Agro-biodiversity decrease and relations with landscape ecology in the Asinara National Park (Sardinia, Italy)

In the last few decades, a remarkable losses of biodiversity has occurred in Europe, in part caused by ecological effects of changes in agricultural systems production. This changes affect the character of landscapes and the availability of genetic resources. Further loss of species could accelerate the changes in ecosystem processes, but it is not clear how these changes, as compared to direct effects of the other forms of environmental change, influences diversity loss and alteration of the ecosystem functions. The marginal agricultural areas are particularly affected by diffuse habitats alterations. In these cases, Agro-ecology analysis allows to distinguish between land cover and land use, supporting the description of the interrelations between agro-biodiversity and landscape types. Often, different levels of biodiversity match different landscape expressions. The aim of the study is to verify the sustainability of agricultural models activities oriented to the improvement of agro-biodiversity levels, as connected with habitat and species conservation within protected natural areas in the study case of the Asinara National Park (Sardinia, Italy). The functional agricultural land use in protected areas must be also representative of the culture and the knowledge of the rural traditional context.