LTsER Montado platform (Portugal) joins Lifeplan project

The monitoring station of Companhia das Lezírias (CL) joined the LIFEPLAN project, as a representative of the montado landscape. Every week and until 2026, the cE3c team will collect the images and sounds recorded automatically by cameras and audiomoths installed on trees, and samples of spores and flying insects collected with a cyclone sampler and a malaise trap. Soil samples will also be collected 8 times a year. This sampling effort will be alternating every year with an urban site in Lisbon. All data collected will be integrating a global dataset to better understand the state of biodiversity on our planet.

CL is one of the sites included in the LTsER Montado platform, representing the cork oak forest and a less arid climate compared to the other sites of this platform, which represent the gradient of climate and land uses within the montado landscape. This savannah-like landscape (dehesa in spanish), dominated usually by cork oak (Quercus suber) or holm oak (Quercus ilex, sensu lato) trees, has been shaped by people over millennia and has resulted in a complex productive system with a high conservation value. In one space it combines forest production, pastoralism, the cultivation of cereals and other traditional land use practices. Currently, the montado faces several threats and drivers of change, such as climate change, that compromise the maintenance of its economic and environmental value. By developing long-term research at the LTsER Montado platform, cE3c aims to contribute to the development of sustainable management strategies that will promote its long-term sustainability.

Inês Rosário (University of Lisbon)