Assessment of Cistus–Medicinal Plant Interactions for Agroecological Restoration of Abandoned Farmland in Sardinia

Mediterranean landscapes are undergoing profound ecological transitions. Abandonment of agricultural land, urban migration, and shifting climate conditions create landscapes with significant restoration potential but uncertain ecological trajectories. The Italian island of Sardinia - a biodiversity hotspot - exemplifies this trend, with large areas of abandoned farmland interspersed with remnant pockets of culturally, ecologically, economically important native shrub species.
Within these fragmented ecosystems, certain wild shrubs and subshrubs function as nurse plants — species that naturally create microhabitats favorable for biodiversity, pollinator activity, and the establishment of other plants. While the general role of nurse plants is known in Mediterranean ecology, little research addresses their role in human-disturbed, small-scale agroecological landscapes, nor their potential as indicator species for targeted restoration or as agroecological infrastructure to support sustainable cultivation of native species.
This MSc research will investigate the role of selected Mediterranean species — shrubs and subshrubs - as facilitators of cultivated conspecific seedlings to promote ecological restoration, sustainable agroecology, and nature-credit valuation frameworks