@misc{10481/106664,
year = {2025},
month = {6},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/106664},
abstract = {Dryland regions cover more than 40% of Earth’s land, support around one-third of the global population, and are
continuously expanding because of Climate Change and other drivers of Global Change. To overcome the harsh
conditions for agriculture development and sustain food security, dryland regions have adopted intensive agricultural practices, notably greenhouse-based groundwater-dependent horticulture. The southern coastal plains of
Almería, SE Spain, the driest region of the entire European continent, exemplifies this agricultural model by
hosting the second largest concentration of greenhouses in the world. Since its origin in the 1960’s, greenhouse
horticulture in Almería has been considered a model of success, producing millions of fresh produce, contributing
to the economic prosperity and social structuring, and adapting to the growing requirements of quality and
safety. However, the once-celebrated "Almería’s economic miracle" is currently facing signs of socioeconomic
collapse and environmental exhaustion, driven by the depletion of natural resources, especially water, sand and
soil, waste management challenges, e.g., plastic and biomass, and significant threats to (agro)biodiversity. We
explore here a possible transition in Almería’s agricultural model towards a more sustainable paradigm based on
leveraging agrobiodiversity for crop diversification. This tentative model will be supported by agroforestry
systems based on perennial woody crop species, which may offer high added value, adaptability to the changing
and stressful conditions driven by Global Change, and potential for ecological restoration of degraded lands. We
believe Almería is positioned as an ideal “laboratory” for proposing a new agricultural model that reconcile food
security and environmental sustainability.},
organization = {Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant codes: PID2020-113277 GB-I00 and PID2023-146207OBI00)},
organization = {project CiROCCO (grant agreement No. 101086497)},
organization = {“Jóvenes Doctores CEI⋅MAR 2023” CEI⋅MAR call (grant code: CEI.JD.15.)},
publisher = {Elsevier Ltd.},
keywords = {Agrobiodiversity},
keywords = {Arid and semiarid environments},
keywords = {Climate change},
title = {Leveraging agrobiodiversity for sustainable transition in greenhouse-based intensive agriculture across Mediterranean drylands},
doi = {10.1016/j.jaridenv.2025.105354},
author = {Carretero-Paulet, Lorenzo and Mendoza-Fernández, Antonio J. and Alcalá, Francisco Javier and Castro, Antonio J.},
}