40 years after the grapes - change of vegetation on abandoned vineyards in the Cinque Terre National Park (Italy) between 1980 and 2019

Traditionally cultivated vineyards in the Mediterranean terraced landscape of the Cinque Terre (Liguria, Italy) have been affected by land use abandonment for decades. This trend has profound consequences for the cultural landscape that today is protected as a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site with great importance for tourism. The change of vegetation in the course of secondary succession is of crucial importance for the development of slope stability, biodiversity and the scenic value of the landscape. On many slopes of the Cinque Terre, a mosaic of different stages of fallow vegetation in direct neighborhood of remaining cultivated areas has formed. Near to the Village of Corniglia vegetation studies on fallow and cultivated areas were carried out in the 1980s and 2000s by Richter (1989), Carl & Richter (1989), Richter & Block (2001). In this study we present a continuation of a mapping time series of plant formations that now reaches back to round about 40 years and characterizes it based on collected field data. On the one hand our results show the expected continuation of abandonment and the progression of secondary succession and a related change in life-form spectra. Furthermore, disturbances such as insect calamities have led to a local disappearance of pine stands on all study sites since the beginning of 2000s, thus advancing the maquis shrubs and holm oak stands as temporary final communities. Future research should integrate knowledge about spatial and temporal development of follow vegetation on agricultural terraces into approaches for ecosystem services assessment, thus supporting the decision making processes of landscape management.