Modelling vegetation dynamics in heterogeneous pasture-woodland landscapes

Recent knowledge about tree regeneration, shifting mosaic in the herb layer or complex interactions between cattle activities, vegetation and landscape structure has allowed the development of a novel, spatially explicit, mosaic compartment model of the dynamics of silvopastoral ecosystems (WOODPAM). This deterministic model considers three hierarchical levels: the focal level is the phytocoenosis, represented by a cell or a patch in the landscape with a variable local stock density; herb and shrub communities as well as size-structured tree populations are the components of each patch at the lower level, spatially implicit; patches are aggregated in a pastoral management unit building the higher level, with an externally controlled global stock density.