yearly change rates of 0.6 and 0.1%, respectively). The multi-temporal landscape analyses showed that expansion and regression rates of cork oak forests were similar (15 and 16 ha year -1 , respectively). The main factor determining oak woodlands expansion and regression was related to land-use changes, but slope, aspect and soil type were also significant factors. The substitution of agriculture lands and oak woodlands by shrublands has a determining role in periods of disturbance and recovery of these Medi- terranean ecosystems. Keywords Quercus suber L.  Cork oak forest dynamics  Montado ecosystem  Landscape analysis Introduction The cork oak (Quercus suber L.) is an important species known by its ability of producing a thick cork layer in the outer bark in a sustainable way during the tree’s life i.e., by regenerating it after cork extraction (Pereira and Tome ´ 2004). In Portugal, the cork oak is the most economically important oak species in an agroforestry system named ‘‘montado’’, characterized by open tree layer of evergreen oaks, with shrub or annual herbaceous understory (Joffre et al. 1999), as cork is a valuable non-wood forest product (NWFP) used industrially mainly for the production of wine stoppers (Pereira 2007). The national cork oak area (about 737,000 ha) represents 23% of the total forest area (DGRF 2007), and has increased at a rate of 2,000 ha year -1 , from an estimated area of 637,000 ha in 1956 (Nogueira 1990). The area increase rate was higher since 1980, at nearly 3,500 ha year -1 (DGF 1985, 2001), as a result of the financial support of EU’s CAP, through agro-environmental measures (Pinto-Correia and Mascarenhas 1999). Cork oak is well-adapted to summer drought (David et al. 1992; Oliveira et al. 1992), exhibiting A. Costa (&)  H. Pereira Centro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade Te ´cnica de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal e-mail: augustac@isa.utl.pt M. Madeira Centro de Pedologia, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade Te ´cnica de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal 123 Agroforest Syst (2009) 77:83–96 DOI 10.1007/s10457-009-9212-3