Natural habitat around the quarry is affected by landscape dynamics.

Abandonment of forest management practices affects

negatively the forest structure of the plantations of, P. pinea; P. pinaster and P. radiata.

The disappearance of rain fed agriculture leads to afforestation.

Afforestation reduces runoff, thus lowering stream water discharge and even interrupting streamflow.

Natural temporal ponds disappear except on quarries.

The quarry activity involves modifications of landscapes. New landscapes varies from simple deforestation on preparation works, to profound modifications of the relief and soil disappearance.

The extraction phase of the quarry can last several

decades. Time enough for establishing ecosystem

interchange with surrounding habitats

Pond formation on concavities and pond construction as

retention basins to prevent silt transport by runoff.

Net loss of biodiversity linked to open habitat disapperance

Agricultural fauna and mostly ground nesting birds : Miliaria calandra, Athene noctua, Alauda arvensis,

Oryctolagus cuniculus, Tymon lepidus, Bufo calamita..

The quarry as ecosystem services provider

The biodiversity linked to temporal ponds becomes quarry biodiversity.

When local streams dry up on mid summer, the ponds of the quarry become the only source of water.

Roe deer and other species visit the quarry for watering

Quarry areas with natural soil becomes a reserve on flowering herbs and shrubs,

and its pollinator invertebrate fauna.

Soils developed from granite are easily excavated by rabbits. No human hunting area + palatable herbs abundance + easy

den excavation = rabbit abundance.

Quarry ponds become vistually the only suitable reproduction habitat for natterjack toads (Bufo calamita).

Presence of birds of prey (Buteo buteo, Circaetus gallicus). Quarry as hunting

range.

Barren soils, rocks and cliffs as new habitats

Opportunities for rock and cliff nesting species: Bubo bubo,

Monticola solitarius,..

Conventional decision environment

Restoration projects ignoring the ecological interactions of the quarry habitat during the extraction phase.

Aesthetic landscape management restricted to mimicking the pre-

existing situation. Landscape visual treatment = camouflage?

The recuperation of previous relief is the main objective.

Environmental consequences of prevailing dogmas

Loss of quarry habitats

Impact on Natterjack toad

populations

Rabbit population

decline

Frequent erosion problems on attempts to restore

vegetation on slopes over 15%

The camouflage landscape objective rarely accomplished as it is difficult to

grow xenophile vegetation on reconstructed hillsides, and so the cover of vegetation is much lower.

Proposal for an integrated management approach

Restoration projects must be a consequence

of the ecosystem dynamics during the

extraction phase.

Why not to try to "sculpture" stable natural looking cliffs?

Implement the biodiversity management plans during the

extraction phase taking into account the ecosystem services that the quarry

habitat provides to the surrounding natural landscapes.

GIS analysis use to optimize useful extraction volume. Optimize

quarry production on ecological grounds is not a sin!

Ecosystem dynamics and decision environment

A flowchart for our proposal