Ecology & Safety, Volume 19, 2025

Rezumat: The 'CULTIVAR', a research and innovation project for the sustainable development of agri-food sectors implemented in the Portuguese Beira Interior region, aimed to address agroecosystems' challenges in low-density areas through a territorial development strategy. It included assessing and mapping key ecosystem services (ES), namely provisioning services (cultivated terrestrial plants and reared animals for nutrition) and regulating and maintenance ES (soil quality and climate regulation). The study area involved seven municipalities in Central East Portugal, where the land is mainly forest, followed by productive land uses (farmland, grassland and agroforestry). For provisioning services, average productivity data from each parish was assigned to those productive land uses. Considering the LUCAS database, the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio was the proxy indicator for soil quality. For climate regulation, the assessment targeted aboveground carbon sequestration, which considered the reference values of the Portuguese Forest Inventory assigned to the Conjunctural Land Cover Map, and belowground carbon storage, considering the organic matter values (%) from the LUCAS and WoSIS database. The assessed ES were spatially assigned to the EEA reference grid for Europe (1km) (N = 5903 grid). A hot spot analysis helped identify synergies and mismatches between the four ES. Concerning provisioning services, 11% and 15% of the study area were agriculture and livestock production hot spots. For soil quality and carbon sequestration, 20% and 18 % of the area corresponded to cold spots, and 12% and 19% to hot spots, respectively. Carbon stock was negatively correlated with the other 3 ES (especially soil quality and livestock), while soil quality is positively correlated with both provisioning services (especially livestock production). This information gave insights into the ES's trade-offs, fundamental for drawing up management recommendations.