  Mediterranean rangelands should be conceived as socio-ecological landscapes
(SEL) because of the close interaction and coevolution between socio-economic
and natural systems. A significant threat to these Mediterranean rangelands is
related to uncontrolled fires that can cause potential damages due to the
reduction or even the loss of ecosystems. Our results show that time series of
forest and grassland for unburned and burned areas are characterized by both
periodic and chaotic components. The fire event caused a clear simplification
of vegetation structures as well as of SEL dynamics that is more regular and
predictable after the burning and less chaotic. However grassland evolution
could be more predictable than forest considering the effect of fire
disturbance on successional cycles and stages of the two land-cover types. In
particular, we applied recurrence analysis with sliding temporal windows
three-year length on the original time series. This analysis indicates that
grasslands and forests behaved similarly in correspondence with the burning,
although their phase states slowly diverge after fire. Recurrence is useful to
study the vegetation recovery as it enables mapping landscape transitions
derived from remote sensing. The approach helps stakeholders to draw landscape
interventions and improve management strategies to sustain the delivery of
ecosystem services.
