Research Group on Marginal Land Ecosystem Services (MLES)

The research group on Marginal Land Ecosystem Services (MLES) was formed in 2007 to promote and coordinate research directed towards the economic and social valorisation of services and goods provided by marginal ecosystems and the development of sustainable management systems for marginal lands in mountain areas. The objectives of the group are:

• i) to study conventional mountain systems, e.g., forests and woodlands, rangelands, natural and semi-natural grasslands, agro-forestry systems, fresh water aquatic systems, urban systems, landscapes, in ecological, agronomical, economical, and social perspectives,
• ii) to study relevant processes in these systems, e.g., landscape change, disturbance, erosion, water quality and yield, vegetation-atmosphere fluxes, spatial and temporal dynamics of diversity, genetic flows, social and economical dynamics,
• iii) to study the role of non-conventional solutions in the development of mountain areas, e.g., biomass production for energy, non-woody forest products, ecosystem services valuing; and
• iv) to provide technical solutions for the sustainable management of conventional and non-conventional mountain systems.

The MLES research group is composed of 39 researchers, 28 of which with a PhD degree, with background in forestry, hydrology, plant ecology, freshwater ecology, landscape ecology, urban forestry, soil science, environmental sciences, animal science, and natural resource economics. Recent research and development projects cover a large array of subjects including woody biomass production for energy, productivity and carbon storage in mixed forest ecosystems, forest soils productivity and sustainability, silviculture and ecology of hardwood forest and agro-forestry systems, plant improvement of cork oak, game-plant interactions, green areas and environmental quality in urban areas, landscape change and fire hazard, ethnobotany, habitats and land use cartography and monitoring, biodiverse permanent pastures, animal production, ecological quality of rivers, and hybridization processes.

Contacts

João C. Azevedo
Centro de Investigação de Montanha - CIMO
Escola Superior Agrária
Instituto Politécnico de Bragança
Campus de Santa Apolónia, Apartado 1172
5301-855 BRAGANÇA
PORTUGAL

Telephone: (+351) 273 303 382
Fax: (+351) 273 303 319
e-mail: jazevedo@ipb.pt
web: www.cimo.esa.ipb.pt