Wildfires are important sources of landscape change in Mediterranean environments, creating large patches of natural habitats (i.e., scrublands) inside protected areas, whereas woodland patches remained at the border in the vicinity of human settlements. Landscape patterns resulting from these gradients influence habitat suitability for mesocarnivores regarding food and shelter. In winter and summer 2019, we sampled 16 independent line-transects of four camera traps each (for a total of 64 cameras), covering the main habitats of the study area (woodlands, scrublands, and crops). Cameras were baited to compensate for low detectability of target species, and mesocarnivore contacts were analyzed by means of GLMMs and occupancy models. We hypothesized that Mediterranean mesocarnivores were constrained by two opposing forces, pushing them living in semi-natural but highly fragmented and heterogeneous landscapes created by humans, or living in natural but less suitable and continuous habitats created by fire regimes. In the former case, mesocarnivores will find protection against predators and resting sites in forests, as well as improved food opportunities in crops and urban areas, despite the possible interference with humans and their pets. Potential cascading effects linked to ecological roles of Mediterranean mesocarnivores on the succession of Mediterranean landscapes would imply longer-term effects of human disturbance on landscape trends.

This study assessed the hydrological performance and runoff water quality of 12 green roof (GR) modular systems located at the Universidad de los Andes campus (Bogotá, Colombia). Based on 223 rainfall events spanning a 3-year period, average rainfall retention was 85% (SD = 25%). T-tests, Welch Test, multiple linear regressions and correlation analysis were performed in order to assess the potential effect of air temperature, substrate type, vegetation cover, relative humidity, antecedent dry weather period (ADWP), rainfall duration and rainfall maximum intensity. In some cases, GR design variables (i.e. growing media and type of vegetation) were found to be significant for describing rainfall retention efficiencies and, depending on the GR type, some hydrological variables were also correlated with the rainfall retention. Rainfall and GR runoff were monitored for Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN), Nitrates, Nitrites, Ammonia, Total Phosphorus (TP), Phosphates, pH, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Color, Turbidity, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Coliforms, metals and Poliaromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). The results obtained confirmed that GR systems have the ability to neutralize pH, but are source of the rest of the aforementioned parameters, excluding PAHs (with concentrations below detection limits), Ammonia, TSS, Se and Li, where differences with reference values (rainfall and plastic panel runoff) were not statistically significant. Substrate type, event size and rainfall regime are relevant variables for explaining runoff water quality.