## 4 Results and Discussion
### Information-Enriched Long-Term Vegetation Change
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & \multicolumn{6}{c}{**Herbaceous Cover Change**} \\ \hline  & & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Steady**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Stable**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Steady**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Total**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Acc.**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Acc.**} \\  & & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Decrease**} & & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Increase**} & & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Change**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Trend**} \\ \cline{2-11}  & **(\%)** & **(km2)** & **(\%)** & **(km2)** & **(\%)** & **(km2)** & **(\%)** & **(km2)** & **(\%)** & **(\%)** & **(\%)** & **(\%)** & **(\%)** \\ \hline \multirow{11}{*}{**Stady decrease**} & **Steady decrease** & 0.52 & 22 & 3.18 & 139 & 4.75 & _207_ & 8.45 & _368_ & & _100.00_ \\  & **Stable** & 4.81 & _209_ & 33.04 & _1438_ & 14.03 & _610_ & 51.9 & 2258 & _94.55_ & _99.79_ & _(485)_ \\ \cline{2-11}  & **Steady increase** & 6.19 & _269_ & 10.62 & 462 & 2.25 & _98_ & 19.10 & _829_ & & _100.00_ \\  & **Mildly disturbed, then decrease** & 0.05 & 2 & 0.14 & 6 & 0.26 & _12_ & 0.45 & _20_ & & _100.00_ (3)_ \\ \cline{2-11}  & **Mildly disturbed, then stable** & 0.52 & 23 & 1.97 & 86 & 1.87 & _81_ & 4.37 & _190_ & _61.94_ & _84.21 (19)_ \\ \cline{2-11}  & **Mildly disturbed, then increase** & 1.95 & _85_ & 4.98 & _217_ & 3.31 & _144_ & 10.20 & _445_ & & _100.00_ (59)_ \\ \cline{2-11}  & **Steerved disturbed, then decrease** & 0.01 & _0.4_ & 0.02 & _0.8_ & 0.03 & _1.5_ & 0.06 & _2.7_ & & _—(0)_ \\ \cline{2-11}  & **Steerved disturbed, then stable** & 0.08 & 3.6 & 0.26 & 12 & 0.24 & _10_ & 0.59 & _25.6_ & _87.04 (54)_ & _80.00 (5)_ \\ \cline{2-11}  & **Steerved disturbed, then increase** & 1.40 & 61 & 2.29 & 100 & 1.21 & _53_ & 4.90 & _213_ & & _100.00_ (38)_ \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Total**} & **Total** & 15.5 & _676_ & 56.5 & 2459 & 28.0 & _1217_ & 100.00 & _4351_ & _80.48_ & _99.40_ \\ \cline{2-11}  & **Acc. Trend [\%] (N)** & 96.40 (139) & & _100.00 (558)_ & & _98.37 (245)_ & & 99.04 (942)_ & & _(834)_ \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Area statistics of cover change categories for both vegetation components. Figure 9: Combinations of herbaceous and woody vegetation cover change over the study period 1984–2006. The width of the links is related to the area under the respective change combination. Numeric data in Table 5.  
Disturbances in the woody vegetation (bottom left), e.g., caused by fire, do not show changes in the herbaceous cover in 47% of pixels, which--as described in Section 3.3--is because herbaceous vegetation quickly recovers after disturbance events. Secondarily, 34% of disturbed areas show signs of increasing herbaceous cover, which could point to areas where shrubs are mechanically removed to provide a grass-dominated vegetation composition--most likely as fodder for sheep and goats [95]. Therefore, the synoptic view on both change trajectories plays an important role to more reliably interpret vegetation changes concerning their trend direction, as well as to disentangle land uses that, e.g., cause a transition in vegetation composition from shrubs to grasses, which is not observable at all when analyzing peak vegetation only. Next to the ecology-based syndrome classification, the absolute change in the cover is also important to consider as the previous assessment overestimated the actual vegetation cover that was lost or has accumulated. As an example, more biomass may be lost in productive areas than compared to high ranges with sparse vegetation cover. Thus, we additionally computed the absolute sub-pixel net cover change in m\({}^{2}\) over the complete period for each vegetation component (Figure 10). The net cover change varies regionally and is often pointing in opposite directions in the woody and herbaceous components (c.f. the rather stable total vegetation change in Figure 5b). As an example, a greening of the herbaceous layer in southern Crete is apparent while the higher ranges are more subject to an increase in woody vegetation.