Evidence and opportunities for integrating landscape ecology into natural resource planning across multiple-use landscapes

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Trammel, E. Jamie; Carter, Sarah; Haby, Travis S.; Taylor, Jason J.

2018-01-01

Enhancing natural resource management has been a focus of landscape ecology since its inception, but numerous authors argue that landscape ecology has not yet been effective in achieving the underlying goal of planning and designing sustainable landscapes. We developed nine questions reflecting the application of fundamental research topics in landscape ecology to the landscape planning process and reviewed two recent landscape-scale plans in western North America for evidence of these concepts in plan decisions. Both plans considered multiple resources, uses, and values, including energy development, recreation, conservation, and protection of cultural and historic resources. We found that land use change and multiscale perspectives of resource uses and values were very often apparent in planning decisions. Pattern-process relationships, connectivity and fragmentation, ecosystem services, landscape history, and climate change were reflected less frequently. Landscape sustainability was considered only once in the 295 decisions reviewed, and outputs of landscape models were not referenced. We suggest six actionable opportunities for further integrating landscape ecology concepts into landscape planning efforts: 1) use landscape sustainability as an overarching goal, 2) adopt a broad ecosystem services framework, 3) explore the role of landscape history more comprehensively, 4) regularly consider and accommodate potential effects of climate change, 5) use landscape models to support plan decisions, and 6) promote a greater presence of landscape ecologists within agencies that manage large land bases and encourage active involvement in agency planning efforts. Together these actions may improve the defensibility, durability, and sustainability of landscape plan decisions.

Integrating Future Land Use Scenarios to Evaluate the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Landscape Ecological Security

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Yi Lu

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Urban ecological security is the basic principle of national ecological security. However, analyses of the spatial and temporal dynamics of ecological security remain limited, especially those that consider different scenarios of urban development. In this study, an integrated method is proposed that combines the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects (CLUE-S model with the Pressure–State–Response (P-S-R framework to assess landscape ecological security (LES in Huangshan City, China under two scenarios. Our results suggest the following conclusions: (1 the spatial and temporal dynamics of ecological security are closely related to the urbanization process; (2 although the average values of landscape ecological security are similar under different scenarios, the areas of relatively high security levels vary considerably; and (3 spatial heterogeneity in ecological security exists between different districts and counties, and the city center and its vicinity may face relatively serious declines in ecological security in the future. Overall, the proposed method not only illustrates the spatio-temporal dynamics of landscape ecological security under different scenarios but also reveals the anthropogenic effects on ecosystems by differentiating between causes, effects, and human responses at the landscape scale. This information is of great significance to decision-makers for future urban planning and management.

Introduction to Ecological Landscaping: A Holistic Description and Framework to Guide the Study and Management of Urban Landscape Parcels

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Parwinder Grewal

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Urbanized ecosystems and urban human populations are expanding around the world causing many negative environmental effects. A challenge for achieving sustainable urban social-ecological systems is understanding how urbanized landscapes can be designed and managed to minimize negative outcomes. To this end, an interdisciplinary Ecological Landscaping conference was organized to examine the interacting sociocultural and ecological causes and consequences of landscaping practices and products. This special issue of Cities and the Environment contains a diverse set of articles arising from that conference. In this introductory paper, we describe the meaning of ecological landscaping and a new conceptual framework that helps organize the topic’s complex issues. The essence of ecological landscaping is a holistic systems-thinking perspective for understanding the interrelationships among physical-ecological and sociocultural variables that give rise to the patterns and processes of biodiversity, abiotic conditions, and ecosystem processes within and among individually-managed urban landscape parcels. This perspective suggests that 1 variables not considered part of traditional landscaping and 2 the effects of landscaping within an individual parcel on variables outside of it must both be considered when making design and management decisions about a parcel. To illustrate how these points help create a more holistic, ecological approach to landscaping, a traditional ecosystem model is used to create a framework for discussing how sociocultural and physical-ecological inputs to a landscape parcel affect its characteristics and outputs. As exemplified by papers in this issue, an integrated sociocultural-ecological approach to the study of urban landscaping practices and products is needed to 1 understand why and how humans design and mange urban landscape parcels, 2 describe how the combined characteristics and outputs of many parcels give rise to the

Ecological networks: a spatial concept for multi-actor planning of sustainable landscapes

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Opdam, P.F.M.; Steingröver, E.G.; Rooij, van S.A.M.

2006-01-01

In this paper, we propose the ecological network concept as a suitable basis for inserting biodiversity conservation into sustainable landscape development. For landscapes to be ecologically sustainable, the landscape structure should support those ecological processes required for the landscape to

LANDSCAPE-ECOLOGICAL PLANNING OF THE COASTAL ZONE OF SOUTH-WEST CRIMEA

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V. N. Danekina

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the application of methods of landscape planning in order to maintain the sustainable state of the coastal south-western part of the Crimean peninsula. There are many protected landscapes in this territory, including reserves and other specially protected landscapes. However, the network of such specially protected natural resources can not fully satisfy the resources they consume and simultaneously maintain a favorable ecological situation in the region. The results of studies of the prospects and prerequisites for the formation and preservation of the landscape-ecological framework of the South-Western Crimea have been presented. Various groups of factors that negatively affect the ecological state of the region are analyzed, among them construction in coastal protective bands, recreational digression of soils and vegetation, pollution with industrial wastewater, illegal sand sampling, etc. Assessment of nature use structures has shown that the existing system needs landscape-ecological justification and planning. The structure of the landscape-ecological framework of the South-Western Crimea has been developed. Its elements have been identified, which contain natural “cores” subject to special protection, ecological corridors and buffer zones. In the course of the study, a mapping of the landscapeecological planning organization of the coastal territory of the Crimean coast has been carried out. The map-scheme shows the elements of the landscape-ecological framework, landscape zones and belts and types of anthropogenic landscapes. In the conditions of limited economic development of the territory, the landscape-ecological framework must include transformed anthropogenic landscapes. Landscape planning should be carried out taking into account regional features of the Black Sea coast, for this purpose the article gives a brief description of the landscape diversity and stability of landscape geosystems. The most

System dynamic modelling of industrial growth and landscape ecology in China.

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Xu, Jian; Kang, Jian; Shao, Long; Zhao, Tianyu

2015-09-15

With the rapid development of large industrial corridors in China, the landscape ecology of the country is currently being affected. Therefore, in this study, a system dynamic model with multi-dimensional nonlinear dynamic prediction function that considers industrial growth and landscape ecology is developed and verified to allow for more sustainable development. Firstly, relationships between industrial development and landscape ecology in China are examined, and five subsystems are then established: industry, population, urban economy, environment and landscape ecology. The main influencing factors are then examined for each subsystem to establish flow charts connecting those factors. Consequently, by connecting the subsystems, an overall industry growth and landscape ecology model is established. Using actual data and landscape index calculated based on GIS of the Ha-Da-Qi industrial corridor, a typical industrial corridor in China, over the period 2005-2009, the model is validated in terms of historical behaviour, logical structure and future prediction, where for 84.8% of the factors, the error rate of the model is less than 5%, the mean error rate of all factors is 2.96% and the error of the simulation test for the landscape ecology subsystem is less than 2%. Moreover, a model application has been made to consider the changes in landscape indices under four industrial development modes, and the optimal industrial growth plan has been examined for landscape ecological protection through the simulation prediction results over 2015-2020. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social-ecology networks : building connections for sustainable landscapes

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Opdam, P.F.M.

2014-01-01

Humans adapt their landscapes, their living environment. Sustainable use of the various landscape benefits requires that land owners and users collaborate in managing ecological networks. Because the government is stepping back as the organizer of coordinated landscape adaptation, we need new

Spatial assessment of landscape ecological connectivity in different urban gradient.

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Park, Sohyun

2015-07-01

Urbanization has resulted in remnant natural patches within cities that often have no connectivity among themselves and to natural reserves outside the urban area. Protecting ecological connectivity in fragmented urban areas is becoming crucial in maintaining urban biodiversity and securing critical habitat levels and configurations under continual development pressures. Nevertheless, few studies have been undertaken for urban landscapes. This study aims to assess ecological connectivity for a group of species that represent the urban desert landscape in the Phoenix metropolitan area and to compare the connectivity values along the different urban gradient. A GIS-based landscape connectivity model which relies upon ecological connectivity index (ECI) was developed and applied to this region. A GIS-based concentric buffering technique was employed to delineate conceptual boundaries for urban, suburban, and rural zones. The research findings demonstrated that urban habitats and potential habitat patches would be significantly influenced by future urban development. Particularly, the largest loss of higher connectivity would likely to be anticipated in the "in-between areas" where urban, suburban, and rural zones overlap one another. The connectivity maps would be useful to provide spatial identification regarding connectivity patterns and vulnerability for urban and suburban activities in this area. This study provides planners and landscape architects with a spatial guidance to minimize ecological fragmentation, which ultimately leads to urban landscape sustainability. This study suggests that conventional planning practices which disregard the ecological processes in urban landscapes need to integrate landscape ecology into planning and design strategies.

Comparative Analysis of Methodologies for Landscape Ecological Aesthetics in Urban Planning

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Maija Jankevica

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Areas with high level of urbanisation provoke frequent conflicts between nature and people. There is a lack of cooperation between planners and nature scientists in urban studies and planning process. Landscapes usually are studied using the ecological and aesthetical approaches separately. However, the future of urban planning depends on integration of these two approaches. This research study looks into different methods of landscape ecological aesthetics and presents a combined method for urban areas. The methods of landscape visual aesthetical assessment, biotope structure analysis, landscape ecology evaluation and multi-disciplinary expert level are compared in the article. A comparison of obtained values is summarized by making a comparative matrix. As a result, a multi-stage model for landscape ecological aesthetics evaluation in urban territories is presented. This ecological aesthetics model can be successfully used for development of urban territories.

Remote sensing in landscape ecology: experiences and perspectives in a European context

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Groom, G.; Mücher, C.A.; Ihse, M.; Wrbka, T.

2006-01-01

That the relationship between remote sensing and landscape ecology is significant is due in large part to the strong spatial component within landscape ecology. However it is nevertheless necessary to have frequent overview of the interface between remote sensing and landscape ecology, particularly

Integrating landscape ecology and geoinformatics to decipher landscape dynamics for regional planning.

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Dikou, Angela; Papapanagiotou, Evangelos; Troumbis, Andreas

2011-09-01

We used remote sensing and GIS in conjunction with multivariate statistical methods to: (i) quantify landscape composition (land cover types) and configuration (patch density, diversity, fractal dimension, contagion) for five coastal watersheds of Kalloni gulf, Lesvos Island, Greece, in 1945, 1960, 1971, 1990 and 2002/2003, (ii) evaluate the relative importance of physical (slope, geologic substrate, stream order) and human (road network, population density) variables on landscape composition and configuration, and (iii) characterize processes that led to land cover changes through land cover transitions between these five successive periods in time. Distributions of land cover types did not differ among the five time periods at the five watersheds studied because the largest cumulative changes between 1945 and 2002/2003 did not take place at dominant land cover types. Landscape composition related primarily to the physical attributes of the landscape. Nevertheless, increase in population density and the road network were found to increase heterogeneity of the landscape mosaic (patchiness), complexity of patch shape (fractal dimension), and patch disaggregation (contagion). Increase in road network was also found to increase landscape diversity due to the creation of new patches. The main processes involved in land cover changes were plough-land abandonment and ecological succession. Landscape dynamics during the last 50 years corroborate the ecotouristic-agrotouristic model for regional development to reverse trends in agricultural land abandonment and human population decline and when combined with hypothetical regulatory approaches could predict how this landscape could develop in the future, thus, providing a valuable tool to regional planning.

LANDSCAPE ECOLOGICAL METHOD TO STUDY AGRICULTURAL VEGETATION: SOME EXAMPLES FROM THE PO VALLEY

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E. GIGLIO

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Vegetation is the most important landscape component, as regards to its ability to catch solar energy and to transform it, but also to shape the landscape, to structure the space, to create the fit environment for different animal species, to contribute to the maintenance of a correct metastability level for the landscape, etc. It is a biological system which acts under the constraints of the principles of the System Theory and owns the same properties of any other living system: so, it is a complex adaptive, hierarchical, dynamic, dissipative, self-organizing, self-transcendent, autocatalytic, self-maintaining system and follows the non-equilibrium thermodynamic. Its ecological state can be investigated through the comparison between “gathered data” (pathology and “normal data” (physiology for analogous types of vegetation. The Biological Integrated School of Landscape Ecology provides an integrated methodology to define ecological threshold limits of the different Agricultural Landscape types and applies to agricultural vegetation the specific part of the new methodology already tested to studying forests (the Landscape Biological Survey of Vegetation. Ecological quality, better and worst parameters, biological territorial capacity of vegetated corridors, agricultural field, poplar groves, orchards and woody remnant patches are investigated. Some examples from diverse agricultural landscapes of the Po Valley will be discussed. KEY WORDS: agricultural landscape, vegetation, landscape ecology, landscape health, Biological Integrated Landscape Ecology, Landscape Biological Survey of vegetation.

LANDSCAPE ECOLOGICAL METHOD TO STUDY AGRICULTURAL VEGETATION: SOME EXAMPLES FROM THE PO VALLEY

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E. GIGLIO

2006-05-01

Full Text Available Vegetation is the most important landscape component, as regards to its ability to catch solar energy and to transform it, but also to shape the landscape, to structure the space, to create the fit environment for different animal species, to contribute to the maintenance of a correct metastability level for the landscape, etc. It is a biological system which acts under the constraints of the principles of the System Theory and owns the same properties of any other living system: so, it is a complex adaptive, hierarchical, dynamic, dissipative, self-organizing, self-transcendent, autocatalytic, self-maintaining system and follows the non-equilibrium thermodynamic. Its ecological state can be investigated through the comparison between “gathered data” (pathology and “normal data” (physiology for analogous types of vegetation. The Biological Integrated School of Landscape Ecology provides an integrated methodology to define ecological threshold limits of the different Agricultural Landscape types and applies to agricultural vegetation the specific part of the new methodology already tested to studying forests (the Landscape Biological Survey of Vegetation. Ecological quality, better and worst parameters, biological territorial capacity of vegetated corridors, agricultural field, poplar groves, orchards and woody remnant patches are investigated. Some examples from diverse agricultural landscapes of the Po Valley will be discussed. KEY WORDS: agricultural landscape, vegetation, landscape ecology, landscape health, Biological Integrated Landscape Ecology, Landscape Biological Survey of vegetation.

Spatially Explicit Landscape-Level Ecological Risks Induced by Land Use and Land Cover Change in a National Ecologically Representative Region in China

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Jian Gong

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Land use and land cover change is driven by multiple influential factors from environmental and social dimensions in a land system. Land use practices of human decision-makers modify the landscape of the land system, possibly leading to landscape fragmentation, biodiversity loss, or environmental pollution—severe environmental or ecological impacts. While landscape-level ecological risk assessment supports the evaluation of these impacts, investigations on how these ecological risks induced by land use practices change over space and time in response to alternative policy intervention remain inadequate. In this article, we conducted spatially explicit landscape ecological risk analysis in Ezhou City, China. Our study area is a national ecologically representative region experiencing drastic land use and land cover change, and is regulated by multiple policies represented by farmland protection, ecological conservation, and urban development. We employed landscape metrics to consider the influence of potential landscape-level disturbance for the evaluation of landscape ecological risks. Using spatiotemporal simulation, we designed scenarios to examine spatiotemporal patterns in landscape ecological risks in response to policy intervention. Our study demonstrated that spatially explicit landscape ecological risk analysis combined with simulation-driven scenario analysis is of particular importance for guiding the sustainable development of ecologically vulnerable land systems.

Ecology, recreation and landscape

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Satchell, J E

1983-01-01

The article is dedicated to the problems of combining mass tourism in certain countries of Western Europe and environmental protection (OOS) requirements. The ecological damage from recreation is examined and the throughput of the medium is evaluated. The author proposes development of regulable, managable and controllable recreation use of natural resources and landscapes using selective advertising of the recreation sites.

The evaluation of anthropogenic impact on the ecological stability of landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Michaeli, Eva; Ivanová, Monika; Koco, Štefan

2015-01-01

The model area is the northern surrounding of the water reservoir Zemplinska Irava in the east of Slovakia. Selection of the examined territory and the time horizons was not random. The aim was to capture the intensity level of anthropogenic impact on the values of the coefficient of ecological stability after the construction of water reservoir, Zempifnska Irava. The contribution evaluates ecological stability of landscape in the years 1956 and 2009 by GIS technology, using two methods. The first method determines the rate of ecological stability of landscape on the basis of the significance of land cover classes in the regular network of squares (the real size of the square is 0.5 square km). The second method determines the ecological stability of landscape secondary on the basis of the man influence on the landscape. A comparison of two methods has been made, as well as interpretation of the output data (e.g., monitoring the impact of marginal land cover classes with the minimal surfaces in the grid of square at the fluctuation of the index of ecological stability, respectively, it considers the possibilities to streamline the research results using homogeneous spatial units) and it also allows to track the changes in the ecological stability of the landscape in chronological development.

Promoting biodiversity values of small forest patches in agricultural landscapes: Ecological drivers and social demand.

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Varela, Elsa; Verheyen, Kris; Valdés, Alicia; Soliño, Mario; Jacobsen, Jette B; De Smedt, Pallieter; Ehrmann, Steffen; Gärtner, Stefanie; Górriz, Elena; Decocq, Guillaume

2018-04-01

Small forest patches embedded in agricultural (and peri-urban) landscapes in Western Europe play a key role for biodiversity conservation with a recognized capacity of delivering a wide suite of ecosystem services. Measures aimed to preserve these patches should be both socially desirable and ecologically effective. This study presents a joint ecologic and economic assessment conducted on small forest patches in Flanders (Belgium) and Picardie (N France). In each study region, two contrasted types of agricultural landscapes were selected. Open field (OF) and Bocage (B) landscapes are distinguished by the intensity of their usage and higher connectivity in the B landscapes. The social demand for enhancing biodiversity and forest structure diversity as well as for increasing the forest area at the expenses of agricultural land is estimated through an economic valuation survey. These results are compared with the outcomes of an ecological survey where the influence of structural features of the forest patches on the associated herbaceous diversity is assessed. The ecological and economic surveys show contrasting results; increasing tree species richness is ecologically more important for herbaceous diversity in the patch, but both tree species richness and herbaceous diversity obtain insignificant willingness to pay estimates. Furthermore, although respondents prefer the proposed changes to take place in the region where they live, we find out that social preferences and ecological effectiveness do differ between landscapes that represent different intensities of land use. Dwellers where the landscape is perceived as more "degraded" attach more value to diversity enhancement, suggesting a prioritization of initiatives in these area. In contrast, the ecological analyses show that prioritizing the protection and enhancement of the relatively better-off areas is more ecologically effective. Our study calls for a balance between ecological effectiveness and welfare

Landscape ecology: what is the state of science?

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Monica G. Turner

2005-01-01

Landscape ecology focuses on the reciprocal interactions between spatial pattern and ecological processes, and it is well integrated with ecology. The field has grown rapidly over the past 15 years. The persistent influence of land-use history and natural disturbance on contemporary ecosystems has become apparent Development of pattern metrics has largely stabilized,...

Landscape approach to the formation of the ecological frame of Moscow

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Nizovtsev, Vyacheslav; Natalia, Erman

2015-04-01

The territory of Moscow, in particular in its former borders, is distinct for its strong transformation of the natural properties of virtually all types of landscape complexes. The modern landscape structure is characterized by fragmentation of natural land cover. Natural and quasinatural (natural and anthropogenic) landscape complexes with preserved natural structure are represented by isolated areas and occupy small areas. During recent years landscape diversity in general and biodiversity in particular have been rapidly declining, and many of the natural landscape complexes are under ever-increasing degradation. Ecological balance is broken, and preserved natural landscapes are not able to maintain it. Effective territorial organization of Moscow and the rational use of its territory are impossible without taking into account the natural component of the city as well as the properties and potential of the landscape complexes that integrate all natural features in specific areas. The formation of the ecological framework of the city is particularly important. It should be a single system of interrelated and complementary components that make up a single environmental space: habitat-forming cores (junctions), ecological corridors and elements of environmental infrastructure. Systemic unity of the environmental framework can support the territorial ecological compensation where a break of the ecological functions of one part of the system is compensated by maintaining or restoring them in another part and contribute to the polarization of incompatible types of land use. Habitat-forming cores should include as mandatory parts all the specifically protected natural areas (SPNAs), particularly valuable landscape complexes, as well as preserved adjacent forest areas. Their most important function should be to maintain resources and area reproducing abilities of landscapes, landscape diversity and biodiversity. Ecological corridors which perform environmental and

Landscape ecology: Past, present, and future [Chapter 4

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Samuel A. Cushman; Jeffrey S. Evans; Kevin McGarigal

2010-01-01

In the preceding chapters we discussed the central role that spatial and temporal variability play in ecological systems, the importance of addressing these explicitly within ecological analyses and the resulting need to carefully consider spatial and temporal scale and scaling. Landscape ecology is the science of linking patterns and processes across scale in both...

Environmental research programme. Ecological research. Annual report 1994. Urban-industrial landscapes, forests, agricultural landscapes, river and lake landscapes, terrestrial ecosystem research, environmental pollution and health

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-01-01

In the annual report 1994 of the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology, the points of emphasis of the ecological research programme and their financing are discussed. The individual projects in the following subject areas are described in detail: urban-industrial landscapes, forests, agricultural landscapes, river and lake landscapes, other ecosystems and landscapes, terrestrial ecosystem research, environmental pollution and human health and cross-sectional activities in ecological research. (vhe) [de

Environmental security as related to scale mismatches of disturbance patterns in a panarchy of social-ecological landscapes

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Giovanni Zurlini; Irene Petrosillo; Nicola Zaccarelli; Kurt Riitters

2008-01-01

Environmental security, as the opposite of environmental fragility (vulnerability), is multilayered, multi-scale and complex, existing in both the objective realm of biophysics and society, and the subjective realm of individual human perception. For ecological risk assessments (ERAs), the relevant objects of environmental security are social-ecological landscapes (...

[Spatial evaluation on ecological and aesthetic quality of Beijing agricultural landscape].

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Pan, Ying; Xiao, He; Yu, Zhen-Rong

2009-10-01

A total of ten single indices mainly reflecting the ecological and aesthetic quality of agricultural landscape, including ecosystem function, naturalness, openness and diversity, contamination probability, and orderliness were selected, their different weights were given based on field survey and expert system, and an integrated evaluation index system of agricultural landscape quality was constructed. In the meantime, the land use data provided by GIS and the remote sensing data of vegetation index were used to evaluate the Beijing agricultural landscape quality and its spatial variation. There was a great spatial variation in the agricultural landscape quality of Beijing, being worse at the edges of urban area and towns, but better in suburbs. The agricultural landscape quality was mainly related to topography and human activity. To construct a large-scale integrated index system based on remote sensing data and landscape indices would have significance in evaluating the spatial variation of agricultural landscape quality.

The Gradient Paradigm: A conceptual and analytical framework for landscape ecology [Chapter 5

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Samuel A. Cushman; Kevin Gutzweiler; Jeffrey S. Evans; Kevin McGarigal

2010-01-01

Landscape ecology deals fundamentally with how, when, and why patterns of environmental factors influence the distribution of organisms and ecological processes, and reciprocally, how the actions of organisms and ecological processes influence ecological patterns (Urban et al. 1991; Turner 1989). The landscape ecologist's goal is to determine where and when...

The Sustainable Expression of Ecological Concept in the Urban Landscape Environment Design

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Dong, Junyan; Zhou, Tiejun; Xin, Lisen; Tan, Yuetong; Wang, Zhigang

2018-02-01

Urbanization is an inevitable trend of development of human society, also the inevitable outcome of economic development and scientific and technological progress, while urbanization process in promoting the development of human civilization, also no doubt, urban landscape has been a corresponding impact. Urban environment has suffered unprecedented damage, the urban population density, traffic congestion, shortage of resources, environmental pollution, ecological degradation, has become the focus of human society. In order to create an environment of ecological and harmonious, beautiful, sustainable development in the urban landscape, This paper discusses the concept of ecological design combined with the urban landscape design and sustainable development of urban landscape design.

[Comparition of ecological security stress effects of artificial landscapes on natural landscapes in different rapid urban sprawl areas].

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Lin, Mei Xia; Lin, Tao; Qiu, Quan Yi; Sun, Cai Ge; Deng, Fu Liang; Zhang, Guo Qin

2017-04-18

The expansion of built-up area will cause stress effect on the regional natural ecological security pattern during urbanization process. Taking rapid expanding regions of four inland and coastal cities as study areas, including Tongzhou in Beijing, Zhengding in Hebei, Tanggu in Tianjin and Xiamen in Fujian, we constructed regional landscape stress indexes according to the principle of landscape ecology and comparatively analyzed the landscape pattern characteristics of rapid expanding regions and the differences of stress effect of artificial landscapes on four natural landscapes ecological security pattern in the process of rapid urbanization. Results showed that landscape erosion indexes of Tongzhou, Zhengding, Tanggu and Xiamen in 2015 were 1.039, 0.996, 1.239 and 0.945, respectively, which indicated that the natural landscapes were eroded significantly. Natural landscape types of those four regions presented different threatened levels. Among all natural landscape types, unused land and waters were worst threatened in Tongzhou, Zhengding and Tanggu, while in Xiamen cultivated land and waters showed the highest threat levels. The waters threat indexes of those four areas were all more than 0.743. Landscape isolation indexes of waters and unused land of the inland cities were greater than those of coastal cities, which meant water distribution of inland cities in the space was less gathered than that of coastal cities. Besides, compared with the other natural landscape, unused land and waters suffered the largest stress from artificial landscapes.

[Scale effect of Li-Xiang Railway construction impact on landscape pattern and its ecological risk].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, De-zhi; Qiu, Peng-hua; Fang, Yuan-min

2015-08-01

As a large corridor project, plateau railway has multiple points and passes various sensitive environments along the railway. The determination of the scope of impact on ecological environment from railway construction is often controversial in ecological impact assessment work. Taking the Tangbu-Jiantang section of Li-Xiang Railway as study object, and using present land use map (1:10000) in 2012 and DEM as data sources, corridor cutting degree index ( CCI) and cumulative effect index of corridor (CCEI) were established by topology, buffer zone and landscape metrics methods. Besides, the ecological risk index used for railway construction was improved. By quantitative analysis of characteristics of the spatio-temporal change of landscape pattern and its evolution style at different spatial scales before and after railway construction, the most appropriate evaluation scale of the railway was obtained. Then the characteristics of the spatio-temporal variation of ecological risk within this scale before and after railway construction were analyzed. The results indicated that the cutting model and degree of railway corridor to various landscape types could be effectively reflected by CCI, and the exposure and harm relations between risk sources and risk receptors of railway can be measured by CCEI. After the railway construction, the railway corridor would cause a great deal of middle cutting effect on the landscape along the railroad, which would influence wood land and grassland landscape most greatly, while would cause less effect of edge cutting and internal cutting. Landscape indices within the 600 m buffer zone demonstrated the most obvious scale effect, therefore, the 600 m zone of the railway was set as the most suitable range of ecological impact assessment. Before railway construction, the low ecological risk level covered the biggest part of the 600 m assessment zone. However, after the railway construction, the ecological risk increased significantly, and

Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing for Analysis of Landscape Ecological Processes: Methods and Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Quattrochi, Dale A.; Luvall, Jeffrey C.

1998-01-01

Thermal Infrared (TIR) remote sensing data can provide important measurements of surface energy fluxes and temperatures, which are integral to understanding landscape processes and responses. One example of this is the successful application of TIR remote sensing data to estimate evapotranspiration and soil moisture, where results from a number of studies suggest that satellite-based measurements from TIR remote sensing data can lead to more accurate regional-scale estimates of daily evapotranspiration. With further refinement in analytical techniques and models, the use of TIR data from airborne and satellite sensors could be very useful for parameterizing surface moisture conditions and developing better simulations of landscape energy exchange over a variety of conditions and space and time scales. Thus, TIR remote sensing data can significantly contribute to the observation, measurement, and analysis of energy balance characteristics (i.e., the fluxes and redistribution of thermal energy within and across the land surface) as an implicit and important aspect of landscape dynamics and landscape functioning. The application of TIR remote sensing data in landscape ecological studies has been limited, however, for several fundamental reasons that relate primarily to the perceived difficulty in use and availability of these data by the landscape ecology community, and from the fragmentation of references on TIR remote sensing throughout the scientific literature. It is our purpose here to provide evidence from work that has employed TIR remote sensing for analysis of landscape characteristics to illustrate how these data can provide important data for the improved measurement of landscape energy response and energy flux relationships. We examine the direct or indirect use of TIR remote sensing data to analyze landscape biophysical characteristics, thereby offering some insight on how these data can be used more robustly to further the understanding and modeling of

How landscape ecology informs global land-change science and policy

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Audrey L. Mayer; Brian Buma; Am??lie Davis; Sara A. Gagn??; E. Louise Loudermilk; Robert M. Scheller; Fiona K.A. Schmiegelow; Yolanda F. Wiersma; Janet Franklin

2016-01-01

Landscape ecology is a discipline that explicitly considers the influence of time and space on the environmental patterns we observe and the processes that create them. Although many of the topics studied in landscape ecology have public policy implications, three are of particular concern: climate change; land use–land cover change (LULCC); and a particular type of...

[Application of land economic ecological niche in landscape pattern analysis at county level: A case study of Jinghe County in Xinjiang, China].

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Hai-yang; Zhang, Fei; Wang, Juan; Zhou, Mei

2015-12-01

The theory of land economic ecological niche was used to analyze the regional landscape pattern in this article, with an aim to provide a new method for the characterization and representation of landscape pattern. The Jinghe County region, which is ecologically fragile, was selected as an example for the study, and the Landsat images of 1990, 1998, 2011 and 2013 were selected as remote sensing data. The land economic ecological niche of land use types calculated by ecostate-ecorole theory, combined with landscape ecology theory, was discussed in application of land economic ecological niche in county landscape pattern analysis. The results showed that, during the study period, the correlations between land economic ecological niche of farmland, construction land, and grassland with the parameters, including landscape patch number (NP), aggregated index (AI), fragmented index (FN) and fractal dimension (FD), were significant. Regional landscape was driven by the changes of land economic ecological niche, and the trend of economic development could be represented by land economic ecological niche change in Jinghe County. Land economic ecological niche was closely related with the land use types which could yield direct economic benefits, which could well explain the landscape pattern characteristics in Jinghe County when combined with the landscape indices.

Ecological Functions of Landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Kiryushin, V. I.

2018-01-01

Ecological functions of landscapes are considered a system of processes ensuring the development, preservation, and evolution of ecosystems and the biosphere as a whole. The concept of biogeocenosis can be considered a model that integrates biotic and environmental functions. The most general biogeocenotic functions specify the biodiversity, biotic links, self-organization, and evolution of ecosystems. Close interaction between biocenosis and the biotope (ecotope) is ensured by the continuous exchange of matter, energy, and information. Ecotope determines the biocenosis. The group of ecotopic functions includes atmospheric (gas exchange, heat exchange, hydroatmospheric, climate-forming), lithospheric (geodynamic, geophysical, and geochemical), hydrologic and hydrogeologic functions of landscape and ecotopic functions of soils. Bioecological functions emerge as a result of the biotope and ecotope interaction; these are the bioproductive, destructive, organoaccumulative, biochemical (gas, concentration, redox, biochemical, biopedological), pedogenetic, and energy functions

State of the science and challenges of breeding landscape plants with ecological function

Science.gov (United States)

Wilde, H Dayton; Gandhi, Kamal J K; Colson, Gregory

2015-01-01

Exotic plants dominate esthetically-managed landscapes, which cover 30–40 million hectares in the United States alone. Recent ecological studies have found that landscaping with exotic plant species can reduce biodiversity on multiple trophic levels. To support biodiversity in urbanized areas, the increased use of native landscaping plants has been advocated by conservation groups and US federal and state agencies. A major challenge to scaling up the use of native species in landscaping is providing ornamental plants that are both ecologically functional and economically viable. Depending on ecological and economic constraints, accelerated breeding approaches could be applied to ornamental trait development in native plants. This review examines the impact of landscaping choices on biodiversity, the current status of breeding and selection of native ornamental plants, and the interdisciplinary research needed to scale up landscaping plants that can support native biodiversity. PMID:26504560

Watermill and Small-Scale Hydroelectric Power Plant Landscapes Assessed According to Ecological Aspects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lilita Lazdāne

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Research of watermill and small-scale hydroelectric power plant (HPP landscapes in Latvia according to ecological aspects is a part of a more complex research. The aim of this research is to examine the existing situation of watermill and small-scale HPP landscapes in Latvia by applying the ecological assessment criteria, and then try to formulate a definition of common tendencies of the landscape character. This paper provides a landscape inventory matrix for research in the field stu­dies of landscape identification at the local planning level. The duration of the research was from 2010 to 2012. The research includes 42 territories starting with the three most densely developed areas in Latvia: in Latgale, Kurzeme and Vidzeme uplands distribution ranges. The research results reflect tendencies of the landscape features assessed according to the previously developed criteria of ecological aspects.

Landscape ecological planning: Integrating land use and wildlife conservation for biomass crops

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schiller, A.

1995-12-31

What do a mussel shoat, a zoo, and a biomass plantation have in common? Each can benefit from ecology-based landscape planning. This paper provides examples of landscape ecological planning from some diverse projects the author has worked on, and discusses how processes employed and lessons learned from these projects are being used to help answer questions about the effects of biomass plantings (hardwood tree crops and native grasses) on wildlife habitat. Biomass environmental research is being designed to assess how plantings of different acreage, composition and landscape context affect wildlife habitat value, and is addressing the cumulative effect on wildlife habitat of establishing multiple biomass plantations across the landscape. Through landscape ecological planning, answers gleaned from research can also help guide biomass planting site selection and harvest strategies to improve habitat for native wildlife species within the context of economically viable plantation management - thereby integrating the needs of people with those of the environment.

Prioritizing ecological restoration among sites in multi-stressor landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Neeson, Thomas M; Smith, Sigrid D P; Allan, J David; McIntyre, Peter B

2016-09-01

Most ecosystems are impacted by multiple local and long-distance stressors, many of which interact in complex ways. We present a framework for prioritizing ecological restoration efforts among sites in multi-stressor landscapes. Using a simple model, we show that both the economic and sociopolitical costs of restoration will typically be lower at sites with a relatively small number of severe problems than at sites with numerous lesser problems. Based on these results, we propose using cumulative stress and evenness of stressor impact as complementary indices that together reflect key challenges of restoring a site to improved condition. To illustrate this approach, we analyze stressor evenness across the world's rivers and the Laurentian Great Lakes. This exploration reveals that evenness and cumulative stress are decoupled, enabling selection of sites where remediating a modest number of high-intensity stressors could substantially reduce cumulative stress. Just as species richness and species evenness are fundamental axes of biological diversity, we argue that cumulative stress and stressor evenness constitute fundamental axes for identifying restoration opportunities in multi-stressor landscapes. Our results highlight opportunities to boost restoration efficiency through strategic use of multi-stressor datasets to identify sites that maximize ecological response per stressor remediated. This prioritization framework can also be expanded to account for the feasibility of remediation and the expected societal benefits of restoration projects. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

D. McKenzie, C. Miller and D.A. Falk, eds. The Landscape Ecology of Fire [book review

Science.gov (United States)

Eric J. Gustafson

2012-01-01

In the Foreword of this volume is the statement that "landscape ecology is the 'glue' that holds ecosystem theory together and nowhere is that more evident than in the study of wildland fire ecology." The Landscape Ecology of Fire summarizes how landscape ecology has contributed to, and been formed by, the study...

Adopting an ecological view of metropolitan landscape: the case of "three circles" system for ecological construction and restoration in Beijing area.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Feng; Zhang, Xin-shi

2004-01-01

Ecological construction and restoration for sustainable development are now a driving paradigm. It is increasingly recognized that ecological principles, especially landscape ecology theory, are not only necessary but also essential to maintain the long-term sustainability worldwide. Key landscape ecology principles-element, structure and process, dynamics, heterogeneity, hierarchies, connectivity, place and time were reviewed, and use Beijing area as a case study to illustrate how these principles might be applied to ecological construction and restoration, to eventually achieve sustainability. An example to more effectively incorporate the ecological principles in sustainable planning in China was presented.

Ecological consequences of fragmentation and deforestation in an urban landscape: a case study

Science.gov (United States)

W.C. Zipperer; T.W. Foresman; S.P. Walker; C.T. Daniel

2012-01-01

Landscape change is an ongoing process even within established urban landscapes. Yet, analyses of fragmentation and deforestation have focused primarily on the conversion of non-urban to urban landscapes in rural landscapes and ignored urban landscapes. To determine the ecological effects of continued urbanization in urban landscapes, tree-covered patches were mapped...

Recent changes in Central European landscapes: An integrative ecological approach

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Těšitel, Jan; Kučera, Tomáš

2005-01-01

Roč. 24, č. 1 (2005), s. 3-6 ISSN 1335-342X Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60870520 Keywords : integrative ecological approach * transdisciplinarity * interdisciplinarity * landscape ecology Subject RIV: DO - Wilderness Conservation Impact factor: 0.085, year: 2005

The United States Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1993-01-01

Abstracts are presented from a meeting on landscape ecology. Topics include: conservation, climatic change, forest management, aquatic, wetland, rural and urban landscapes, land use, and biodiversity.

The United States Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1993-06-01

Abstracts are presented from a meeting on landscape ecology. Topics include: conservation, climatic change, forest management, aquatic, wetland, rural and urban landscapes, land use, and biodiversity.

Modelling non-Euclidean movement and landscape connectivity in highly structured ecological networks

Science.gov (United States)

Sutherland, Christopher; Fuller, Angela K.; Royle, J. Andrew

2015-01-01

Movement is influenced by landscape structure, configuration and geometry, but measuring distance as perceived by animals poses technical and logistical challenges. Instead, movement is typically measured using Euclidean distance, irrespective of location or landscape structure, or is based on arbitrary cost surfaces. A recently proposed extension of spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models resolves this issue using spatial encounter histories of individuals to calculate least-cost paths (ecological distance: Ecology, 94, 2013, 287) thereby relaxing the Euclidean assumption. We evaluate the consequences of not accounting for movement heterogeneity when estimating abundance in highly structured landscapes, and demonstrate the value of this approach for estimating biologically realistic space-use patterns and landscape connectivity.

Landscape scale ecology at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain

Science.gov (United States)

Ruhl, H.; Morris, K. J.; Bett, B. J.; Jones, D.; Huvenne, V. A. I.; Robert, K.; Gooday, A. J.; Durden, J. M.; Laguionie-Marchais, C.; Stefanoudis, P. V.; Benoist, N. M.; Paterson, G. L.; Wolff, G. A.; Milligan, R. J.; Bailey, D. M.

2016-02-01

The distribution and abundance of life on the seafloor is set to some extent by the supply of sinking particulate organic matter from overlying surface water. However, the habitat landscape of the seafloor can also exert important ecological influences at local scales. Community differences on the scales of centimeters upwards can arise from drivers including changes in seafloor sediments, slope, and lateral movement of particulate organic matter. Here we use photographic survey data covering an extent on the order of 100 km2 to examine relationships between megafauna density, biomass, diversity, and community composition, as well as food availability and habitat type across landscape scales. The surveyed area at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain has a maximum water depth of about 4850 m and includes a range of topographic features from slight undulations of the seafloor to exposed bedrock scarps on an abyssal hill rising more than 200 m above the surrounding plain. We first examine community descriptors across the entire area and then sequentially break the analytical units into smaller units including variants based on habitat types and spatial extent. We repeat the examination of seafloor community descriptors with finer and finer analytical unit scales, as well as for different habitat types, and changing levels of phytodetritus coverage. We then examine the scales at which diversity and community composition go from statistically indistinguishable between analytical units to significantly different and which factors best explain these observations. Lastly, we relate the results from this megafauna study to other recent spatial studies at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, from foraminifera to fishes, to build a landscape view of the ecology of the area.

The ecological system and the regionalization of landscape reconstruction in northwest of China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peicheng LI,Guoyuan DU,Qilei LI,Jinfeng WANG,Feimin ZHENG

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The northwest of China is a vast area with abundant resources and significant potential for development. However, the ecological system is extremely vulnerable to damage and must be managed carefully. Thus, the Chinese government is strengthening research on improvement and reconstruction of the ecological system and landscape in northwest of China while moving forward with large-scale development in west China. The disadvantages and vulnerabilities in the northwest area in China are presented. It is suggested that the reconstruction of landscape should be conducted by step by step regionalization across the various ecological systems in the 3.04 million km2 northwest area of China. The first level regionalization results of reconstruction of landscape are discussed.

An inventory of continental U.S. terrestrial candidate ecological restoration areas based on landscape context

Science.gov (United States)

James Wickham; Kurt Riitters; Peter Vogt; Jennifer Costanza; Anne Neale

2017-01-01

Landscape context is an important factor in restoration ecology, but the use of landscape context for site prioritization has not been as fully developed.We used morphological image processing to identify candidate ecological restoration areas based on their proximity to existing natural vegetation. We identified 1,102,720 candidate ecological restoration areas across...

Toward Gleasonian landscape ecology: From communities to species, from patches to pixels

Science.gov (United States)

Samuel A. Cushman; Jeffrey S. Evans; Kevin McGarigal; Joseph M. Kiesecker

2010-01-01

The fusion of individualistic community ecology with the Hutchinsonian niche concept enabled a broad integration of ecological theory, spanning all the way from the niche characteristics of individual species, to the composition, structure, and dynamics of ecological communities. Landscape ecology has been variously described as the study of the structure, function,...

Territorial ordination and fragmentation of the landscape - Perspectives for the ecological integrity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velez Restrepo, Luis Anibal

2001-01-01

The field of planning increasingly emphasizes the importance of rooting the strategies of biological diversity on an ecological perspective of landscape linked to the processes and plans of structural reordering of the territory. However, there is still a conceptual and methodological tendency to go back to the old habits in many processes of land planning. This work discusses such disparity. It includes first a general discussion of traditional approaches to conservation and the new perspectives and concepts focused on landscape, second, examining the conventional ecological approach to planning and land use management it shows the fragmentary way in which it determines land uses without any attention to the workings of biodiversity. Finally, this paper looks at the importance and the opportunity of articulating spatial patterns and ecological processes in ways that maintain the integrity of landscape

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) as a model system in community, landscape and ecosystem ecology

Science.gov (United States)

Bowker, Matthew A.; Maestre, Fernando T.; Eldridge, David; Belnap, Jayne; Castillo-Monroy, Andrea; Escolar, Cristina; Soliveres, Santiago

2014-01-01

Model systems have had a profound influence on the development of ecological theory and general principles. Compared to alternatives, the most effective models share some combination of the following characteristics: simpler, smaller, faster, general, idiosyncratic or manipulable. We argue that biological soil crusts (biocrusts) have unique combinations of these features that should be more widely exploited in community, landscape and ecosystem ecology. In community ecology, biocrusts are elucidating the importance of biodiversity and spatial pattern for maintaining ecosystem multifunctionality due to their manipulability in experiments. Due to idiosyncrasies in their modes of facilitation and competition, biocrusts have led to new models on the interplay between environmental stress and biotic interactions and on the maintenance of biodiversity by competitive processes. Biocrusts are perhaps one of the best examples of micro-landscapes—real landscapes that are small in size. Although they exhibit varying patch heterogeneity, aggregation, connectivity and fragmentation, like macro-landscapes, they are also compatible with well-replicated experiments (unlike macro-landscapes). In ecosystem ecology, a number of studies are imposing small-scale, low cost manipulations of global change or state factors in biocrust micro-landscapes. The versatility of biocrusts to inform such disparate lines of inquiry suggests that they are an especially useful model system that can enable researchers to see ecological principles more clearly and quickly.

Identifying socio-ecological networks in rural-urban gradients: Diagnosis of a changing cultural landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnaiz-Schmitz, C; Schmitz, M F; Herrero-Jáuregui, C; Gutiérrez-Angonese, J; Pineda, F D; Montes, C

2018-01-15

Socio-ecological systems maintain reciprocal interactions between biophysical and socioeconomic structures. As a result of these interactions key essential services for society emerge. Urban expansion is a direct driver of land change and cause serious shifts in socio-ecological relationships and the associated lifestyles. The framework of rural-urban gradients has proved to be a powerful tool for ecological research about urban influences on ecosystems and on sociological issues related to social welfare. However, to date there has not been an attempt to achieve a classification of municipalities in rural-urban gradients based on socio-ecological interactions. In this paper, we developed a methodological approach that allows identifying and classifying a set of socio-ecological network configurations in the Region of Madrid, a highly dynamic cultural landscape considered one of the European hotspots in urban development. According to their socio-ecological links, the integrated model detects four groups of municipalities, ordered along a rural-urban gradient, characterized by their degree of biophysical and socioeconomic coupling and different indicators of landscape structure and social welfare. We propose the developed model as a useful tool to improve environmental management schemes and land planning from a socio-ecological perspective, especially in territories subject to intense urban transformations and loss of rurality. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Incorporating resilience and cost in ecological restoration strategies at landscape scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maurício Stefanes

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The restoration of deforested or degraded areas can contribute to biodiversity conservation and global resilience given the current and projected impacts of climate change. In recent years, a robust array of ecological restoration frameworks have been generated to address restoration challenges at large scales in different ecosystems around the world. Unfortunately, the costs associated with restoration at such scales greatly challenges the implementation of such frameworks. We used landscape ecology principles with multicriteria optimization of landscape resilience and agricultural productivity as a way to mitigate the trade-offs between production and restoration. We used the Cerrado biome in Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil, as a case study to apply our framework. We compared three scenarios: minimal legal compliance (MLC; selection by ecological resilience (SER; and selection by restoration cost (SRC. Our results show that increasing the restoration target from MLC (25% to SER (30% means moving from 968,316 to 1592 million hectares, which can represent a huge opportunity cost for agricultural lands. However, because costs and resilience are not homogeneously distributed throughout landscapes, we can select areas of intermediate ecological resilience and low cost, for the same restoration area target. This process can reduce potential conflicts and make restoration a more viable process. Our results also reveal some areas that can be particularly important for reconciling agriculture and landscape restoration. Those areas combined high and intermediate resilience and an above average profitability. This could mean that increasing restoration in this area could be very expensive, assuming that our proxy roughly represents the restoration implementation cost. However, there is another important message here, that some areas can be productive at the same time that they maintain levels of resilience above the legal compliance, which facilitates

Landscape services as boundary concept in landscape governance: Building social capital in collaboration and adapting the landscape

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Westerink, Judith; Opdam, Paul; Rooij, Van Sabine; Steingröver, Eveliene

2017-01-01

The landscape services concept provides a lens to study relations within the social-ecological networks that landscapes are, and to identify stakeholders as either providers or beneficiaries. However, landscape services can also be used as a boundary concept in collaborative landscape governance. We

[Temporal and spatial characteristics of ecological risk in Shunyi, Beijing, China based on landscape structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Qing, Feng Ting; Peng, Yu

2016-05-01

Based on the remote sensing data in 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2013, this article classified the landscape types of Shunyi, and the ecological risk index was built based on landscape disturbance index and landscape fragility. The spatial auto-correlation and geostatistical analysis by GS + and ArcGIS was used to study temporal and spatial changes of ecological risk. The results showed that eco-risk degree in the study region had positive spatial correlation which decreased with the increasing grain size. Within a certain grain range (landscape, such as the banks of Chaobai River.

Transfer Relations Between Landscape Functions - The Hydrological Point of View

Science.gov (United States)

Fohrer, N.; Lenhart, T.; Eckhardt, K.; Frede, H.-G.

EC market policies and regional subsidy programs have an enormous impact on local land use. This has far reaching consequences on various landscape functions. In the joint research project SFB299 at the Giessen University the effect of land use options on economic, ecological and hydrological landscape functions are under investigation. The continuous time step model SWAT-G (Eckhardt et al., 2000; Arnold et al., 1998) is employed to characterize the influence of land use patterns on hydrological processes. The model was calibrated and validated employing a split sample approach. For two mesoscale watersheds (Aar, 60 km2; Dietzhölze, 81 km2) located in the Lahn-Dill- Bergland, Germany, different land use scenarios were analyzed with regard to their hydrological impact. Additionally the effect of land use change was analyzed with an ecological and an agro-economic model. The impact of the stepwise changing land use was expressed as trade off relations between different landscape functions.

Landscape Ecological Risk Responses to Land Use Change in the Luanhe River Basin, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ying Li

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Land use change has large effects on natural ecosystems, which is considered to be the main factor in eco-environment change. We analyzed the future characters of land use change by the CLUE-S model and explored landscape ecological risk responses to land use change by the landscape ecological risk index method. Using the Luanhe River Basin as a case study, we simulated future land use change from 2010 to 2030 under 3 scenarios (i.e., trend, high economic growth, and ecological security, and identified the hotspots of land use change. Afterward, we quantitatively investigated the degree of land use development and landscape ecological risk patterns that have occured since 2000 and that are expected to occur until 2030. Results revealed that, under the three scenarios, construction land and forest are expanding mainly at the expense of agriculture land and grassland. The hotspots of land use change are located in the vicinity of Shuangluan and Shuangqiao District of Chengde City in the midstream of the Luanhe River Basin, where urbanization has been strong since 2000 and is projected to continue that way until 2030. During this time period, hotspots of land use development have been gradually transferring from the downstream to the midstream since 2000 and, again, is expected to continue that way until 2030, which will impact the spatial distribution of landscape ecological risk. We found that the landscape ecological risk of the entire basin has shown a negative trend. However, a few areas still have serious ecological risk, which are mainly located in the east of upstream (Duolun County and Weichang County, the middle region (Shuangluan and Shuangqiao District, Chengde County, and Xinglong County, and the downstream (Qinglong County. These can provide key information for land use management, and for helping to prepare future eco-environmental policies in the Luanhe River Basin.

AND LANDSCAPE-ECOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ITS DISTRIBUTION

OpenAIRE

S. M. Musaeva

2012-01-01

The article is devoted to the study of helminthofauna of the striped lizard in Lankaran natural region. The landscape and ecological analysis of distribution of the helminthofauna is provided. As a result of studies on 99 individuals of striped lizard totally 14 species of helminthes, including 1 trematode species, 1 species of cestode, 3 species of akantocefals and 9 species of nematodes were found.

AND LANDSCAPE-ECOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ITS DISTRIBUTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. M. Musaeva

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the study of helminthofauna of the striped lizard in Lankaran natural region. The landscape and ecological analysis of distribution of the helminthofauna is provided. As a result of studies on 99 individuals of striped lizard totally 14 species of helminthes, including 1 trematode species, 1 species of cestode, 3 species of akantocefals and 9 species of nematodes were found.

A landscape ecology approach to assessing development impacts in the tropics: A geothermal energy example in Hawaii

Science.gov (United States)

Griffith, J.A.; Trettin, C.C.; O'Neill, R. V.

2002-01-01

Geographic information systems (GIS) are increasingly being used in environmental impact assessments (EIA) because GIS is useful for analysing spatial impacts of various development scenarios. Spatially representing these impacts provides another tool for landscape ecology in environmental and geographical investigations by facilitating analysis of the effects of landscape patterns on ecological processes and examining change over time. Landscape ecological principles are applied in this study to a hypothetical geothermal development project on the Island of Hawaii. Some common landscape pattern metrics were used to analyse dispersed versus condensed development scenarios and their effect on landscape pattern. Indices of fragmentation and patch shape did not appreciably change with additional development. The amount of forest to open edge, however, greatly increased with the dispersed development scenario. In addition, landscape metrics showed that a human disturbance had a greater simplifying effect on patch shape and also increased fragmentation than a natural disturbance. The use of these landscape pattern metrics can advance the methodology of applying GIS to EIA.

The pitfalls of short-range endemism: high vulnerability to ecological and landscape traps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leanda D. Mason

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Ecological traps attract biota to low-quality habitats. Landscape traps are zones caught in a vortex of spiralling degradation. Here, we demonstrate how short-range endemic (SRE traits may make such taxa vulnerable to ecological and landscape traps. Three SRE species of mygalomorph spider were used in this study: Idiommata blackwalli, Idiosoma sigillatum and an undescribed Aganippe sp. Mygalomorphs can be long-lived (>43 years and select sites for permanent burrows in their early dispersal phase. Spiderlings from two species, I. blackwalli (n = 20 and Aganippe sp. (n = 50, demonstrated choice for microhabitats under experimental conditions, that correspond to where adults typically occur in situ. An invasive veldt grass microhabitat was selected almost exclusively by spiderlings of I. sigillatum. At present, habitat dominated by veldt grass in Perth, Western Australia, has lower prey diversity and abundance than undisturbed habitats and therefore may act as an ecological trap for this species. Furthermore, as a homogenising force, veldt grass can spread to form a landscape trap in naturally heterogeneous ecosystems. Selection of specialised microhabitats of SREs may explain high extinction rates in old, stable landscapes undergoing (human-induced rapid change.

Operationalizing ecological resilience at a landscape scale: A framework and case study from Silicon Valley

Science.gov (United States)

Beller, E.; Robinson, A.; Grossinger, R.; Grenier, L.; Davenport, A.

2015-12-01

Adaptation to climate change requires redesigning our landscapes and watersheds to maximize ecological resilience at large scales and integrated across urban areas, wildlands, and a diversity of ecosystem types. However, it can be difficult for environmental managers and designers to access, interpret, and apply resilience concepts at meaningful scales and across a range of settings. To address this gap, we produced a Landscape Resilience Framework that synthesizes the latest science on the qualitative mechanisms that drive resilience of ecological functions to climate change and other large-scale stressors. The framework is designed to help translate resilience science into actionable ecosystem conservation and restoration recommendations and adaptation strategies by providing a concise but comprehensive list of considerations that will help integrate resilience concepts into urban design, conservation planning, and natural resource management. The framework is composed of seven principles that represent core attributes which determine the resilience of ecological functions within a landscape. These principles are: setting, process, connectivity, redundancy, diversity/complexity, scale, and people. For each principle we identify several key operationalizable components that help illuminate specific recommendations and actions that are likely to contribute to landscape resilience for locally appropriate species, habitats, and biological processes. We are currently using the framework to develop landscape-scale recommendations for ecological resilience in the heavily urbanized Silicon Valley, California, in collaboration with local agencies, companies, and regional experts. The resilience framework is being applied across the valley, including urban, suburban, and wildland areas and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Ultimately, the framework will underpin the development of strategies that can be implemented to bolster ecological resilience from a site to

A landscape ecology approach identifies important drivers of urban biodiversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Turrini, Tabea; Knop, Eva

2015-04-01

Cities are growing rapidly worldwide, yet a mechanistic understanding of the impact of urbanization on biodiversity is lacking. We assessed the impact of urbanization on arthropod diversity (species richness and evenness) and abundance in a study of six cities and nearby intensively managed agricultural areas. Within the urban ecosystem, we disentangled the relative importance of two key landscape factors affecting biodiversity, namely the amount of vegetated area and patch isolation. To do so, we a priori selected sites that independently varied in the amount of vegetated area in the surrounding landscape at the 500-m scale and patch isolation at the 100-m scale, and we hold local patch characteristics constant. As indicator groups, we used bugs, beetles, leafhoppers, and spiders. Compared to intensively managed agricultural ecosystems, urban ecosystems supported a higher abundance of most indicator groups, a higher number of bug species, and a lower evenness of bug and beetle species. Within cities, a high amount of vegetated area increased species richness and abundance of most arthropod groups, whereas evenness showed no clear pattern. Patch isolation played only a limited role in urban ecosystems, which contrasts findings from agro-ecological studies. Our results show that urban areas can harbor a similar arthropod diversity and abundance compared to intensively managed agricultural ecosystems. Further, negative consequences of urbanization on arthropod diversity can be mitigated by providing sufficient vegetated space in the urban area, while patch connectivity is less important in an urban context. This highlights the need for applying a landscape ecological approach to understand the mechanisms shaping urban biodiversity and underlines the potential of appropriate urban planning for mitigating biodiversity loss. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Land-use choices follow profitability at the expense of ecological functions in Indonesian smallholder landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Clough, Yann; Krishna, Vijesh V; Corre, Marife D; Darras, Kevin; Denmead, Lisa H; Meijide, Ana; Moser, Stefan; Musshoff, Oliver; Steinebach, Stefanie; Veldkamp, Edzo; Allen, Kara; Barnes, Andrew D; Breidenbach, Natalie; Brose, Ulrich; Buchori, Damayanti; Daniel, Rolf; Finkeldey, Reiner; Harahap, Idham; Hertel, Dietrich; Holtkamp, A Mareike; Hörandl, Elvira; Irawan, Bambang; Jaya, I Nengah Surati; Jochum, Malte; Klarner, Bernhard; Knohl, Alexander; Kotowska, Martyna M; Krashevska, Valentyna; Kreft, Holger; Kurniawan, Syahrul; Leuschner, Christoph; Maraun, Mark; Melati, Dian Nuraini; Opfermann, Nicole; Pérez-Cruzado, César; Prabowo, Walesa Edho; Rembold, Katja; Rizali, Akhmad; Rubiana, Ratna; Schneider, Dominik; Tjitrosoedirdjo, Sri Sudarmiyati; Tjoa, Aiyen; Tscharntke, Teja; Scheu, Stefan

2016-10-11

Smallholder-dominated agricultural mosaic landscapes are highlighted as model production systems that deliver both economic and ecological goods in tropical agricultural landscapes, but trade-offs underlying current land-use dynamics are poorly known. Here, using the most comprehensive quantification of land-use change and associated bundles of ecosystem functions, services and economic benefits to date, we show that Indonesian smallholders predominantly choose farm portfolios with high economic productivity but low ecological value. The more profitable oil palm and rubber monocultures replace forests and agroforests critical for maintaining above- and below-ground ecological functions and the diversity of most taxa. Between the monocultures, the higher economic performance of oil palm over rubber comes with the reliance on fertilizer inputs and with increased nutrient leaching losses. Strategies to achieve an ecological-economic balance and a sustainable management of tropical smallholder landscapes must be prioritized to avoid further environmental degradation.

Land-use choices follow profitability at the expense of ecological functions in Indonesian smallholder landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Clough, Yann; Krishna, Vijesh V.; Corre, Marife D.; Darras, Kevin; Denmead, Lisa H.; Meijide, Ana; Moser, Stefan; Musshoff, Oliver; Steinebach, Stefanie; Veldkamp, Edzo; Allen, Kara; Barnes, Andrew D.; Breidenbach, Natalie; Brose, Ulrich; Buchori, Damayanti; Daniel, Rolf; Finkeldey, Reiner; Harahap, Idham; Hertel, Dietrich; Holtkamp, A. Mareike; Hörandl, Elvira; Irawan, Bambang; Jaya, I. Nengah Surati; Jochum, Malte; Klarner, Bernhard; Knohl, Alexander; Kotowska, Martyna M.; Krashevska, Valentyna; Kreft, Holger; Kurniawan, Syahrul; Leuschner, Christoph; Maraun, Mark; Melati, Dian Nuraini; Opfermann, Nicole; Pérez-Cruzado, César; Prabowo, Walesa Edho; Rembold, Katja; Rizali, Akhmad; Rubiana, Ratna; Schneider, Dominik; Tjitrosoedirdjo, Sri Sudarmiyati; Tjoa, Aiyen; Tscharntke, Teja; Scheu, Stefan

2016-10-01

Smallholder-dominated agricultural mosaic landscapes are highlighted as model production systems that deliver both economic and ecological goods in tropical agricultural landscapes, but trade-offs underlying current land-use dynamics are poorly known. Here, using the most comprehensive quantification of land-use change and associated bundles of ecosystem functions, services and economic benefits to date, we show that Indonesian smallholders predominantly choose farm portfolios with high economic productivity but low ecological value. The more profitable oil palm and rubber monocultures replace forests and agroforests critical for maintaining above- and below-ground ecological functions and the diversity of most taxa. Between the monocultures, the higher economic performance of oil palm over rubber comes with the reliance on fertilizer inputs and with increased nutrient leaching losses. Strategies to achieve an ecological-economic balance and a sustainable management of tropical smallholder landscapes must be prioritized to avoid further environmental degradation.

Inhabiting the Delta: A Landscape Approach to Transformative Socio-Ecological Restoration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brett Milligan

2017-09-01

Full Text Available doi: https://doi.org/10.15447/sfews.2017v15iss3art3Current legislation and plans for the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta (Delta call for large-scale restoration of aquatic and terrestrial habitats, which will require significant changes in waterways, land uses, and cultural patterns. These re-made landscapes will be subject to a variety of new human uses, which Delta planning and adaptive management literature has yet to adequately consider. Failing to account for human uses and evolving place values can lead to diminished performance and public support for Delta restoration efforts. Our empirical study examined restored and naturalized Delta landscapes using an integrative landscape approach that seeks to reconcile multiple goals and land-use agendas that span ecological, social, economic, and political domains. The research design consisted of six overlapping methods that included a planning, policy, and law review specific to the Delta; surveys and interviews with approximately 100 land managers, scientists, land-owners, law-enforcement personnel, agency representatives, and Delta residents; nine case studies of restored and naturalized delta landscapes; GIS mapping; and extensive field work. Findings derived from the synthesis of these methods show that human uses of the Delta’s re-wilded landscapes are diverse and pervasive. Given the infrastructural and urbanized context of the region, these environments are subject to multiple and sometimes conflicting uses, perceptions, and place values. Though these myriad uses cannot be fully predicted or controlled (nor should they be, findings showed that more proactive and inclusive planning for human uses can encourage or discourage particular uses while also building constituency, support, and active engagement in ecological restoration efforts. We conclude that reconciling human uses with ecological recovery in the Delta will require a more localized, multi-functional, and creative approach to

Using a social-ecological systems perspective to understand tourism and landscape interactions in coastal areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jasper Hessel Heslinga

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at the potential synergies between tourism and landscapes and examine the potential contribution of tourism to build social-ecological resilience in the Dutch Wadden. Design/methodology/approach – The authors reveal how a social-ecological systems perspective can be used to conceptualize the Wadden as a coupled and dynamic system. This paper is a conceptual analysis that applies this approach to the Dutch Wadden. The data used for the inquiry primarily comes from a literature review. Findings – The authors argue that the social-ecological systems perspective is a useful approach and could be used to improve the governance of multi-functional socio-ecological systems in coastal areas. Opportunities for synergies between tourism and landscapes have been overlooked. The authors consider that tourism and nature protection are potentially compatible and that the synergies should be identified. Research limitations/implications – This paper is only a conceptual application rather than an empirical case study. Further research to actually apply the methodology is needed. Practical implications – Managers of protected areas should consider applying a social-ecological systems approach. Social implications – The views of a wide variety of stakeholders should be considered in landscape planning. Originality/value – The value of this paper lies in the articulation of the social-ecological systems perspective as a way to identify and understand the complex interactions between tourism and landscape, and the potential synergies between them.

Generalizing ecological site concepts of the Colorado Plateau for landscape-level applications

Science.gov (United States)

Duniway, Michael C.; Nauman, Travis; Johanson, Jamin K.; Green, Shane; Miller, Mark E.; Bestelmeyer, Brandon T.

2016-01-01

Numerous ecological site descriptions in the southern Utah portion of the Colorado Plateau can be difficult to navigate, so we held a workshop aimed at adding value and functionality to the current ecological site system.We created new groups of ecological sites and drafted state-and-transition models for these new groups.We were able to distill the current large number of ecological sites in the study area (ca. 150) into eight ecological site groups that capture important variability in ecosystem dynamics.Several inventory and monitoring programs and landscape scale planning actions will likely benefit from more generalized ecological site group concepts.

The effect of mining on landscape ecological systems and land reclamation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stys, S.

1991-01-01

Coal mining causes serious disturbance of the environment. Basic principles for the reclamation of affected territories are discussed. The effects of mining on the socio-ecological landscape system, the agricultural and forestry aspects of reclamation technologies after surface mining and the factors affecting the way of reclamation are shown in a diagrammatic form. The attached photographs document the effect of mining on landscape devastation. (M.D.). 17 figs

Island biogeography and landscape structure: Integrating ecological concepts in a landscape perspective of anthropogenic impacts in temporary wetlands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angeler, David G.; Alvarez-Cobelas, Miguel

2005-01-01

Although our understanding of environmental risk assessment in temporary wetlands has been improved by the use of multi-species toxicity testing, we still know little of how landscape variables mediate the strength of, and recovery from, anthropogenic stress in such ecosystems. To bridge this research gap, we provide a theoretical framework of the response of temporary wetlands to anthropogenic disturbance along a habitat-isolation continuum based on island biogeography theory, landscape ecology and dispersal and colonization strategies of temporary wetland organisms. - Environmental risk assessment in temporary wetlands may benefit from consideration of island biogeography theory and landscape structure

Using landscape ecology to test hypotheses about large-scale abundance patterns in migratory birds

Science.gov (United States)

Flather, C.H.; Sauer, J.R.

1996-01-01

The hypothesis that Neotropical migrant birds may be undergoing widespread declines due to land use activities on the breeding grounds has been examined primarily by synthesizing results from local studies. Growing concern for the cumulative influence of land use activities on ecological systems has heightened the need for large-scale studies to complement what has been observed at local scales. We investigated possible landscape effects on Neotropical migrant bird populations for the eastern United States by linking two large-scale inventories designed to monitor breeding-bird abundances and land use patterns. The null hypothesis of no relation between landscape structure and Neotropical migrant abundance was tested by correlating measures of landscape structure with bird abundance, while controlling for the geographic distance among samples. Neotropical migrants as a group were more 'sensitive' to landscape structure than either temperate migrants or permanent residents. Neotropical migrants tended to be more abundant in landscapes with a greater proportion of forest and wetland habitats, fewer edge habitats, large forest patches, and with forest habitats well dispersed throughout the scene. Permanent residents showed few correlations with landscape structure and temperate migrants were associated with habitat diversity and edge attributes rather than with the amount, size, and dispersion of forest habitats. The association between Neotropical migrant abundance and forest fragmentation differed among physiographic strata, suggesting that land-scape context affects observed relations between bird abundance and landscape structure. Finally, associations between landscape structure and temporal trends in Neotropical migrant abundance were negatively correlated with forest habitats. These results suggest that extrapolation of patterns observed in some landscapes is not likely to hold regionally, and that conservation policies must consider the variation in landscape

Nature and culture in Amazonian landscape: a photographic experience echoing Amerindian cosmology and historical ecology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrick Pardini

2012-08-01

Full Text Available As an artistic experience, the photographic research "Arborescence - plant physiognomy in Amazonian landscape" conduces the author to discover landscape as an interpenetration of Nature and Culture (man's indirect presence; being face to face with vegetable subjects; continuity, undifferentiation and equivalence between the 'natural' (heterogeneous, spontaneous, native, rural and the 'cultural' (homogeneous, cultivated, exotic, urban in the experience of landscape; arborescence as a "cosmic image" (Gaston Bachelard, where the high (sky, light, branches, sky water and the low (earth, shade, roots, land water are equivalent and reversible poles. Such experience echoes the eco-cosmology of forest societies in Amazonia. The Amerindian cosmology is a "symbolic ecology" (Philippe Descola, that is, "a complex dynamics of social intercourse and transformations between humans and non-humans, visible and invisible subjects" (Bruce Albert; the Amerindian ecology is "a cosmology put into practice" (Kaj Århem, wherein hunted animals and cultivated plants are 'relatives' to be seduced or coerced. Such model appears to be a form of "socialization of nature" (Descola, "humanization of the forest" (Evaristo Eduardo de Miranda and "indirect anthropization" of Amazonian ecosystems (Descola which produces "cultural forests" (William Balée.

[Landscape ecological security pattern during urban expansion of Nanchong City].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Sui; Shi, Tie-mao; Fu, Shi-lei; Zhou, Le; Liu, Miao; Wang, Wei

2011-03-01

Based on the theory of landscape ecological security pattern and the RS and GIS techniques, this paper analyzed the distribution of ecological security grades in Nanchong City, taking six elements including terrain condition, flood hazard, soil erosion, vegetation cover, geological disaster, and biological protection as the ecological constraints (or determinants) of urban expansion. According to the minimum cumulative resistance model, the ecological corridors and ecological nodes were built to strengthen the space contact of ecological network, and, on the basis of the protection of ecological safety, the reasonable trend of urban expansion and the optimization of space layout were investigated. The results showed that the ecological security of Nanchong City was quite good, with the regions of low ecological security mainly distributed in the west suburban mountains and the downstream region of Jialing River in the south of the City. Ecological elements were the most important constraints for the future expansion of urban space. There were more spaces for the urban expansion in the southern and northern parts of Nanchong City. To develop satellite towns would be the best selection to guarantee the ecological security of the city.

Broad-scale assessments of ecological landscapes: developing methods and applications

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, Natasha B.; Wood, David J. A.; Bowen, Zachary H.; Haby, Travis S.

2015-01-01

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is developing a Landscape Approach for managing multiple uses of public lands by incorporating multiscale information to quantify the effects of natural and human influences on natural resource conditions and trends. A primary goal of the approach is to identify opportunities for resource conservation, restoration, and development. The BLM Landscape Approach is developing assessment methods that promote consistency in management decisions, identify ecological characteristics that promote ecosystem resilience under rapidly changing environmental conditions, and foster collaboration among land management agencies. The BLM Landscape Approach is closely aligned with the DOI’s “A Strategy for Improving the Mitigation Policies and Practices of The Department of the Interior.”

Butterfly Community Conservation Through Ecological Landscape Design in Urban Areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Orsolya Borsai

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Due urbanization and extension of agricultural areas most of the ecosystems are strongly affected. As a result, preservation of biodiversity becomes more and more important aiming to reestablish the lost habitats of different species (mammals, birds, amphibians, insects, etc.. Our research focuses on butterflies which constitute an extremely important group of ‘model’ organisms. We have identified 12 diurnal ‘flying beauties’ specific to Cluj area (threatened and unthreathened species and investigated their ecological requirements that have to be provided for in any landscapes. Furthermore, based on the data colleted we have illustrated the utility of our approach by applying it to a hypothetical urban landscape (private garden following the traditional environmental guidelines in our landscape design.

[A landscape ecological approach for urban non-point source pollution control].

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Qinghai; Ma, Keming; Zhao, Jingzhu; Yang, Liu; Yin, Chengqing

2005-05-01

Urban non-point source pollution is a new problem appeared with the speeding development of urbanization. The particularity of urban land use and the increase of impervious surface area make urban non-point source pollution differ from agricultural non-point source pollution, and more difficult to control. Best Management Practices (BMPs) are the effective practices commonly applied in controlling urban non-point source pollution, mainly adopting local repairing practices to control the pollutants in surface runoff. Because of the close relationship between urban land use patterns and non-point source pollution, it would be rational to combine the landscape ecological planning with local BMPs to control the urban non-point source pollution, which needs, firstly, analyzing and evaluating the influence of landscape structure on water-bodies, pollution sources and pollutant removal processes to define the relationships between landscape spatial pattern and non-point source pollution and to decide the key polluted fields, and secondly, adjusting inherent landscape structures or/and joining new landscape factors to form new landscape pattern, and combining landscape planning and management through applying BMPs into planning to improve urban landscape heterogeneity and to control urban non-point source pollution.

Visionmaker.NYC: An Online Landscape Ecology Tool to Support Social-Ecological System Visioning and Planning

Science.gov (United States)

DuBois, Bryce; Allred, Shorna; Bunting-Howarth, Katherine; Sanderson, Eric W.; Giampieri, Mario

2017-01-01

The Welikeia project and the corresponding free online tool Visionmaker. NYC focus on the historical landscape ecologies of New York City. This article provides a brief introduction to online participatory tools, describes the Visionmaker tool in detail, and offers suggested ways to use the tool for Extension professionals based in and outside New…

Effects of Urbanization Expansion on Landscape Pattern and Region Ecological Risk in Chinese Coastal City: A Case Study of Yantai City

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Di Zhou

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Applied with remote sensing, GIS, and mathematical statistics, the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of urbanization expansion of Yantai city from 1974 to 2009 was studied. Based on landscape pattern metrics and ecological risk index, the landscape ecological risk from the landscape pattern dynamics was evaluated. The results showed that the area of urban land increased by 189.77 km2 with average expansion area of 5.42 km2 y−1 from 1974 to 2009. The urbanization intensity index during 2004–2009 was 3.92 times of that during 1974–1990. The land use types of urban land and farmland changed greatly. The changes of landscape pattern metrics for land use patterns indicated that the intensity of human activities had strengthened gradually in study period. The landscape ecological risk pattern of Yantai city shaped half-round rings along the coastline. The ecological risk index decreased with increase of the distance to the coastline. The ratio of high ecological risk to subhigh ecological risk zones in 2009 was 2.23 times of that in 1990. The significant linear relationship of urbanization intensity index and regional ecological risk indicated that the anthropological economic activities were decisive factors for sustainable development of costal ecological environment.

Effects of Urbanization Expansion on Landscape Pattern and Region Ecological Risk in Chinese Coastal City: A Case Study of Yantai City

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, D.; Yu, J.; Li, Y.; Zhan, C.

2017-12-01

Applied with remote sensing, GIS, and mathematical statistics, the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of urbanization expansion of Yantai city from1974 to 2009 was studied. Based on landscape pattern metrics and ecological risk index, the landscape ecological risk from the landscape pattern dynamics was evaluated. The results showed that the area of urban land increased by 189.77 km2 with average expansion area of 5.42 km2 y-1 from1974 to 2009.The urbanization intensity index during 2004-2009 was 3.92 times of that during 1974-1990. The land use types of urban land and farmland changed greatly. The changes of landscape pattern metrics for land use patterns indicated that the intensity of human activities had strengthened gradually in study period. The landscape ecological risk pattern of Yantai city shaped half-round rings along the coastline. The ecological risk index decreased with increase of the distance to the coastline. The ratio of high ecological risk to sub-high ecological risk zones in 2009 was 2.23 times of that in 1990.The significant linear relationship of urbanization intensity index and regional ecological risk indicated that the anthropological economic activities were decisive factors for sustainable development of costal ecological environment.

Effects of urbanization expansion on landscape pattern and region ecological risk in Chinese coastal city: a case study of Yantai city.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Di; Shi, Ping; Wu, Xiaoqing; Ma, Jinwei; Yu, Junbao

2014-01-01

Applied with remote sensing, GIS, and mathematical statistics, the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of urbanization expansion of Yantai city from 1974 to 2009 was studied. Based on landscape pattern metrics and ecological risk index, the landscape ecological risk from the landscape pattern dynamics was evaluated. The results showed that the area of urban land increased by 189.77 km(2) with average expansion area of 5.42 km(2) y(-1) from 1974 to 2009. The urbanization intensity index during 2004-2009 was 3.92 times of that during 1974-1990. The land use types of urban land and farmland changed greatly. The changes of landscape pattern metrics for land use patterns indicated that the intensity of human activities had strengthened gradually in study period. The landscape ecological risk pattern of Yantai city shaped half-round rings along the coastline. The ecological risk index decreased with increase of the distance to the coastline. The ratio of high ecological risk to subhigh ecological risk zones in 2009 was 2.23 times of that in 1990. The significant linear relationship of urbanization intensity index and regional ecological risk indicated that the anthropological economic activities were decisive factors for sustainable development of costal ecological environment.

Principles of the landscape-geochemical and radio-ecological mapping of the territory polluted by technogenic radionuclides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sobotovich, Eh.V.; Shestopalov, V.M.; Pushkarev, A.V.; Mezhdunardonyj Nauchnyj Tsentr' Institut Chernobylya' Ukrainskogo Otdeleniya Vsemirnoj Laboratorii, Kiev; Institut Sel'skokhozyajstvennoj Radiologii, Akademii Agrarnykh Nauk Ukrainy, Kiev; Gosudarstvennoe Geologicheskoe Predpriyatie 'Geoprogn oz' Goskomiteta Geologii i Ispol'zovaniya Nedr Ukrainy, Kiev; AN Ukrainskoj SSR, Kiev

1993-01-01

The conceptual and methodical principles of radio-ecological mapping of the territory polluted by radionuclides as a result of catastrophe at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant are reported. The radio-ecological mapping is based on the landscape-geochemical mapping of the polluted territory which is regarded as a unique natural-technogenic geochemical province. The ecological risk for the inhabitants residing here depends both on the degree and nature of pollution by radionuclides and on the landscape-geochemical factors influencing the radionuclide redistribution and secondary accumulation in different biosphere elements. It is substantiated as necessary to compile three types of radio-ecological maps which are of different purpose: control over the economic activities, protection of the population viability, the prediction of radio-ecological situation and the informing of population

Challenges in complementing data from ground-based sensors with satellite-derived products to measure ecological changes in relation to climate – lessons from temperate wetland-upland landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Gallant, Alisa L.; Sadinski, Walter J.; Brown, Jesslyn F.; Senay, Gabriel B.; Roth, Mark F.

2018-01-01

Assessing climate-related ecological changes across spatiotemporal scales meaningful to resource managers is challenging because no one method reliably produces essential data at both fine and broad scales. We recently confronted such challenges while integrating data from ground- and satellite-based sensors for an assessment of four wetland-rich study areas in the U.S. Midwest. We examined relations between temperature and precipitation and a set of variables measured on the ground at individual wetlands and another set measured via satellite sensors within surrounding 4 km2 landscape blocks. At the block scale, we used evapotranspiration and vegetation greenness as remotely sensed proxies for water availability and to estimate seasonal photosynthetic activity. We used sensors on the ground to coincidentally measure surface-water availability and amphibian calling activity at individual wetlands within blocks. Responses of landscape blocks generally paralleled changes in conditions measured on the ground, but the latter were more dynamic, and changes in ecological conditions on the ground that were critical for biota were not always apparent in measurements of related parameters in blocks. Here, we evaluate the effectiveness of decisions and assumptions we made in applying the remotely sensed data for the assessment and the value of integrating observations across scales, sensors, and disciplines.

Land-use change in oil palm dominated tropical landscapes-An agent-based model to explore ecological and socio-economic trade-offs.

Science.gov (United States)

Dislich, Claudia; Hettig, Elisabeth; Salecker, Jan; Heinonen, Johannes; Lay, Jann; Meyer, Katrin M; Wiegand, Kerstin; Tarigan, Suria

2018-01-01

Land-use changes have dramatically transformed tropical landscapes. We describe an ecological-economic land-use change model as an integrated, exploratory tool used to analyze how tropical land-use change affects ecological and socio-economic functions. The model analysis seeks to determine what kind of landscape mosaic can improve the ensemble of ecosystem functioning, biodiversity, and economic benefit based on the synergies and trade-offs that we have to account for. More specifically, (1) how do specific ecosystem functions, such as carbon storage, and economic functions, such as household consumption, relate to each other? (2) How do external factors, such as the output prices of crops, affect these relationships? (3) How do these relationships change when production inefficiency differs between smallholder farmers and learning is incorporated? We initialize the ecological-economic model with artificially generated land-use maps parameterized to our study region. The economic sub-model simulates smallholder land-use management decisions based on a profit maximization assumption. Each household determines factor inputs for all household fields and decides on land-use change based on available wealth. The ecological sub-model includes a simple account of carbon sequestration in above-ground and below-ground vegetation. We demonstrate model capabilities with results on household consumption and carbon sequestration from different output price and farming efficiency scenarios. The overall results reveal complex interactions between the economic and ecological spheres. For instance, model scenarios with heterogeneous crop-specific household productivity reveal a comparatively high inertia of land-use change. Our model analysis even shows such an increased temporal stability in landscape composition and carbon stocks of the agricultural area under dynamic price trends. These findings underline the utility of ecological-economic models, such as ours, to act as

The movement ecology and dynamics of plant communities in fragmented landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Damschen, Ellen I; Brudvig, Lars A; Haddad, Nick M; Levey, Douglas J; Orrock, John L; Tewksbury, Joshua J

2008-12-09

A conceptual model of movement ecology has recently been advanced to explain all movement by considering the interaction of four elements: internal state, motion capacity, navigation capacities, and external factors. We modified this framework to generate predictions for species richness dynamics of fragmented plant communities and tested them in experimental landscapes across a 7-year time series. We found that two external factors, dispersal vectors and habitat features, affected species colonization and recolonization in habitat fragments and their effects varied and depended on motion capacity. Bird-dispersed species richness showed connectivity effects that reached an asymptote over time, but no edge effects, whereas wind-dispersed species richness showed steadily accumulating edge and connectivity effects, with no indication of an asymptote. Unassisted species also showed increasing differences caused by connectivity over time, whereas edges had no effect. Our limited use of proxies for movement ecology (e.g., dispersal mode as a proxy for motion capacity) resulted in moderate predictive power for communities and, in some cases, highlighted the importance of a more complete understanding of movement ecology for predicting how landscape conservation actions affect plant community dynamics.

A Multi-Scalar Approach to Theorizing Socio-Ecological Dynamics of Urban Residential Landscapes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rinku Roy Chowdhury

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Urban residential expansion increasingly drives land use, land cover and ecological changes worldwide, yet social science theories explaining such change remain under-developed. Existing theories often focus on processes occurring at one scale, while ignoring other scales. Emerging evidence from four linked U.S. research sites suggests it is essential to examine processes at multiple scales simultaneously when explaining the evolution of urban residential landscapes. Additionally, focusing on urbanization dynamics across multiple sites with a shared research design may yield fruitful comparative insights. The following processes and social-hierarchical scales significantly influence the spatial configurations of residential landscapes: household-level characteristics and environmental attitudes; formal and informal institutions at the neighborhood scale; and municipal-scale land-use governance. While adopting a multi-scale and multi-site approach produces research challenges, doing so is critical to advancing understanding of coupled socio-ecological systems and associated vulnerabilities in a dynamic and environmentally important setting: residential landscapes.

Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss

Science.gov (United States)

Cunsolo, Ashlee; Ellis, Neville R.

2018-04-01

Climate change is increasingly understood to impact mental health through multiple pathways of risk, including intense feelings of grief as people suffer climate-related losses to valued species, ecosystems and landscapes. Despite growing research interest, ecologically driven grief, or `ecological grief', remains an underdeveloped area of inquiry. We argue that grief is a natural and legitimate response to ecological loss, and one that may become more common as climate impacts worsen. Drawing upon our own research in Northern Canada and the Australian Wheatbelt, combined with a synthesis of the literature, we offer future research directions for the study of ecological grief.

How Landscape Ecology Can Promote the Development of Sustainable Landscapes in Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandt, Jesper; Antrop, Marc; Ramos, Isabel Loupa

2013-01-01

related concepts. International cooperation demands a certain harmonization of these concepts for better mutual understanding. The 2000 European Landscape Convention provided an important momentum to rethink research, policy and management of landscapes from the perspective of sustainable development...

Unhealthy places: the ecology of risk in the urban landscape

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Fitzpatrick, Kevin M; LaGory, Mark

2000-01-01

... or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fitzpatrick, Kevin M. Unhealthy places: the ecology of risk in the urban landscape/ Kevin M.Fitzpatrick, Mark E.LaGory p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-92371-9 (hb).-ISBN 0-415-92372-7 (pb) 1. In...

Using a social-ecological systems perspective to understand tourism and landscape interactions in coastal areas

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heslinga, Jasper; Groote, Peter D.; Vanclay, Francis

2017-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to look at the potential synergies between tourism and landscapes and examine the potential contribution of tourism to build social-ecological resilience in the Dutch Wadden. Design/methodology/approach The authors reveal how a social-ecological systems

Conceptual ecological models to guide integrated landscape monitoring of the Great Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, D.M.; Finn, S.P.; Woodward, Andrea; Torregrosa, Alicia; Miller, M.E.; Bedford, D.R.; Brasher, A.M.

2010-01-01

The Great Basin Integrated Landscape Monitoring Pilot Project was developed in response to the need for a monitoring and predictive capability that addresses changes in broad landscapes and waterscapes. Human communities and needs are nested within landscapes formed by interactions among the hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere. Understanding the complex processes that shape landscapes and deriving ways to manage them sustainably while meeting human needs require sophisticated modeling and monitoring. This document summarizes current understanding of ecosystem structure and function for many of the ecosystems within the Great Basin using conceptual models. The conceptual ecosystem models identify key ecological components and processes, identify external drivers, develop a hierarchical set of models that address both site and landscape attributes, inform regional monitoring strategy, and identify critical gaps in our knowledge of ecosystem function. The report also illustrates an approach for temporal and spatial scaling from site-specific models to landscape models and for understanding cumulative effects. Eventually, conceptual models can provide a structure for designing monitoring programs, interpreting monitoring and other data, and assessing the accuracy of our understanding of ecosystem functions and processes.

Estimating the Cumulative Ecological Effect of Local Scale Landscape Changes in South Florida

Science.gov (United States)

Hogan, Dianna M.; Labiosa, William; Pearlstine, Leonard; Hallac, David; Strong, David; Hearn, Paul; Bernknopf, Richard

2012-01-01

Ecosystem restoration in south Florida is a state and national priority centered on the Everglades wetlands. However, urban development pressures affect the restoration potential and remaining habitat functions of the natural undeveloped areas. Land use (LU) planning often focuses at the local level, but a better understanding of the cumulative effects of small projects at the landscape level is needed to support ecosystem restoration and preservation. The South Florida Ecosystem Portfolio Model (SFL EPM) is a regional LU planning tool developed to help stakeholders visualize LU scenario evaluation and improve communication about regional effects of LU decisions. One component of the SFL EPM is ecological value (EV), which is evaluated through modeled ecological criteria related to ecosystem services using metrics for (1) biodiversity potential, (2) threatened and endangered species, (3) rare and unique habitats, (4) landscape pattern and fragmentation, (5) water quality buffer potential, and (6) ecological restoration potential. In this article, we demonstrate the calculation of EV using two case studies: (1) assessing altered EV in the Biscayne Gateway area by comparing 2004 LU to potential LU in 2025 and 2050, and (2) the cumulative impact of adding limestone mines south of Miami. Our analyses spatially convey changing regional EV resulting from conversion of local natural and agricultural areas to urban, industrial, or extractive use. Different simulated local LU scenarios may result in different alterations in calculated regional EV. These case studies demonstrate methods that may facilitate evaluation of potential future LU patterns and incorporate EV into decision making.

Landscape and biodiversity as new resources for agro-ecology? Insights from farmers' perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolas Salliou

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Pesticide reduction is a key current challenge. Scientific findings in landscape ecology suggest that complex landscapes favor insect pest biological control by conservation of natural enemy habitats. A potential agro-ecological innovation is to conserve or engineer such complex landscapes to reduce pesticide use. However, whereas the relevant resources are often well known in most natural resource management situations, potential resources involved in this innovation (natural enemies and the landscape are not necessarily considered as resources in the eyes of their potential users. From the perspective that resources are socially constructed, our objective was to investigate whether and how these resources are considered by their potential users. To do so, we conducted research in an area specializing in tree-fruit (apple production in southwestern France. This site was selected for its high pest incidence and high use of insecticides on orchards and, consequently, high stakes involved for any alternative. We conducted 30 comprehensive interviews with stakeholders (farmers and crop advisors about their pest control strategies to explore their representation of their landscape and natural enemies. Our results show that natural enemies are considered by local stakeholders as public good resources, especially in the context of interventions by public institutions for their conservation, acclimation, and management. Farmers sometimes consider natural enemies as private goods when they can isolate the crop, enclosing it with nets or some other type of boundary. We also show that the landscape was not considered as a resource for biological pest control by conservation, but rather as a source of pests. We advocate for more research on the effects of landscapes on natural enemies, including participatory research based on dialogue among farmers, crop advisors, and scientists.

Different social drivers, including perceptions of urban wildlife, explain the ecological resources in residential landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

J. Amy Belaire; Lynne M. Westphal; Emily S. Minor

2016-01-01

The conservation value of residential landscapes is becoming increasingly apparent in our urbanizing world. The ecological characteristics of residential areas are largely determined by the decisions of many individual "managers." In these complex socio-ecological systems, it is important to understand the factors that motivate human decision-making. Our...

Landscape Ecological Analysis and Assessment in an Urbanising Environment - forest birds as biodiversity indicators

OpenAIRE

Mörtberg, Ulla

2004-01-01

To achieve a sustainable development, impacts onbiodiversity of urbanisation, infrastructure, land use changesand other developments must be considered on a landscape andregional scale. Landscape ecology can provide a conceptualframework for the assessment of consequences of long-termdevelopment processes like urbanisation on biodiversity on alandscape scale, and for evaluating the impacts of alternativeplanning scenarios. The aim of this study was to explore theeffects of habitat quality, qu...

Adaptive landscape and functional diversity of Neotropical cichlids: implications for the ecology and evolution of Cichlinae (Cichlidae; Cichliformes).

Science.gov (United States)

Arbour, J H; López-Fernández, H

2014-11-01

Morphological, lineage and ecological diversity can vary substantially even among closely related lineages. Factors that influence morphological diversification, especially in functionally relevant traits, can help to explain the modern distribution of disparity across phylogenies and communities. Multivariate axes of feeding functional morphology from 75 species of Neotropical cichlid and a stepwise-AIC algorithm were used to estimate the adaptive landscape of functional morphospace in Cichlinae. Adaptive landscape complexity and convergence, as well as the functional diversity of Cichlinae, were compared with expectations under null evolutionary models. Neotropical cichlid feeding function varied primarily between traits associated with ram feeding vs. suction feeding/biting and secondarily with oral jaw muscle size and pharyngeal crushing capacity. The number of changes in selective regimes and the amount of convergence between lineages was higher than expected under a null model of evolution, but convergence was not higher than expected under a similarly complex adaptive landscape. Functional disparity was compatible with an adaptive landscape model, whereas the distribution of evolutionary change through morphospace corresponded with a process of evolution towards a single adaptive peak. The continentally distributed Neotropical cichlids have evolved relatively rapidly towards a number of adaptive peaks in functional trait space. Selection in Cichlinae functional morphospace is more complex than expected under null evolutionary models. The complexity of selective constraints in feeding morphology has likely been a significant contributor to the diversity of feeding ecology in this clade. © 2014 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2014 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Dynamic Ecological Risk Assessment and Management of Land Use in the Middle Reaches of the Heihe River Based on Landscape Patterns and Spatial Statistics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiahui Fan

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Land use profoundly changes the terrestrial ecosystem and landscape patterns, and these changes reveal the extent and scope of the ecological influence of land use on the terrestrial ecosystem. The study area selected for this research was the middle reaches of the Heihe River. Based on land use data (1986, 2000, and 2014, we proposed an ecological risk index of land use by combining a landscape disturbance index with a landscape fragility index. An exponential model was selected to perform kriging interpolation, as well as spatial autocorrelations and semivariance analyses which could reveal the spatial aggregation patterns. The results indicated that the ecological risk of the middle reaches of the Heihe River was generally high, and higher in the northwest. The high values of the ecological risk index (ERI tended to decrease, and the low ERI values tended to increase. Positive spatial autocorrelations and a prominent scale-dependence were observed among the ERI values. The main hot areas with High-High local autocorrelations were located in the north, and the cold areas with low-low local autocorrelations were primarily located in the middle corridor plain and Qilian Mountains. From 1986 to 2014, low and relatively low ecological risk areas decreased while relatively high risk areas expanded. A middle level of ecological risk was observed in Ganzhou and Minle counties. Shandan County presented a serious polarization, with high ecological risk areas observed in the north and low ecological risk areas observed in the southern Shandan horse farm. In order to lower the eco-risk and achieve the sustainability of land use, these results suggest policies to strictly control the oasis expansion and the occupation of farmland for urbanization. Some inefficient farmland should transform into grassland in appropriate cases.

Environmental research programme. Ecological research. Annual report 1995. Urban-industrial landscapes, forests, agricultural landscapes, river and lake landscapes, terrestrial ecosystem research, environmental pollution and health

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-01-01

In promoting ecology research, the federal ministry of science and technology (BMBF) pursues the aim to enhance understanding of the natural resources indispensable to the life of man, animals and plant societies and their interrelations, and to point out existing scope for action to preserve or replenish them. Consequently, ecology research makes an essential contribution towards effective nature conservancy and environmental protection. The interactions between climate and ecosystems also form an important part of this. With regard to topical environmental issues concerning agricultural landscapes, rivers and lakes, forests and urban-industrial agglomerations, system interrelations in representative ecosystems are investigated. The results are to be embodied in directives for the protection or appropriate use of these ecosystems in order to contribute towards a sustainable development of these types of landscapes. The book also evaluates and assesses which types of nuisances, interventions and modes of use represent hazards for the respective systems. (orig./VHE) [de

Connecting scales: achieving in-field pest control from areawide and landscape ecology studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Schellhorn, Nancy A; Parry, Hazel R; Macfadyen, Sarina; Wang, Yongmo; Zalucki, Myron P

2015-02-01

Areawide management has a long history of achieving solutions that target pests, however, there has been little focus on the areawide management of arthropod natural enemies. Landscape ecology studies that show a positive relationship between natural enemy abundance and habitat diversity demonstrate landscape-dependent pest suppression, but have not yet clearly linked their findings to pest management or to the suite of pests associated with crops that require control. Instead the focus has often been on model systems of single pest species and their natural enemies. We suggest that management actions to capture pest control from natural enemies may be forth coming if: (i) the suite of response and predictor variables focus on pest complexes and specific management actions; (ii) the contribution of "the landscape" is identified by assessing the timing and numbers of natural enemies immigrating and emigrating to and from the target crop, as well as pests; and (iii) pest control thresholds aligned with crop development stages are the benchmark to measure impact of natural enemies on pests, in turn allowing for comparison between study regions, and generalizations. To achieve pest control we will need to incorporate what has been learned from an ecological understanding of model pest and natural enemy systems and integrate areawide landscape management with in-field pest management. © 2014 Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A landscape approach for ecologically based management of Great Basin shrublands

Science.gov (United States)

Michael J. Wisdom; Jeanne C. Chambers

2009-01-01

Native shrublands dominate the Great Basin of western of North America, and most of these communities are at moderate or high risk of loss from non-native grass invasion and woodland expansion. Landscape-scale management based on differences in ecological resistance and resilience of shrublands can reduce these risks. We demonstrate this approach with an example that...

Ecological risk assessment of toxic organic pollutant and heavy metals in water and sediment from a landscape lake in Tianjin City, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Ying; Liu, Yuanyuan; Niu, Zhiguang; Jin, Shaopei

2017-05-01

To estimate the ecological risk of toxic organic pollutant (formaldehyde) and heavy metals (mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and chromium (Cr)) in water and sediment from a landscape Lake in Tianjin City, an ecological risk assessment was performed. The risk quotient (RQ) method and the AQUATOX model were used to assess the ecological risk of formaldehyde in landscape water. Meanwhile, the RQ method and the potential ecological risk index method were used to assess the ecological risk of four heavy metals in water and sediment from the studied landscape lake, respectively. The results revealed that the maximum concentration of formaldehyde in landscape water was lower than the environmental quality standards of surface water in China. The maximum simulated concentrations of formaldehyde in phytoplankton and invertebrates were 3.15 and 22.91 μg/L, respectively, which were far less than its toxicity data values (1000 and 510 μg/L, respectively), suggesting that formaldehyde in landscape water was at a safe level for aquatic organisms. The RQ model indicated that the risks of phytoplankton and invertebrates were higher than that of fish posed by Hg and Cd in landscape water, and the risks from As and Cr were acceptable for all test organisms. Cd is the most important pollution factor among all heavy metals in sediment from studied landscape lake, and the pollution factor sequence of heavy metals was Hg > As > Cr > Cd. The values of risk index (RI) for four heavy metals in samples a and b were 43.48 and 72.66, which were much lower than the threshold value (150), suggesting that the ecological risk posed by heavy metals in sediment was negligible.

A Bayesian approach to landscape ecological risk assessment applied to the upper Grande Ronde watershed, Oregon

Science.gov (United States)

Kimberley K. Ayre; Wayne G. Landis

2012-01-01

We present a Bayesian network model based on the ecological risk assessment framework to evaluate potential impacts to habitats and resources resulting from wildfire, grazing, forest management activities, and insect outbreaks in a forested landscape in northeastern Oregon. The Bayesian network structure consisted of three tiers of nodes: landscape disturbances,...

Landscape fragmentation and pollinator movement within agricultural environments: a modelling framework for exploring foraging and movement ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Rands, Sean A

2014-01-01

Pollinator decline has been linked to landscape change, through both habitat fragmentation and the loss of habitat suitable for the pollinators to live within. One method for exploring why landscape change should affect pollinator populations is to combine individual-level behavioural ecological techniques with larger-scale landscape ecology. A modelling framework is described that uses spatially-explicit individual-based models to explore the effects of individual behavioural rules within a landscape. The technique described gives a simple method for exploring the effects of the removal of wild corridors, and the creation of wild set-aside fields: interventions that are common to many national agricultural policies. The effects of these manipulations on central-place nesting pollinators are varied, and depend upon the behavioural rules that the pollinators are using to move through the environment. The value of this modelling framework is discussed, and future directions for exploration are identified.

Landscape fragmentation and pollinator movement within agricultural environments: a modelling framework for exploring foraging and movement ecology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sean A. Rands

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Pollinator decline has been linked to landscape change, through both habitat fragmentation and the loss of habitat suitable for the pollinators to live within. One method for exploring why landscape change should affect pollinator populations is to combine individual-level behavioural ecological techniques with larger-scale landscape ecology. A modelling framework is described that uses spatially-explicit individual-based models to explore the effects of individual behavioural rules within a landscape. The technique described gives a simple method for exploring the effects of the removal of wild corridors, and the creation of wild set-aside fields: interventions that are common to many national agricultural policies. The effects of these manipulations on central-place nesting pollinators are varied, and depend upon the behavioural rules that the pollinators are using to move through the environment. The value of this modelling framework is discussed, and future directions for exploration are identified.

Land husbandry: an agro-ecological approach to land use and management Part 1: Considerations of landscape conditions

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Francis Shaxson

2014-09-01

Full Text Available In this, the first of two papers, the roles of key features of any landscape in determining potentials for erosional losses of soil and water are considered from an agro-ecological viewpoint. In this light, the effectiveness of past commonly-accepted approaches to soil and water conservation are often found to have been inadequate. In many cases they have tackled symptoms of land degradation without appreciating fully the background causes, which often relate to inadequate matching of land-use/land-management with features of the landscape. A number of reasons for this mismatch are suggested. Understanding the ecological background to land husbandry (as defined below will improve the effectiveness of attempts to tackle land degradation. In particular, an ecologically based approach to better land husbandry helps to foresee potential problems in some detail, so that appropriate forward planning can be undertaken to avoid them. This paper describes some practical ways of undertaking an appropriate survey of significant landscape features, enabling the definition and mapping of discrete areas of different land-use incapability classes. This is accompanied by an example of how the outcome was interpreted and used to guide the selection of appropriate areas which were apparently suitable for growing flue-cured tobacco within an area of ca. 140 km2 in Malawi. This process relied on knowledge and experience in various disciplines (interpretation of air-photos, topographic survey, soil survey, vegetation analysis, hydrology, soil & water conservation, geology, agronomy so as to ensure that the mapping process was based on the principles of better land husbandry.

Determination of the ecological connectivity between landscape patches obtained using the knowledge engineer (expert) classification technique

Science.gov (United States)

Selim, Serdar; Sonmez, Namik Kemal; Onur, Isin; Coslu, Mesut

2017-10-01

Connection of similar landscape patches with ecological corridors supports habitat quality of these patches, increases urban ecological quality, and constitutes an important living and expansion area for wild life. Furthermore, habitat connectivity provided by urban green areas is supporting biodiversity in urban areas. In this study, possible ecological connections between landscape patches, which were achieved by using Expert classification technique and modeled with probabilistic connection index. Firstly, the reflection responses of plants to various bands are used as data in hypotheses. One of the important features of this method is being able to use more than one image at the same time in the formation of the hypothesis. For this reason, before starting the application of the Expert classification, the base images are prepared. In addition to the main image, the hypothesis conditions were also created for each class with the NDVI image which is commonly used in the vegetation researches. Besides, the results of the previously conducted supervised classification were taken into account. We applied this classification method by using the raster imagery with user-defined variables. Hereupon, to provide ecological connections of the tree cover which was achieved from the classification, we used Probabilistic Connection (PC) index. The probabilistic connection model which is used for landscape planning and conservation studies via detecting and prioritization critical areas for ecological connection characterizes the possibility of direct connection between habitats. As a result we obtained over % 90 total accuracy in accuracy assessment analysis. We provided ecological connections with PC index and we created inter-connected green spaces system. Thus, we offered and implicated green infrastructure system model takes place in the agenda of recent years.

Organic mixed farms in the landscape of a brook valley. How can a co-operative of organic farms contribute to ecological and aesthetic qualities of a landscape?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuiper, J.

1997-01-01

Under which conditions would an organic mixed farm co-operative contribute to the aesthetic and ecological quality of the landscape? The orientation of people in space and time is considered an important aspect of aesthetic quality. To facilitate orientation in space and time a landscape should

Examining alternative landscape metrics in ecological forest planning: a case for capercaillie in Catalonia

OpenAIRE

Palahi, M.; Pukkala, T.; Pascual, L.; Trasobares, A.

2004-01-01

This study examined the performance of four different landscape metrics in a landscape ecological forest planning situation in Catalonia: (1) proportion of suitable habitat (non-spatial) (%H); (2) spatial autocorrelation; (3) the proportion of habitat-habitat boundary of the total compartment boundary (H-H) and (4) the proportion of habitat-non-habitat boundary (H-nonH). They were analysed in a case study problem that aimed at the maintenance and improvement of capercaillie habitats in two si...

Landscape ecological impact of climatic change some preliminary findings of the LICC Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boer, M.M.

1991-01-01

The main objectives of the LICC project are to address the potential effects of a future climatic change on (semi-) natural terrestrial ecosystems and landscapes in Europe; six case studies are covered: alpine regions, boreal and subartic regions, Mediterranean region, fluvial systems, wetlands and coastal dunes. Preliminary findings showed a serious lack in fundamental ecological knowledge. Assessment of potential effects involved changes in water and sediment fluxes, changes in the vegetation cover, species response, dispersal and migration in a fragmented landscape and modification of climate impacts by man

Agricultural Urbanism in the Context of Landscape Ecological Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Maltseva, I. N.; Kaganovich, N. N.; Mindiyrova, T. N.

2017-11-01

The article analyzes some of the fundamental aspects of cities sustainable development connected in many respects with the concept of ecological architecture. One of the main concepts of sustainability is considered in detail: the city as an eco-sustainable and balanced system, architectural objects as a full-fledged part of this system, which, most likely, will be determined by one of the directions of this development - the development of landscape architecture as an tool for integration of nature into the urban environment. At the same time, the variety of its functional forms and architectural methods in the system of organization of internal and external space is outlined as well as its interrelation with energy-saving architecture defining them as the two most important components of eco-sustainable development. The development forms of landscape architecture are considered in the review of analogs, as an example (agricultural urbanism object) a thesis on the topic “Vertical Farm Agroindustrial Complex” is presented.

Landscaping and ecology in the lignite mining area of Maritza-East, Bulgaria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haege, K.; Drebenstedt, C.; Angelov, E.

1996-01-01

The study on the future mining concept of the open-cast mine Trojovano-North, Bulgaria which is presented in this paper was prepared in close cooperation with Bulgarian specialists. It particularly takes into account ecological aspects. The mining concept clearly shows that economy and ecology can be combined usefully. The advantages are, among others, reduced occupation of land, avoiding of river and village translocation and the efficient use of chernozems for topsoil. Various landscape elements are used for the improvement of the ecological conditions in this intensively agricultural area. The illustrated measures show that the mining impacts on nature can be limited, minimized and balanced. It is possible to win the required public acceptance. 3 refs., 3 figs., 2 tabs

Conceptions of Landscape-Ecological Relevance Emerged in the Czech Botany during the Second Half of Twentieth Century

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Kovář Pavel

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper summarizes those substantial theoretical concepts or methods for applications within interdisciplinary or practical uses published by Czech autors (geobotanists = ecological botanists, plant ecologists and ecophysiologists during the second half of the 20th century, that were internationally cited. All selected thematical clusters are of landscape-ecological relevance through various contexts. Examples include the concepts of (potential reconstructed vegetation in maps (R. Neuhäusl, Z. Neuhäuslová, linear vegetation features (corridors in landscape and deductive classification of vegetation (K. Kopecký, analysis of soil seed bank (Z. Kropáč, dependency of macrophyte plant stands on ecodynamics (S. Hejný, dynamic periodicity in segetal vegetation (Z. Kropáč, E. Hadač, S. Hejný, anemo-orographic system explaining species richness in mountain regions (J. Jeník, productivity in grassland ecosystems (M. Rychnovská, J. Květ, elementary landscape units based on homogenity and potential vegetation (E. Hadač, landscape dispensation phenomena (V. Ložek, afforestation of coastal sandy dunes – the Netherlands, and polluted areas - the Czech Republic (J. Fanta, invasive plants and invasions into landscapes (M. Rejmánek.

A Tale of Two Regions: Landscape Ecological Planning for Shale Gas Energy Futures

Science.gov (United States)

Murtha, T., Jr.; Schroth, O.; Orland, B.; Goldberg, L.; Mazurczyk, T.

2015-12-01

As we increasingly embrace deep shale gas deposits to meet global energy demands new and dispersed local and regional policy and planning challenges emerge. Even in regions with long histories of energy extraction, such as coal, shale gas and the infrastructure needed to produce the gas and transport it to market offers uniquely complex transformations in land use and landcover not previously experienced. These transformations are fast paced, dispersed and can overwhelm local and regional planning and regulatory processes. Coupled to these transformations is a structural confounding factor. While extraction and testing are carried out locally, regulation and decision-making is multilayered, often influenced by national and international factors. Using a geodesign framework, this paper applies a set of geospatial landscape ecological planning tools in two shale gas settings. First, we describe and detail a series of ongoing studies and tools that we have developed for communities in the Marcellus Shale region of the eastern United States, specifically the northern tier of Pennsylvania. Second, we apply a subset of these tools to potential gas development areas of the Fylde region in Lancashire, United Kingdom. For the past five years we have tested, applied and refined a set of place based and data driven geospatial models for forecasting, envisioning, analyzing and evaluating shale gas activities in northern Pennsylvania. These models are continuously compared to important landscape ecological planning challenges and priorities in the region, e.g. visual and cultural resource preservation. Adapting and applying these tools to a different landscape allow us to not only isolate and define important regulatory and policy exigencies in each specific setting, but also to develop and refine these models for broader application. As we continue to explore increasingly complex energy solutions globally, we need an equally complex comparative set of landscape ecological

Landscape Infrastructures: On Boundary Objects and Passage Points

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boris, Stefan Darlan

2009-01-01

This paper is part of my ongoing Ph.D. thesis “Landscape infrastructures – Urban Forests as Ecological Systems”. Through investigations of the notion of infrastructure in a landscape urban discourse the thesis of this paper is that landscape infrastructure when seen as a fundamental relational...

Ecological Variation in Response to Mass-Flowering Oilseed Rape and Surrounding Landscape Composition by Members of a Cryptic Bumblebee Complex.

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Dara A Stanley

Full Text Available The Bombus sensu stricto species complex is a widespread group of cryptic bumblebee species which are important pollinators of many crops and wild plants. These cryptic species have, until now, largely been grouped together in ecological studies, and so little is known about their individual colony densities, foraging ranges or habitat requirements, which can be influenced by land use at a landscape scale. We used mass-flowering oilseed rape fields as locations to sample bees of this complex, as well as the second most common visitor to oilseed rape B. lapidarius, and molecular RFLP methods to distinguish between the cryptic species. We then used microsatellite genotyping to identify sisters and estimate colony densities, and related both proportions of cryptic species and their colony densities to the composition of the landscape surrounding the fields. We found B. lucorum was the most common member of the complex present in oilseed rape followed by B. terrestris. B. cryptarum was also present in all but one site, with higher proportions found in the east of the study area. High numbers of bumblebee colonies were estimated to be using oilseed rape fields as a forage resource, with B. terrestris colony numbers higher than previous estimates from non-mass-flowering fields. We also found that the cryptic species responded differently to surrounding landscape composition: both relative proportions of B. cryptarum in samples and colony densities of B. lucorum were negatively associated with the amount of arable land in the landscape, while proportions and colony densities of other species did not respond to landscape variables at the scale measured. This suggests that the cryptic species have different ecological requirements (which may be scale-dependent and that oilseed rape can be an important forage resource for many colonies of bumblebees. Given this, we recommend sustainable management of this crop to benefit bumblebees.

Landscape ecological assessment: a tool for integrating biodiversity issues in strategic environmental assessment and planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Mörtberg, U M; Balfors, B; Knol, W C

2007-03-01

To achieve a sustainable development, impacts on biodiversity of urbanisation, new infrastructure projects and other land use changes must be considered on landscape and regional scales. This requires that important decisions are made after a systematic evaluation of environmental impacts. Landscape ecology can provide a conceptual framework for the assessment of consequences of long-term development processes like urbanisation on biodiversity components, and for evaluating and visualising the impacts of alternative planning scenarios. The aim of this paper was to develop methods for integrating biodiversity issues in planning and strategic environmental assessment in an urbanising environment, on landscape and regional levels. In order to test developed methods, a case study was conducted in the region of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, and the study area embraced the city centre, suburbs and peri-urban areas. Focal species were tested as indicators of habitat quality, quantity and connectivity in the landscape. Predictive modelling of habitat distribution in geographic information systems involved the modelling of focal species occurrences based on empirical data, incorporated in a landscape ecological decision support system. When habitat models were retrieved, they were applied on future planning scenarios in order to predict and assess the impacts on focal species. The scenario involving a diffuse exploitation pattern had the greatest negative impacts on the habitat networks of focal species. The scenarios with concentrated exploitation also had negative impacts, although they were possible to mitigate quite easily. The predictions of the impacts on habitats networks of focal species made it possible to quantify, integrate and visualise the effects of urbanisation scenarios on aspects of biodiversity on a landscape level.

Placing lochs in their landscapes: linking landscape ecology, ecohydrology and conservation interest in a changing climate

Science.gov (United States)

Muir, M. C.; Spray, C. J.; Rowan, J. S.

2011-12-01

Scotland is a country with outstanding freshwater systems providing multiple social, economic and cultural functions as well as ecological services of international importance. Scotland's lakes (locally termed lochs) occupy approximately 3% of the country's land mass and contain more than 90% of Great Britain's total freshwater resource. With over 25,000 lochs (surface area greater than 0.1 hectares) standing freshwaters are an iconic part of Scotland's landscape and they come in a myriad of forms and sizes contributing outstanding geodiversity as well as habitats of international importance for numerous species of conservation interest. There is undoubtedly a need to protect the conservation interests of designated sites in the face of changing loch and catchment pressures - which include diffuse pollutants, morphological modification, recreation and invasive species. Climate change presents a new set of challenges with potential impacts across the entire standing water resource base and predicting how these systems might respond to these changes greatly amplifies uncertainties implicit in their environmental management. Global climate change is predicted to be a major cause of change across all ecosystems and there are particular concerns about impacts on freshwater systems due to the coupling of impacts to both hydrology and ecology. Climate change is likely to affect the hydrological cycle in a number of ways, most significantly through changing temperature and precipitation patterns, intensities and extremes. These changes, coupled with reduced snow and ice cover, frequency and duration, will lead to changes in soil moisture conditions and subsequently runoff. This is turn will impact on river flow, loch water levels, epilimnic temperatures, nutrient availability and, subsequently, the ecological structure and function of the entire standing water system. For some species these habitat changes will push them to the very limits of their natural tolerances and a

Social network models predict movement and connectivity in ecological landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher, Robert J.; Acevedo, M.A.; Reichert, Brian E.; Pias, Kyle E.; Kitchens, Wiley M.

2011-01-01

Network analysis is on the rise across scientific disciplines because of its ability to reveal complex, and often emergent, patterns and dynamics. Nonetheless, a growing concern in network analysis is the use of limited data for constructing networks. This concern is strikingly relevant to ecology and conservation biology, where network analysis is used to infer connectivity across landscapes. In this context, movement among patches is the crucial parameter for interpreting connectivity but because of the difficulty of collecting reliable movement data, most network analysis proceeds with only indirect information on movement across landscapes rather than using observed movement to construct networks. Statistical models developed for social networks provide promising alternatives for landscape network construction because they can leverage limited movement information to predict linkages. Using two mark-recapture datasets on individual movement and connectivity across landscapes, we test whether commonly used network constructions for interpreting connectivity can predict actual linkages and network structure, and we contrast these approaches to social network models. We find that currently applied network constructions for assessing connectivity consistently, and substantially, overpredict actual connectivity, resulting in considerable overestimation of metapopulation lifetime. Furthermore, social network models provide accurate predictions of network structure, and can do so with remarkably limited data on movement. Social network models offer a flexible and powerful way for not only understanding the factors influencing connectivity but also for providing more reliable estimates of connectivity and metapopulation persistence in the face of limited data.

Social network models predict movement and connectivity in ecological landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher, Robert J; Acevedo, Miguel A; Reichert, Brian E; Pias, Kyle E; Kitchens, Wiley M

2011-11-29

Network analysis is on the rise across scientific disciplines because of its ability to reveal complex, and often emergent, patterns and dynamics. Nonetheless, a growing concern in network analysis is the use of limited data for constructing networks. This concern is strikingly relevant to ecology and conservation biology, where network analysis is used to infer connectivity across landscapes. In this context, movement among patches is the crucial parameter for interpreting connectivity but because of the difficulty of collecting reliable movement data, most network analysis proceeds with only indirect information on movement across landscapes rather than using observed movement to construct networks. Statistical models developed for social networks provide promising alternatives for landscape network construction because they can leverage limited movement information to predict linkages. Using two mark-recapture datasets on individual movement and connectivity across landscapes, we test whether commonly used network constructions for interpreting connectivity can predict actual linkages and network structure, and we contrast these approaches to social network models. We find that currently applied network constructions for assessing connectivity consistently, and substantially, overpredict actual connectivity, resulting in considerable overestimation of metapopulation lifetime. Furthermore, social network models provide accurate predictions of network structure, and can do so with remarkably limited data on movement. Social network models offer a flexible and powerful way for not only understanding the factors influencing connectivity but also for providing more reliable estimates of connectivity and metapopulation persistence in the face of limited data.

Against the ecological prejudice: the specific experience of the built landscape

OpenAIRE

Pastor, M

2016-01-01

English abstract:\\ud Ecological consciousness has seen enormous growth in recent decades and prejudiced ways of understanding the relationship between architecture and nature have emerged. The urgent need for preserving the natural environment has led to general and inflexible regulations that, far from \\ud regarding the specific experience, prevent the appearance of the extraordinary built landscape. Fortunately, this has not always been so: we might wonder, for example, whether it is prefer...

Land cover and vegetation data from an ecological survey of "key habitat" landscapes in England, 1992–1993

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. M. Wood

2018-05-01

in a series of contract reports and are summarised in the present paper, showing for example that valuable habitats were restricted in all landscapes, with the majority located within protected areas of countryside according to different UK designations. The dataset provides major potential for analyses, beyond those already published, for example in relation to climate change, agri-environment policies and land management. Precise locations of the plots are restricted, largely for reasons of landowner confidentiality. However, the representative nature of the dataset makes it highly valuable for evaluating the status of ecological elements within the associated landscapes surveyed. Both land cover data and vegetation plot data were collected during the surveys in 1992 and 1993 and are available via the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.5285/7aefe6aa-0760-4b6d-9473-fad8b960abd4. The spatial masks are also available from https://doi.org/10.5285/dc583be3-3649-4df6-b67e-b0f40b4ec895.

Landscape Planning and Ecological Networks. Part A. A Rural System in Nuoro, Sardinia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrea De Montis

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Urban-rural landscape planning research is nowadays focusing on strategies and tools that support practitioners in designing integrated spaces starting from the analysis of local areas, where human and natural pressures interfere. A prominent framework is provided by the ecological networks, whose design regards the combination of a set of green areas or patches (the nodes interconnected through environmental corridors (the edges. Ecological networks are useful for biodiversity protection and enhancement, as they are able to counteract fragmentation, and to create or strengthen relations and exchanges among otherwise isolated elements. Biodiversity evolution, indeed, depends on the quantity and quality of spatial cohesion of natural areas.  In this paper, we aim at designing an ecological network for the periurban area on the town of Nuoro in central Sardinia. The narrative unfolds in two parts. Part A is presented in this paper and includes its methodological premises, i.e. biodiversity conservation and ecological network analysis and design, and the introductory elements of a spatial analysis on a pilot ecological network of one hundred patches. We locate patches by focusing on the ecosystems supported by the target vegetal species holm oak (Quercus ilex and cultivated or wild olive (Olea europaea var. sativa, O. europaea var. sylverstis. These are very common plants species in the municipality and some animal species are active as seed dispersal. The reminder, i.e. Part B, of the essay is presented in an homonymous paper that focuses on the illustration of the network analysis conceived as a monitoring system and, in future perspective, as a planning support system.

Land cover and vegetation data from an ecological survey of "key habitat" landscapes in England, 1992-1993

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Claire M.; Bunce, Robert G. H.; Norton, Lisa R.; Smart, Simon M.; Barr, Colin J.

2018-05-01

contract reports and are summarised in the present paper, showing for example that valuable habitats were restricted in all landscapes, with the majority located within protected areas of countryside according to different UK designations. The dataset provides major potential for analyses, beyond those already published, for example in relation to climate change, agri-environment policies and land management. Precise locations of the plots are restricted, largely for reasons of landowner confidentiality. However, the representative nature of the dataset makes it highly valuable for evaluating the status of ecological elements within the associated landscapes surveyed. Both land cover data and vegetation plot data were collected during the surveys in 1992 and 1993 and are available via the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.5285/7aefe6aa-0760-4b6d-9473-fad8b960abd4" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.5285/7aefe6aa-0760-4b6d-9473-fad8b960abd4. The spatial masks are also available from https://doi.org/10.5285/dc583be3-3649-4df6-b67e-b0f40b4ec895" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.5285/dc583be3-3649-4df6-b67e-b0f40b4ec895.

The ecological foundations of transmission potential and vector-borne disease in urban landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

LaDeau, Shannon L; Allan, Brian F; Leisnham, Paul T; Levy, Michael Z

2015-07-01

Urban transmission of arthropod-vectored disease has increased in recent decades. Understanding and managing transmission potential in urban landscapes requires integration of sociological and ecological processes that regulate vector population dynamics, feeding behavior, and vector-pathogen interactions in these unique ecosystems. Vectorial capacity is a key metric for generating predictive understanding about transmission potential in systems with obligate vector transmission. This review evaluates how urban conditions, specifically habitat suitability and local temperature regimes, and the heterogeneity of urban landscapes can influence the biologically-relevant parameters that define vectorial capacity: vector density, survivorship, biting rate, extrinsic incubation period, and vector competence.Urban landscapes represent unique mosaics of habitat. Incidence of vector-borne disease in urban host populations is rarely, if ever, evenly distributed across an urban area. The persistence and quality of vector habitat can vary significantly across socio-economic boundaries to influence vector species composition and abundance, often generating socio-economically distinct gradients of transmission potential across neighborhoods.Urban regions often experience unique temperature regimes, broadly termed urban heat islands (UHI). Arthropod vectors are ectothermic organisms and their growth, survival, and behavior are highly sensitive to environmental temperatures. Vector response to UHI conditions is dependent on regional temperature profiles relative to the vector's thermal performance range. In temperate climates UHI can facilitate increased vector development rates while having countervailing influence on survival and feeding behavior. Understanding how urban heat island (UHI) conditions alter thermal and moisture constraints across the vector life cycle to influence transmission processes is an important direction for both empirical and modeling research.There remain

Using Urban Landscape Trajectories to Develop a Multi-Temporal Land Cover Database to Support Ecological Modeling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marina Alberti

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Urbanization and the resulting changes in land cover have myriad impacts on ecological systems. Monitoring these changes across large spatial extents and long time spans requires synoptic remotely sensed data with an appropriate temporal sequence. We developed a multi-temporal land cover dataset for a six-county area surrounding the Seattle, Washington State, USA, metropolitan region. Land cover maps for 1986, 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2002 were developed from Landsat TM images through a combination of spectral unmixing, image segmentation, multi-season imagery, and supervised classification approaches to differentiate an initial nine land cover classes. We then used ancillary GIS layers and temporal information to define trajectories of land cover change through multiple updating and backdating rules and refined our land cover classification for each date into 14 classes. We compared the accuracy of the initial approach with the landscape trajectory modifications and determined that the use of landscape trajectory rules increased our ability to differentiate several classes including bare soil (separated into cleared for development, agriculture, and clearcut forest and three intensities of urban. Using the temporal dataset, we found that between 1986 and 2002, urban land cover increased from 8 to 18% of our study area, while lowland deciduous and mixed forests decreased from 21 to 14%, and grass and agriculture decreased from 11 to 8%. The intensity of urban land cover increased with 252 km2 in Heavy Urban in 1986 increasing to 629 km2 by 2002. The ecological systems that are present in this region were likely significantly altered by these changes in land cover. Our results suggest that multi-temporal (i.e., multiple years and multiple seasons within years Landsat data are an economical means to quantify land cover and land cover change across large and highly heterogeneous urbanizing landscapes. Our data, and similar temporal land cover change

Linking ecology and aesthetics in sustainable agricultural landscapes: Lessons from the Palouse region of Washington, U.S.A

Science.gov (United States)

Linda R. Klein; William G. Hendrix; Virginia I. Lohr; Jolie B. Kaytes; Rodney D. Sayler; Mark E. Swanson; William J. Elliot; John P. Reganold

2015-01-01

Inspired by international escalation in agricultural sustainability debates, we explored the promise of landscape-scale conservation buffers to mitigate environmental damage, improve ecological function, and enhance scenic quality. Although the ecological benefits of buffer vegetation are well established by plot- and field-scale research, buffer adoption by farmers is...

Relating Landscape Development Intensity to Coral Reef Condition in the Watersheds of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

Science.gov (United States)

Diagnosing the degree to which local landscape activities impact coral reef ecosystems and their ecological services is critically important to coastal and watershed decision-makers. We report, for the first time, a study that relates coral reef condition metrics to metrics of h...

A distribution-oriented approach to support landscape connectivity for ecologically distinct bird species.

Science.gov (United States)

Herrera, José M; Alagador, Diogo; Salgueiro, Pedro; Mira, António

2018-01-01

Managing landscape connectivity is a widely recognized overarching strategy for conserving biodiversity in human-impacted landscapes. However, planning the conservation and management of landscape connectivity of multiple and ecologically distinct species is still challenging. Here we provide a spatially-explicit framework which identifies and prioritizes connectivity conservation and restoration actions for species with distinct habitat affinities. Specifically, our study system comprised three groups of common bird species, forest-specialists, farmland-specialists, and generalists, populating a highly heterogeneous agricultural countryside in the southwestern Iberian Peninsula. We first performed a comprehensive analysis of the environmental variables underlying the distributional patterns of each bird species to reveal generalities in their guild-specific responses to landscape structure. Then, we identified sites which could be considered pivotal in maintaining current levels of landscape connectivity for the three bird guilds simultaneously, as well as the number and location of sites that need to be restored to maximize connectivity levels. Interestingly, we found that a small number of sites defined the shortest connectivity paths for the three bird guilds simultaneously, and were therefore considered key for conservation. Moreover, an even smaller number of sites were identified as critical to expand the landscape connectivity at maximum for the regional bird assemblage as a whole. Our spatially-explicit framework can provide valuable decision-making support to conservation practitioners aiming to identify key connectivity and restoration sites, a particularly urgent task in rapidly changing landscapes such as agroecosystems.

A framework for generating and analyzing movement paths on ecological landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Getz, Wayne M; Saltz, David

2008-12-09

The movement paths of individuals over landscapes are basically represented by sequences of points (x(i), y(i)) occurring at times t(i). Theoretically, these points can be viewed as being generated by stochastic processes that in the simplest cases are Gaussian random walks on featureless landscapes. Generalizations have been made of walks that (i) take place on landscapes with features, (ii) have correlated distributions of velocity and direction of movement in each time interval, (iii) are Lévy processes in which distance or waiting-time (time-between steps) distributions have infinite moments, or (iv) have paths bounded in space and time. We begin by demonstrating that rather mild truncations of fat-tailed step-size distributions have a dramatic effect on dispersion of organisms, where such truncations naturally arise in real walks of organisms bounded by space and, more generally, influenced by the interactions of physiological, behavioral, and ecological factors with landscape features. These generalizations permit not only increased realism and hence greater accuracy in constructing movement pathways, but also provide a biogeographically detailed epistemological framework for interpreting movement patterns in all organisms, whether tossed in the wind or willfully driven. We illustrate the utility of our framework by demonstrating how fission-fusion herding behavior arises among individuals endeavoring to satisfy both nutritional and safety demands in heterogeneous environments. We conclude with a brief discussion of potential methods that can be used to solve the inverse problem of identifying putative causal factors driving movement behavior on known landscapes, leaving details to references in the literature.

Development of a landscape integrity model framework to support regional conservation planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Walston, Leroy J; Hartmann, Heidi M

2018-01-01

Land managers increasingly rely upon landscape assessments to understand the status of natural resources and identify conservation priorities. Many of these landscape planning efforts rely on geospatial models that characterize the ecological integrity of the landscape. These general models utilize measures of habitat disturbance and human activity to map indices of ecological integrity. We built upon these modeling frameworks by developing a Landscape Integrity Index (LII) model using geospatial datasets of the human footprint, as well as incorporation of other indicators of ecological integrity such as biodiversity and vegetation departure. Our LII model serves as a general indicator of ecological integrity in a regional context of human activity, biodiversity, and change in habitat composition. We also discuss the application of the LII framework in two related coarse-filter landscape conservation approaches to expand the size and connectedness of protected areas as regional mitigation for anticipated land-use changes.

Fuel dynamics by using Landscape Ecology Indices in the Alto Mijares, Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Iqbal, J.; Garcia, C. V.

2009-04-01

Land abandonment in Mediterranean regions has brought about a number of management problems, being an increased wildfire activity prevalent among them. Agricultural neglect in highlands resulted in reduced anthropogenic disturbances and greater landscape homogeneity in areas such as the Alto Mijares in Spain. It is widely accepted that processes like forest fires, influence structure of the landscape and vice versa. Fire-prone Mediterranean flora is well adapted to this disturbance, exhibiting excellent succession capabilities; but higher fuel loads and homogeneous conditions may ally to promote vegetation recession when the fire regime is altered by land abandonment. Both succession and recession make changes to the landscape structure and configuration. However, these changes are difficult to quantify and characterize. If landscape restoration of these forests is a management objective, then developing a quantitative knowledge base for landscape fuel dynamics is a prerequisite. Four classified LandsatTM satellite images were compared to quantify changes in landscape structure between 1984 and 1998. An attempt is made to define landscape level dynamics for fuel development after reduced disturbance and fuel accumulation that leads to catastrophic fires by using landscape ecology indices. By doing so, indices that best describe the fuel dynamics are pointed. The results indicate that low-level disturbance increases heterogeneity, thus lowers fire hazard. No disturbance or severe disturbance increases homogeneity because of vegetation succession and may lead to devastating fires. These fires could be avoided by human induced disturbance like controlled burning, harvesting, mechanical works for fuel reduction and other silviculture measures; thus bringing in more heterogeneity in the region. The Alto Mijares landscape appears to be in an unstable equilibrium where succession and recession are at tug of war. The effects are evident in the general absence of the climax

Exploring the Buruli Ulcer Incidence across a socio-ecological landscape in Ghana

Science.gov (United States)

Naithani, K. J.; Konzelman, C.; Tschakert, P.; Smithwick, E. A. H.

2016-12-01

The Buruli Ulcer (BU) disease is one of the most prevalent, but poorly understood mycobacterial infections in the world. Fundamental ecological aspects of the disease causing bacteria (Mycobacterium ulcerans) are not understood completely, but its emergence is attributed to unidentified thresholds in human and natural systems. We explored the network of these interactions across socio-ecological landscapes of Ghana to understand the movement of bacteria and the emergence of BU in response to climate, disturbance, social and economic factors. We chose five communities, three endemic and two control, and explored the correlations of disease incidence with climate, landscape disturbance, water quality and social factors using path analysis. Our results show that water quality is strongly linked to disease emergence with high alkalinity, PO43-, NH4+, F, Mn, S, Cd, Fe, Pb, and Se were associated with higher disease incidents and high Cu concentration was associated with low or healthy communities. Contrary to previous studies, arsenic concentration in water was not linked to higher disease incidence. Water quality was linked to climate, type of mining, and agricultural practices. Higher annual precipitation and lower air temperature were found linked to higher disease incidence across communities. Our exploratory work provides insight into how human land use, social practices, demographics, and climatic factors influence the BU disease spread.

Landscape metrics for three-dimension urban pattern recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, M.; Hu, Y.; Zhang, W.; Li, C.

2017-12-01

Understanding how landscape pattern determines population or ecosystem dynamics is crucial for managing our landscapes. Urban areas are becoming increasingly dominant social-ecological systems, so it is important to understand patterns of urbanization. Most studies of urban landscape pattern examine land-use maps in two dimensions because the acquisition of 3-dimensional information is difficult. We used Brista software based on Quickbird images and aerial photos to interpret the height of buildings, thus incorporating a 3-dimensional approach. We estimated the feasibility and accuracy of this approach. A total of 164,345 buildings in the Liaoning central urban agglomeration of China, which included seven cities, were measured. Twelve landscape metrics were proposed or chosen to describe the urban landscape patterns in 2- and 3-dimensional scales. The ecological and social meaning of landscape metrics were analyzed with multiple correlation analysis. The results showed that classification accuracy compared with field surveys was 87.6%, which means this method for interpreting building height was acceptable. The metrics effectively reflected the urban architecture in relation to number of buildings, area, height, 3-D shape and diversity aspects. We were able to describe the urban characteristics of each city with these metrics. The metrics also captured ecological and social meanings. The proposed landscape metrics provided a new method for urban landscape analysis in three dimensions.

Introducing native landscape ecology to Hanford cleanup

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jim, R.; Nguyen, G.; Barry, B.

1995-01-01

Responsible management of environmental and public health risk requires a fundamental understanding of the intra-, inter-, and integral components of the hierarchical interaction dynamics within a pollution affected ecosystem. Because the ecosphere is a heterogeneous combination of many subecosystems of plant and animal species, its component interactions sustaining the complex whole are spatially mediated, and such an adaptive self-stabilizing ecomosaic often possesses long disintegration and regeneration times for the manifestation of observable consequences, quantitative assessment of its future structural and functional changes can be deceptive or plagued with irreducible uncertainty. This paper presents an holistic framework for the direct integration of native traditional environmental knowledge with the landscape ecology information system to refine and actualize the understanding of acceptable long-range risk and its collective estimation for an endangered population or community. An illustrative application of riparian zone restoration in the Hanford reach for wild salmon runs and habitat preservation is also discussed

Landscape Ecology and problems of European cultural landscapes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandt, Jesper

2011-01-01

by practical problems of European cultural – especial agricultural – landscapes since the rise of the environmental movement. Central themes have been the consequences of technological and structural changes within European agriculture for the landscape and the development of habitats and dispersal...... Problemstellungen basieren auf multifunktionalen Nutzungskonzepten ruraler Landschaften, besonders im Hinblick auf Suburbanisierungsprozesse. Eine Anzahl untereinander vergleichbarer Projekte, mit parallelen bis ähnlichen Ausprägungen innerhalb Dänemarks und weiteerer europäischer Länder, werden exemplarisch...

Adequate data of known accuracy are critical to advancing the field of landscape ecology

Science.gov (United States)

Louis R. Iverson

2007-01-01

The science of landscape ecology is especially dependent on high-quality data because often it focuses on broad-scale patterns and processes and deals in the long term. Likewise, high quality data are necessary as the basis for building policy. When issues, such as climate change, can induce international political and economic consequences, it becomes clear that...

Knowledge production and learning for sustainable landscapes: seven steps using social-ecological systems as laboratories.

Science.gov (United States)

Angelstam, Per; Elbakidze, Marine; Axelsson, Robert; Dixelius, Malcolm; Törnblom, Johan

2013-03-01

There are multiple challenges regarding use and governance of landscapes' goods, functions and intangible values for ecosystem health and human well-being. One group of challenges is to measure and assess principal sustainability dimensions through performance targets, so stakeholders have transparent information about states and trends. Another group is to develop adaptive governance at multiple levels, and management of larger geographical areas across scales. Addressing these challenges, we present a framework for transdisciplinary research using multiple landscapes as place-based case studies that integrates multiple research disciplines and non-academic actors: (1) identify a suite of landscapes, and for each (2) review landscape history, (3) map stakeholders, use and non-use values, products and land use, (4) analyze institutions, policies and the system of governance, (5) measure ecological, economic, social and cultural sustainability, (6) assess sustainability dimensions and governance, and finally (7) make comparisons and synthesize. Collaboration, communication and dissemination are additional core features. We discuss barriers bridges and bridges for applying this approach.

[Ecological risk assessment of rural-urban ecotone based on landscape pattern: A case study in Daiyue District of Tai' an City, Shandong Province of East China].

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Hao-Peng; Yu, Kai-Qin; Feng, Yong-jun

2013-03-01

Based on the remote sensing data in 2000, 2005, and 2010, this paper analyzed the variation trends of the land use type and landscape pattern in Daiyue District of Tai' an City from 2000 to 2010. The ecological risk index was built, that of the District was re-sampled and spatially interpolated, and the spatiotemporal pattern of the ecological risk in the rural-urban ecotone of the District was analyzed. In 2000-2010, the main variation trend of the land use type in the District was the shift from natural landscape to artificial landscape. The intensity of human disturbance was larger in cultivated land, garden plot, and forestland than in other landscape types, while the human disturbance in water area was smaller. The ecological loss degree of cultivated land and water area decreased somewhat, while that of the other land use types presented an increasing trend. The ecological risk distribution in the District was discrete in 2000 and 2010, but most centralized in 2005. The ecological risk of each ecological risk sub-area had an increasing trend in 2000-2005, but was in adverse in 2005-2010. In 2000-2010, the ecological risk of the District was mainly at medium level. Spatially, the distribution of the ecological risk in the District had an obvious differentiation, with an overall diffusive increasing from forestland as the center to the surrounding areas. In the District, the ecological risk was mainly at medium and higher levels, the area with lower ecological risk had an obvious dynamic change, while that with the lowest and highest ecological risk had less change.

Application of Source-Sink Landscape Influence Values to Commuter Traffic: A Case Study of Xiamen Island

OpenAIRE

Tong Wu; Lina Tang; Huaxiang Chen; Ziyan Wang; Quanyi Qiu

2017-01-01

Landscape patterns are closely related to ecological processes. Different spatial scales and research methods may lead to different results. Therefore, it is crucial to choose suitable research methods when studying different landscape patterns and ecological processes. In the present study, the methods of source-sink landscape theory were applied to the interactions between urban landscape characteristics and commuter traffic behavior around the arterial roads in Xiamen Island. After classif...

Using Imagers for Scaling Ecological Observations

OpenAIRE

Graham, Eric; Hicks, John; Riordan, Erin; Wang, Eric; Yuen, Eric

2009-01-01

Stationary and mobile ground-based cameras can be used to scale ecological observations, relating pixel information in images to in situ measurements. Currently there are four CENS projects that involve using cameras for scaling ecological observations: 1. Scaling from one individual to the landscape. Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras can be zoomed in on a tight focus on individual plants and parts of individuals and then zoomed out to get a landscape view, composed of the same and similar species. 2...

Global Principle of Ecological Integrity and its Implementation in Management of the Czech Landscape

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Cudlínová, Eva; Lapka, Miloslav; Líšková, Zuzana

2005-01-01

Roč. 24, č. 1 (2005), s. 89-107 ISSN 1335-342X R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) ME 530; GA MŽP(CZ) SM/640/18/03 Grant - others:EU GOCE-CT-2003-505297-MULTAGRI Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60870520 Keywords : ecological integrity * landscape * typology * category Subject RIV: AO - Sociology, Demography Impact factor: 0.085, year: 2005

Urban Landscape Perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frederick Steiner

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Cities present significant opportunities for new landscape perspectives that can help inform conservation and development decisions. Early in the twenty-first century, the majority of the planet’s population became urban as more people lived in city-regions for the first time in our history. As the global population increases, so does this urbanization. The environmental challenges of population and urban growth are profound. Landscapes represent a synthesis of natural and cultural processes. Cities are certainly cultural phenomena. Historically, cities provided refuge from nature. The expanding field of urban ecology, coupled with landscape ecology, can enhance how the dual natural and cultural dimensions of landscapes in cities are understood. Furthermore, concepts such as ecosystem services and green infrastructure are proving useful for urban landscape planning and design. Examples from Dayton, Ohio; Brooklyn, New York; and Austin, Texas are presented.

Drivers of Change in Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes: Implications for Better Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongyan Gu

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The term socio-ecological production landscapes (SEPLs has recently gained currency in conservation circles because of a recognized need to look beyond protected areas to the management of human-influenced landscapes and ecosystems. We have drawn on a variety of case studies from Asia and other parts of the world to understand the underlying driving forces that have led to the need for greater awareness and sustainable management of SEPLs. We have analyzed the drivers of these changes from socio-political, legal, economic, and socio-cultural perspectives. The analysis shows that SEPLs contribute to local, national, and global economies, and their production and harvesting processes are subject to external demands and pressures. Policy makers should recognize the wide range and diverse values of SEPLs and incorporate these values into broader policy considerations. We have also provided some suggestions for future studies.

Forest Productivity and Diversity: Using Ecological Theory and Landscape Models to Guide Sustainable Forest Management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huston, M.A.

1998-11-01

Sustainable forest management requires maintaining or increasing ecosystem productivity, while preserving or restoring natural levels of biodiversity. Application of general concepts from ecological theory, along with use of mechanistic, landscape-based computer models, can contribute to the successful achievement of both of these objectives. Ecological theories based on the energetics and dynamics of populations can be used to predict the general distribution of individual species, the diversity of different types of species, ecosystem process rates and pool sizes, and patterns of spatial and temporal heterogeneity over a broad range of environmental conditions. This approach requires subdivision of total biodiversity into functional types of organisms, primarily because different types of organisms respond very differently to the spatial and temporal variation of environmental conditions on landscapes. The diversity of species of the same functional type (particularly among plants) tends to be highest at relatively low levels of net primary productivity, while the total number of different functional types (particularly among animals) tends to be highest at high levels of productivity (e.g., site index or potential net primary productivity). In general, the diversity of animals at higher trophic levels (e.g., predators) reaches its maximum at much higher levels of productivity than the diversity of lower trophic levels (e.g., plants). This means that a single environment cannot support high diversity of all types of organisms. Within the framework of the general patterns described above, the distributions, population dynamics, and diversity of organisms in specific regions can be predicted more precisely using a combination of computer simulation models and GIS data based on satellite information and ground surveys. Biophysical models that use information on soil properties, climate, and hydrology have been developed to predict how the abundance and spatial

Contrasting spatial patterns and ecological attributes of soil bacterial and archaeal taxa across a landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Constancias, Florentin; Saby, Nicolas P A; Terrat, Sébastien; Dequiedt, Samuel; Horrigue, Wallid; Nowak, Virginie; Guillemin, Jean-Philippe; Biju-Duval, Luc; Chemidlin Prévost-Bouré, Nicolas; Ranjard, Lionel

2015-06-01

Even though recent studies have clarified the influence and hierarchy of environmental filters on bacterial community structure, those constraining bacterial populations variations remain unclear. In consequence, our ability to understand to ecological attributes of soil bacteria and to predict microbial community response to environmental stress is therefore limited. Here, we characterized the bacterial community composition and the various bacterial taxonomic groups constituting the community across an agricultural landscape of 12 km(2) , by using a 215 × 215 m systematic grid representing 278 sites to precisely decipher their spatial distribution and drivers at this scale. The bacterial and Archaeal community composition was characterized by applying 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing directly to soil DNA from samples. Geostatistics tools were used to reveal the heterogeneous distribution of bacterial composition at this scale. Soil physical parameters and land management explained a significant amount of variation, suggesting that environmental selection is the major process shaping bacterial composition. All taxa systematically displayed also a heterogeneous and particular distribution patterns. Different relative influences of soil characteristics, land use and space were observed, depending on the taxa, implying that selection and spatial processes might be differentially but not exclusively involved for each bacterial phylum. Soil pH was a major factor determining the distribution of most of the bacterial taxa and especially the most important factor explaining the spatial patterns of α-Proteobacteria and Planctomycetes. Soil texture, organic carbon content and quality were more specific to a few number of taxa (e.g., β-Proteobacteria and Chlorobi). Land management also influenced the distribution of bacterial taxa across the landscape and revealed different type of response to cropping intensity (positive, negative, neutral or hump-backed relationships

Assessment of natural and cultural landscape capacity to proposals the ecological model of tourism development (case study for the area of the Zamagurie region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Drábová-Degro Monika

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Agricultural and industrial conditions are not favourable in the uphill and mountain areas of the Zamagurie region, and tourism is often the only opportunity to create new jobs, develop the habitation areas and avoid the emigration of local inhabitants. The Walachian and Sholtys colonization has transformed the landscape and created unique significant spatial landscape elements that are traditionally utilized for agricultural purposes, and create a unique esthetical landscape preserved till the present times. This case study has been aimed at developing and applying the new quantification methods using GIS tools for evaluation of localizing, selective realization and environmental preconditions of the landscape, representing recreational (cultural services of the landscape ecological systems, based on selected indicators. To evaluate the localizing preconditions of the landscape, we referred to the landscape-ecological complex geo-databases (LEC (Thematic maps - internal ground document of ZB GIS , 2013, completed with the field survey during the period 2013−2014 and identification of secondary landscape structure elements (SLS and selected morphometric indicators. While evaluating the selected town-planning, demographical and social-economic indicators, we quantified the selective landscape preconditions of tourism development. The realization preconditions were reviewed according to communication accessibility and material-technical equipment. As for environmental preconditions, we reviewed the presence of protected territory and landscape environmental load.

Opposing resonses to ecological gradients structure amphibian and reptile communities across a temperate grassland-savanna-forest landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Grundel, Ralph; Beamer, David; Glowacki, Gary A.; Frohnapple, Krystal; Pavlovic, Noel B.

2014-01-01

Temperate savannas are threatened across the globe. If we prioritize savanna restoration, we should ask how savanna animal communities differ from communities in related open habitats and forests. We documented distribution of amphibian and reptile species across an open-savanna–forest gradient in the Midwest U.S. to determine how fire history and habitat structure affected herpetofaunal community composition. The transition from open habitats to forests was a transition from higher reptile abundance to higher amphibian abundance and the intermediate savanna landscape supported the most species overall. These differences warn against assuming that amphibian and reptile communities will have similar ecological responses to habitat structure. Richness and abundance also often responded in opposite directions to some habitat characteristics, such as cover of bare ground or litter. Herpetofaunal community species composition changed along a fire gradient from infrequent and recent fires to frequent but less recent fires. Nearby (200-m) wetland cover was relatively unimportant in predicting overall herpetofaunal community composition while fire history and fire-related canopy and ground cover were more important predictors of composition, diversity, and abundance. Increased developed cover was negatively related to richness and abundance. This indicates the importance of fire history and fire related landscape characteristics, and the negative effects of development, in shaping the upland herpetofaunal community along the native grassland–forest continuum.

Kerteszia Theobald (Diptera: Culicidae) mosquitoes and bromeliads: A landscape ecology approach regarding two species in the Atlantic rainforest.

Science.gov (United States)

Chaves, Leonardo Suveges Moreira; Rodrigues de Sá, Ivy Luizi; Bergamaschi, Denise Pimentel; Sallum, Maria Anice Mureb

2016-12-01

On the ecological scale of an organism, a homogeneous geographical landscape can represent a mosaic of heterogeneous landscapes. The bionomy of Kerteszia mosquitoes can contribute to foundation landscape ecology by virtue of in the role of the configuration and composition of the habitat played in the distribution of mosquito species. Thus, this study aimed: to compare the abundance of Kerteszia in dense tropical rainforest, restinga and rural area, to assess the bioecological characteristics of the main bromeliads hosting Kerteszia, and to associate the bioecological arrangement of the bromeliads with Kerteszia distribution. Field collections were conducted in a monthly schedule from December of 2010 to November 2011. The vegetation of landscapes was characterized on the basis of a digital cartographic database, the manual of the Brazilian vegetation, environmental atlas information, satellite images and visits to the sites. Multivariate generalized linear models were employed using the R-project statistical program. The results were: Anopheles cruzii was the most frequent species in dense tropical rainforest (67.42%), with a positive association (deviance=25.8; P=0.002). Anopheles bellator was more abundant in the Restinga area (78.97%), with a positive association (deviance=10.4, P=0.018). There was a positive aggregation of Restinga with An. bellator (RR=2.42) but a lower level with An. cruzii (RR=0.31). Thus we can conclude that landscape characteristics influence the distribution of Kerteszia mosquitoes. An. bellator has a higher prevalence in Restinga areas, whereas An. cruzii was the most prevalent in the dense tropical rainforest. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Landscape Painting in Evaluation of Changes in Landscape

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Lacina, Jan; Halas, Petr

2015-01-01

Roč. 8, č. 2 (2015), s. 60-68 ISSN 1803-2427 Institutional support: RVO:68145535 Keywords : landscape painting * landscape ecology * land-use changes * biodiversity Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jlecol.2015.8.issue-2/jlecol-2015-0009/jlecol-2015-0009. xml

[Basic theory and research method of urban forest ecology].

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xingyuan; Jin, Yingshan; Zhu, Wenquan; Xu, Wenduo; Chen, Wei

2002-12-01

With the development of world economy and the increment of urban population, the urban environment problem hinders the urban sustainable development. Now, more and more people realized the importance of urban forests in improving the quality of urban ecology. Therefore, a new subject, urban forest ecology, and correlative new concept frame in the field formed. The theoretic foundation of urban forest ecology derived from the mutual combination of theory relating to forest ecology, landscape ecology, landscape architecture ecology and anthrop-ecology. People survey the development of city from the view of ecosystem, and regard the environment, a colony of human, animals and plants, as main factors of the system. The paper introduces systematically the urban forest ecology as follows: 1) the basic concept of urban forest ecology; 2) the meaning of urban forest ecology; 3) the basic principle and theoretic base of urban forest ecology; 4) the research method of urban forest ecology; 5) the developmental expectation of urban forest ecology.

Landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns and processes - eight hypotheses.

Science.gov (United States)

Tscharntke, Teja; Tylianakis, Jason M; Rand, Tatyana A; Didham, Raphael K; Fahrig, Lenore; Batáry, Péter; Bengtsson, Janne; Clough, Yann; Crist, Thomas O; Dormann, Carsten F; Ewers, Robert M; Fründ, Jochen; Holt, Robert D; Holzschuh, Andrea; Klein, Alexandra M; Kleijn, David; Kremen, Claire; Landis, Doug A; Laurance, William; Lindenmayer, David; Scherber, Christoph; Sodhi, Navjot; Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf; Thies, Carsten; van der Putten, Wim H; Westphal, Catrin

2012-08-01

Understanding how landscape characteristics affect biodiversity patterns and ecological processes at local and landscape scales is critical for mitigating effects of global environmental change. In this review, we use knowledge gained from human-modified landscapes to suggest eight hypotheses, which we hope will encourage more systematic research on the role of landscape composition and configuration in determining the structure of ecological communities, ecosystem functioning and services. We organize the eight hypotheses under four overarching themes. Section A: 'landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns' includes (1) the landscape species pool hypothesis-the size of the landscape-wide species pool moderates local (alpha) biodiversity, and (2) the dominance of beta diversity hypothesis-landscape-moderated dissimilarity of local communities determines landscape-wide biodiversity and overrides negative local effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity. Section B: 'landscape moderation of population dynamics' includes (3) the cross-habitat spillover hypothesis-landscape-moderated spillover of energy, resources and organisms across habitats, including between managed and natural ecosystems, influences landscape-wide community structure and associated processes and (4) the landscape-moderated concentration and dilution hypothesis-spatial and temporal changes in landscape composition can cause transient concentration or dilution of populations with functional consequences. Section C: 'landscape moderation of functional trait selection' includes (5) the landscape-moderated functional trait selection hypothesis-landscape moderation of species trait selection shapes the functional role and trajectory of community assembly, and (6) the landscape-moderated insurance hypothesis-landscape complexity provides spatial and temporal insurance, i.e. high resilience and stability of ecological processes in changing environments. Section D: 'landscape constraints on

Toward a community ecology of landscapes: predicting multiple predator-prey interactions across geographic space.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmitz, Oswald J; Miller, Jennifer R B; Trainor, Anne M; Abrahms, Briana

2017-09-01

Community ecology was traditionally an integrative science devoted to studying interactions between species and their abiotic environments in order to predict species' geographic distributions and abundances. Yet for philosophical and methodological reasons, it has become divided into two enterprises: one devoted to local experimentation on species interactions to predict community dynamics; the other devoted to statistical analyses of abiotic and biotic information to describe geographic distribution. Our goal here is to instigate thinking about ways to reconnect the two enterprises and thereby return to a tradition to do integrative science. We focus specifically on the community ecology of predators and prey, which is ripe for integration. This is because there is active, simultaneous interest in experimentally resolving the nature and strength of predator-prey interactions as well as explaining patterns across landscapes and seascapes. We begin by describing a conceptual theory rooted in classical analyses of non-spatial food web modules used to predict species interactions. We show how such modules can be extended to consideration of spatial context using the concept of habitat domain. Habitat domain describes the spatial extent of habitat space that predators and prey use while foraging, which differs from home range, the spatial extent used by an animal to meet all of its daily needs. This conceptual theory can be used to predict how different spatial relations of predators and prey could lead to different emergent multiple predator-prey interactions such as whether predator consumptive or non-consumptive effects should dominate, and whether intraguild predation, predator interference or predator complementarity are expected. We then review the literature on studies of large predator-prey interactions that make conclusions about the nature of multiple predator-prey interactions. This analysis reveals that while many studies provide sufficient information

Ecological economics of North American integration: the reshaping of the economic landscape in the Santiago river basin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Salvador Peniche Camps

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Ecological Economics studies social metabolism; that is, the material and energy flow into and out of the economy. Using the ecological economics perspective, we analyse the transformation of the economic landscape of the Santiago river basin, Mexico. We discuss why the appropriation of water resources is one of the most important drivers of North American economic integration. We argue that the theoretical model of neo-extractivism can explain the dynamics of social metabolism behind the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA.

Ecosystem services in changing landscapes: An introduction

Science.gov (United States)

Louis Iverson; Cristian Echeverria; Laura Nahuelhual; Sandra. Luque

2014-01-01

The concept of ecosystem services from landscapes is rapidly gaining momentum as a language to communicate values and benefits to scientists and lay alike. Landscape ecology has an enormous contribution to make to this field, and one could argue, uniquely so. Tools developed or adapted for landscape ecology are being increasingly used to assist with the quantification...

Bridging the gap between ecology and spatial planning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Opdam, P.; Vos, C.C.; Foppen, R.

2002-01-01

Landscapes are studied by pattern (the geographical approach) and by process (the ecological approach within landscape ecology). The future of landscape ecology depends on whether the two approaches can be integrated. We present an approach to bridge the gap between the many detailed process studies

Effective Management of Trans boundary Landscapes - Geospatial Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Kotru, R.; Rawal, R. S.; Mathur, P. K.; Chettri, N.; Chaudhari, S. A.; Uddin, K.; Murthy, M. S. R.; Singh, S.

2014-11-01

The Convention on Biological Diversity advocates the use of landscape and ecosystem approaches for managing biodiversity, in recognition of the need for increased regional cooperation. In this context, ICIMOD and regional partners have evolved Transboundary Landscape concept to address the issues of conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and systems (e.g., biodiversity, rangelands, farming systems, forests, wetlands, and watersheds, etc.). This concept defines the landscapes by ecosystems rather than political/administrative boundaries. The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is extremely heterogeneous, with complex inter linkages of biomes and habitats as well as strong upstream-downstream linkages related to the provisioning of ecosystem services. Seven such transboundary landscapes, identified across west to east extent of HKH, have been considered for programmatic cooperation, include: Wakhan, Karakoram-Pamir, Kailash, Everest, Kangchenjunga, Brahmaputra-Salween, and Cherrapunjee- Chittagong. The approach is people centered and considers the cultural conservation as an essential first step towards resource conservation efforts in the region. Considering the multi-scale requirements of study, the geospatial technology has been effectively adopted towards: (i) understanding temporal changes in landscapes, (ii) long term ecological and social monitoring, (ii) identifying potential bio corridors, (iii) assessing landscape level vulnerability due to climatic and non-climatic drivers, and (iv) developing local plans on extractions of high value economic species supporting livelihoods, agroforestry system and ecotourism, etc. We present here our recent experiences across different landscapes on assessment of three decadal changes, vegetation type mapping, assessment of socio-ecological drivers, corridor assessment, ecosystem services assessment, models for optimal natural resource use systems and long term socio-ecological monitoring.

Potential ?Ecological Traps? of Restored Landscapes: Koalas Phascolarctos cinereus Re-Occupy a Rehabilitated Mine Site

OpenAIRE

Cristescu, Romane H.; Banks, Peter B.; Carrick, Frank N.; Fr?re, C?line

2013-01-01

With progressively increasing anthropogenic habitat disturbances, restoration of impacted landscapes is becoming a critical element of biodiversity conservation. Evaluation of success in restoration ecology rarely includes faunal components, usually only encompassing abiotic and floral components of the ecosystems. Even when fauna is explicitly included, it is usually only species presence/absence criteria that are considered. If restoration is to have a positive outcome, however, populations...

Determinants of plant community assembly in a mosaic of landscape units in central Amazonia: ecological and phylogenetic perspectives.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Natalia Umaña

Full Text Available The Amazon harbours one of the richest ecosystems on Earth. Such diversity is likely to be promoted by plant specialization, associated with the occurrence of a mosaic of landscape units. Here, we integrate ecological and phylogenetic data at different spatial scales to assess the importance of habitat specialization in driving compositional and phylogenetic variation across the Amazonian forest. To do so, we evaluated patterns of floristic dissimilarity and phylogenetic turnover, habitat association and phylogenetic structure in three different landscape units occurring in terra firme (Hilly and Terrace and flooded forests (Igapó. We established two 1-ha tree plots in each of these landscape units at the Caparú Biological Station, SW Colombia, and measured edaphic, topographic and light variables. At large spatial scales, terra firme forests exhibited higher levels of species diversity and phylodiversity than flooded forests. These two types of forests showed conspicuous differences in species and phylogenetic composition, suggesting that environmental sorting due to flood is important, and can go beyond the species level. At a local level, landscape units showed floristic divergence, driven both by geographical distance and by edaphic specialization. In terms of phylogenetic structure, Igapó forests showed phylogenetic clustering, whereas Hilly and Terrace forests showed phylogenetic evenness. Within plots, however, local communities did not show any particular trend. Overall, our findings suggest that flooded forests, characterized by stressful environments, impose limits to species occurrence, whereas terra firme forests, more environmentally heterogeneous, are likely to provide a wider range of ecological conditions and therefore to bear higher diversity. Thus, Amazonia should be considered as a mosaic of landscape units, where the strength of habitat association depends upon their environmental properties.

Determinants of Plant Community Assembly in a Mosaic of Landscape Units in Central Amazonia: Ecological and Phylogenetic Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Umaña, María Natalia; Norden, Natalia; Cano, Ángela; Stevenson, Pablo R.

2012-01-01

The Amazon harbours one of the richest ecosystems on Earth. Such diversity is likely to be promoted by plant specialization, associated with the occurrence of a mosaic of landscape units. Here, we integrate ecological and phylogenetic data at different spatial scales to assess the importance of habitat specialization in driving compositional and phylogenetic variation across the Amazonian forest. To do so, we evaluated patterns of floristic dissimilarity and phylogenetic turnover, habitat association and phylogenetic structure in three different landscape units occurring in terra firme (Hilly and Terrace) and flooded forests (Igapó). We established two 1-ha tree plots in each of these landscape units at the Caparú Biological Station, SW Colombia, and measured edaphic, topographic and light variables. At large spatial scales, terra firme forests exhibited higher levels of species diversity and phylodiversity than flooded forests. These two types of forests showed conspicuous differences in species and phylogenetic composition, suggesting that environmental sorting due to flood is important, and can go beyond the species level. At a local level, landscape units showed floristic divergence, driven both by geographical distance and by edaphic specialization. In terms of phylogenetic structure, Igapó forests showed phylogenetic clustering, whereas Hilly and Terrace forests showed phylogenetic evenness. Within plots, however, local communities did not show any particular trend. Overall, our findings suggest that flooded forests, characterized by stressful environments, impose limits to species occurrence, whereas terra firme forests, more environmentally heterogeneous, are likely to provide a wider range of ecological conditions and therefore to bear higher diversity. Thus, Amazonia should be considered as a mosaic of landscape units, where the strength of habitat association depends upon their environmental properties. PMID:23028844

Study on Ecological Risk Assessment of Guangxi Coastal Zone Based on 3s Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Z.; Luo, H.; Ling, Z. Y.; Huang, Y.; Ning, W. Y.; Tang, Y. B.; Shao, G. Z.

2018-05-01

This paper takes Guangxi coastal zone as the study area, following the standards of land use type, divides the coastal zone of ecological landscape into seven kinds of natural wetland landscape types such as woodland, farmland, grassland, water, urban land and wetlands. Using TM data of 2000-2015 such 15 years, with the CART decision tree algorithm, for analysis the characteristic of types of landscape's remote sensing image and build decision tree rules of landscape classification to extract information classification. Analyzing of the evolution process of the landscape pattern in Guangxi coastal zone in nearly 15 years, we may understand the distribution characteristics and change rules. Combined with the natural disaster data, we use of landscape index and the related risk interference degree and construct ecological risk evaluation model in Guangxi coastal zone for ecological risk assessment results of Guangxi coastal zone.

Analysis of relation between geomorphologic processes and alpine vegetation in the high mountain landscape (Tatry Mts.)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boltiziar, M.

2003-01-01

The aim was to present some information about starting of high mountains ecological monitoring and its first partial results. The research is focused on a long-term observation of vegetation changes (species composition, species spatial distribution) in relation to geomorphic processes and geo-relief attributes at meso- and micro-scale of landscape. We established in 2002 for this purpose six permanent plots (4 x 4 m) in the selected localities of High and Belianske Tatras Mts. (Author)

Understanding the whole city as landscape. A multivariate approach to urban landscape morphology

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Richard Stiles

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The European Landscape Convention implies a requirement for signatory states to identify their urban landscapes which goes beyond the traditional focus on individual parks and green spaces and the links between them. Landscape ecological approaches can provide a useful model for identifying urban landscape types across a whole territory, but the variables relevant for urban landscapes are very different to those usually addressing rural areas. This paper presents an approach to classifying the urban landscape of Vienna that was developed in a research project funded by the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology: ‘Urban Fabric and Microclimate Response’. Nine landscape types and a number of sub-types were defined, using a multivariate statistical approach which takes account of both morphological and urban climate related variables. Although the variables were selected to objectively reflect the factors that could best represent the urban climatic characteristics of the urban landscape, the results also provided a widely plausible representation of the structure of the city’s landscapes. Selected examples of the landscape types that were defined in this way were used both to simulate current microclimatic conditions and also to model the effects of possible climatic amelioration measures. Finally the paper looks forward to developing a more general-purpose urban landscape typology that allows investigating a much broader complex of urban landscape functions.

The problem of spatial fit in social-ecological systems: detecting mismatches between ecological connectivity and land management in an urban region

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Arvid Bergsten

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The problem of institutional fit in social-ecological systems has been empirically documented and conceptually discussed for decades, yet there is a shortage of approaches to systematically and quantitatively examine the level of fit. We address this gap, focusing on spatial fit in an urban and peri-urban regional landscape. Such landscapes typically exhibit significant fragmentation of remnant habitats, which can limit critical species dispersal. This may have detrimental effects on species persistence and ecosystem functioning if land use is planned without consideration of the spatial patterns of fragmentation. Managing habitat fragmentation is particularly challenging when the scale of fragmentation reaches beyond the control of single managers, thereby requiring different actors to coordinate their activities to address the problem at the appropriate scale. We present a research approach that maps patterns of collaborations between actors who manage different parts of a landscape, and then relates these patterns to structures of ecological connectivity. We applied our approach to evaluate the fit between a collaborative wetland management network comprising all 26 municipalities in the Stockholm County in Sweden and an ecologically defined network of dispersed but ecologically interconnected wetlands. Many wetlands in this landscape are either intersected by the boundary between two or more municipalities, or are located close to such boundaries, which implies a degree of ecological interconnectedness and a need for intermunicipal coordination related to wetland management across boundaries. We first estimated the level of ecological connectivity between wetlands in neighboring municipalities, and then used this estimate to elaborate the level of social-ecological fit vis-à-vis intermunicipal collaboration. We found that the level of fit was generally weak. Also, we identified critical misalignments of ecological connectivity and

Modelling landslide dynamics in forested landscapes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Claessens, L.F.G.

2005-01-01

The research resulting in this thesis covers the geological, geomorphological and landscape ecology related themes of the project 'Podzolisation under Kauri (Agathis australis): for better or worse?' supported by theNetherlands Organisation

Can Evolution Supply What Ecology Demands?

Science.gov (United States)

Kokko, Hanna; Chaturvedi, Anurag; Croll, Daniel; Fischer, Martin C; Guillaume, Frédéric; Karrenberg, Sophie; Kerr, Ben; Rolshausen, Gregor; Stapley, Jessica

2017-03-01

A simplistic view of the adaptive process pictures a hillside along which a population can climb: when ecological 'demands' change, evolution 'supplies' the variation needed for the population to climb to a new peak. Evolutionary ecologists point out that this simplistic view can be incomplete because the fitness landscape changes dynamically as the population evolves. Geneticists meanwhile have identified complexities relating to the nature of genetic variation and its architecture, and the importance of epigenetic variation is under debate. In this review, we highlight how complexity in both ecological 'demands' and the evolutionary 'supply' influences organisms' ability to climb fitness landscapes that themselves change dynamically as evolution proceeds, and encourage new synthetic effort across research disciplines towards ecologically realistic studies of adaptation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Objective computerized approaches for centralized geophysical and geochemical landscape project planning.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danilyan Eugene Andreevich

2013-10-01

Full Text Available At present landscape design does not represent a scientific subject in strict sense, being a superposition of decorative and applied landscape art and the methods of graphic architectural planning. Serving interests of customers, it does not harmonize with the individual needs of the ground based on landscape geochemistry and ecology. Hence, it results in great number of grounds not consistent with each other according to geochemical criteria. In many cases total soil changing, isolation of natural hydrodynamic drainage, introduction of exotic plants interacting with their environment (including abiotic relations take place, it results in disequilibrium in the ground. Ecological system efficiency needs to be constantly artificially maintained, and that does not support its stability. In other words, without maintaining sufficient conditions, it will be influenced by succession with the course of time, as a particular case of potential gradient equalization. Hence, at present there is an acute problem to develop such a concept of landscape design, that, covering ecological requirements of customers, would be mass one, not producing gradient isolation effect and ecologically self-sustaining in given environment at the same time. It is evident, that to meet these requirements, this concept should not be the product of subjective vision of the author, but direct consequence of geophysical and geochemical landscape condition with theoretical development allowing calculation testing at any scale of geographical zoning.

The Globalized Landscape: Rural Landscape Change and Policy in the United States and European Union

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nassauer, J.I.; Wascher, D.M.

2008-01-01

While some rural areas draw increasing populations to their landscape amenities and some are changed by the long reach of metropolitan sprawl, agriculture defines, and dominates rural landscapes. Amenity characteristics and ecological services of many rural landscapes occur in the context of

CMEIAS bioimage informatics that define the landscape ecology of immature microbial biofilms developed on plant rhizoplane surfaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frank B Dazzo

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Colonization of the rhizoplane habitat is an important activity that enables certain microorganisms to promote plant growth. Here we describe various types of computer-assisted microscopy that reveal important ecological insights of early microbial colonization behavior within biofilms on plant root surfaces grown in soil. Examples of the primary data are obtained by analysis of processed images of rhizoplane biofilm landscapes analyzed at single-cell resolution using the emerging technology of CMEIAS bioimage informatics software. Included are various quantitative analyses of the in situ biofilm landscape ecology of microbes during their pioneer colonization of white clover roots, and of a rhizobial biofertilizer strain colonized on rice roots where it significantly enhances the productivity of this important crop plant. The results show that spatial patterns of immature biofilms developed on rhizoplanes that interface rhizosphere soil are highly structured (rather than distributed randomly when analyzed at the appropriate spatial scale, indicating that regionalized microbial cell-cell interactions and the local environment can significantly affect their cooperative and competitive colonization behaviors.

From climate-smart agriculture to climate-smart landscapes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Scherr Sara J

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background For agricultural systems to achieve climate-smart objectives, including improved food security and rural livelihoods as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation, they often need to be take a landscape approach; they must become ‘climate-smart landscapes’. Climate-smart landscapes operate on the principles of integrated landscape management, while explicitly incorporating adaptation and mitigation into their management objectives. Results An assessment of climate change dynamics related to agriculture suggests that three key features characterize a climate-smart landscape: climate-smart practices at the field and farm scale; diversity of land use across the landscape to provide resilience; and management of land use interactions at landscape scale to achieve social, economic and ecological impacts. To implement climate-smart agricultural landscapes with these features (that is, to successfully promote and sustain them over time, in the context of dynamic economic, social, ecological and climate conditions requires several institutional mechanisms: multi-stakeholder planning, supportive landscape governance and resource tenure, spatially-targeted investment in the landscape that supports climate-smart objectives, and tracking change to determine if social and climate goals are being met at different scales. Examples of climate-smart landscape initiatives in Madagascar’s Highlands, the African Sahel and Australian Wet Tropics illustrate the application of these elements in contrasting contexts. Conclusions To achieve climate-smart landscape initiatives widely and at scale will require strengthened technical capacities, institutions and political support for multi-stakeholder planning, governance, spatial targeting of investments and multi-objective impact monitoring.

Social-Ecological Transformation for Ecosystem Management: the Development of Adaptive Co-management of a Wetland Landscape in Southern Sweden

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Per Olsson

2004-12-01

Full Text Available We analyze the emergence of an adaptive co-management system for wetland landscape governance in southern Sweden, a process where unconnected management by several actors in the landscape was mobilized, renewed, and reconfigured into ecosystem management within about a decade. Our analysis highlights the social mechanisms behind the transformation toward ecosystem management. The self-organizing process was triggered by perceived threats among members of various local stewardship associations and local government to the area's cultural and ecological values. These threats challenged the development of ecosystem services in the area. We show how one individual, a key leader, played an instrumental role in directing change and transforming governance. The transformation involved three phases: 1 preparing the system for change, 2 seizing a window of opportunity, and 3 building social-ecological resilience of the new desired state. This local policy entrepreneur initiated trust-building dialogue, mobilized social networks with actors across scales, and started processes for coordinating people, information flows and ongoing activities, and for compiling and generating knowledge, understanding, and management practices of ecosystem dynamics. Understanding, collaborative learning, and creating public awareness were part of the process. A comprehensive framework was developed with a shared vision and goals that presented conservation as development, turned problems into possibilities, and contributed to a shift in perception among key actors regarding the values of the wetland landscape. A window of opportunity at the political level opened, which made it possible to transform the governance system toward a trajectory of ecosystem management. The transformation involved establishing a new municipal organization, the Ecomuseum Kristianstads Vattenrike (EKV. This flexible organization serves as a bridge between local actors and governmental bodies and is

Planning of Green Space Ecological Network in Urban Areas: An Example of Nanchang, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Haifeng; Chen, Wenbo; He, Wei

2015-10-15

Green space plays an important role in sustainable urban development and ecology by virtue of multiple environmental, recreational, and economic benefits. Constructing an effective and harmonious urban ecological network and maintaining a sustainable living environment in response to rapid urbanization are the key issues required to be resolved by landscape planners. In this paper, Nanchang City, China was selected as a study area. Based on a series of landscape metrics, the landscape pattern analysis of the current (in 2005) and planned (in 2020) green space system were, respectively, conducted by using FRAGSTATS 3.3 software. Considering the actual situation of the Nanchang urban area, a "one river and two banks, north and south twin cities" ecological network was constructed by using network analysis. Moreover, the ecological network was assessed by using corridor structure analysis, and the improvement of an ecological network on the urban landscape was quantitatively assessed through a comparison between the ecological network and green space system planning. The results indicated that: (1) compared to the green space system in 2005, the planned green space system in 2020 of the Nanchang urban area will decline in both districts (Changnan and Changbei districts). Meanwhile, an increase in patch density and a decrease in mean patch size of green space patches at the landscape level implies the fragmentation of the urban green space landscape. In other words, the planned green space system does not necessarily improve the present green space system; (2) the ecological network of two districts has high corridor density, while Changnan's ecological network has higher connectivity, but Changbei's ecological network is more viable from an economic point of view, since it has relatively higher cost efficiency; (3) decrease in patch density, Euclidean nearest neighbor distance, and an increase in mean patch size and connectivity implied that the ecological network

Using circuit theory to model connectivity in ecology, evolution, and conservation.

Science.gov (United States)

McRae, Brad H; Dickson, Brett G; Keitt, Timothy H; Shah, Viral B

2008-10-01

Connectivity among populations and habitats is important for a wide range of ecological processes. Understanding, preserving, and restoring connectivity in complex landscapes requires connectivity models and metrics that are reliable, efficient, and process based. We introduce a new class of ecological connectivity models based in electrical circuit theory. Although they have been applied in other disciplines, circuit-theoretic connectivity models are new to ecology. They offer distinct advantages over common analytic connectivity models, including a theoretical basis in random walk theory and an ability to evaluate contributions of multiple dispersal pathways. Resistance, current, and voltage calculated across graphs or raster grids can be related to ecological processes (such as individual movement and gene flow) that occur across large population networks or landscapes. Efficient algorithms can quickly solve networks with millions of nodes, or landscapes with millions of raster cells. Here we review basic circuit theory, discuss relationships between circuit and random walk theories, and describe applications in ecology, evolution, and conservation. We provide examples of how circuit models can be used to predict movement patterns and fates of random walkers in complex landscapes and to identify important habitat patches and movement corridors for conservation planning.

Gravel-bed river floodplains are the ecological nexus of glaciated mountain landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Hauer, F. Richard; Locke, Harvey; Dreitz, Victoria; Hebblewhite, Mark; Lowe, Winsor; Muhlfeld, Clint C.; Nelson, Cara; Proctor, Michael F.; Rood, Stewart B.

2016-01-01

Gravel-bed river floodplains in mountain landscapes disproportionately concentrate diverse habitats, nutrient cycling, productivity of biota, and species interactions. Although stream ecologists know that river channel and floodplain habitats used by aquatic organisms are maintained by hydrologic regimes that mobilize gravel-bed sediments, terrestrial ecologists have largely been unaware of the importance of floodplain structures and processes to the life requirements of a wide variety of species. We provide insight into gravel-bed rivers as the ecological nexus of glaciated mountain landscapes. We show why gravel-bed river floodplains are the primary arena where interactions take place among aquatic, avian, and terrestrial species from microbes to grizzly bears and provide essential connectivity as corridors for movement for both aquatic and terrestrial species. Paradoxically, gravel-bed river floodplains are also disproportionately unprotected where human developments are concentrated. Structural modifications to floodplains such as roads, railways, and housing and hydrologicaltering hydroelectric or water storage dams have severe impacts to floodplain habitat diversity and productivity, restrict local and regional connectivity, and reduce the resilience of both aquatic and terrestrial species, including adaptation to climate change. To be effective, conservation efforts in glaciated mountain landscapes intended to benefit the widest variety of organisms need a paradigm shift that has gravel-bed rivers and their floodplains as the central focus and that prioritizes the maintenance or restoration of the intact structure and processes of these critically important systems throughout their length and breadth.

Ecological perspective: Linking ecology, GIS, and remote sensing to ecosystem management

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Craig D.; Sample, V. Alaric

1994-01-01

Awareness of significant human impacts on the ecology of Earth's landscapes is not new (Thomas 1956). Over the past decade (Forman and Godron 1986, Urban et a1. 1987) applications of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing technologies have supported a rapid rise in landscape.stale research. The heightened recognition within the research community of the ecological linkages between local sites and larger spatial scales has spawned increasing calls for more holistic management of landscapes (Noss 1983, Harris 1984, Risser 1985, Norse et al. 1986, Agee and Johnson 1988, Franklin 1989, Brooks and Grant 1992, Endangered Species Update-Special Issue 1993, Crow 1994, Grumbine 1994). As a result agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service are now converging on "ecosystem management" as a new paradigm to sustainably manage wildlands and maintain biodiversity. However, as this transition occurs, several impediments to implementation of this new paradigm persist, including(1) significant uncenainty among many land managers about the definition and goals of ecosystem management,(2) inadequate ecological information on the past and present processes and structural conditions of target ecosystems,(3) insufficient experience on the part of land managers with the rapidly diversifying array of GIS and remote sensing tools to effectively use them to support ecology-based land management, and(4) a paucity of intimate, long-term relationships between people (including land managers) and the particular landscape communities to which they belong.This chapter provides an ecological perspective on these issues as applied to ecosystem management in a southwestern U.S. landscape.

[Wetland landscape pattern change based on GIS and RS: a review].

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Fan-Ting; Xi, Min; Li, Yue; Kong, Fan-Long; Chen, Wan

2013-04-01

Wetland is an ecological landscape with most biodiversity in nature, which has unique ecological structure and function, and contains abundant natural resources to provide material guarantee for human's living and development. Wetland landscape pattern is the comprehensive result of various ecological processes, and has become a hot issue in wetland ecological study. At present, the combination of geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) technologies is an important way to study the wetland landscape pattern change. This paper reviewed the research progress in the wetland landscape change based on GIS and RS from the aspects of the research methods of wetland landscape pattern, index of wetland landscape pattern, and driving forces of wetland landscape pattern evolution, and discussed the applications of the combination of GIS and RS in monitoring the wetland landscape pattern change, the index selection of wetland landscape pattern, and the driving mechanisms of the combined action of human and nature. Some deficiencies in the current studies were put forward, and the directions of the future-studies were prospected.

Judging a brook by its cover: The relation between ecological condition of a stream and urban land cover in new England

Science.gov (United States)

Coles, J.F.; Cuffney, T.F.; McMahon, G.; Rosiu, C.J.

2010-01-01

The US Geological Survey conducted an urban land-use study in the New England Coastal Basins (NECB) area during 2001 to determine how urbanization relates to changes in the ecological condition of streams. Thirty sites were selected that differed in their level of watershed development (low to high). An urban intensity value was calculated for each site from 24 landscape variables. Together, these 30 values reppresented a gradient of urban intensity. Among various biological, chemical, and physical factors surveyed at each site, benthic invertebrate assemblages were sampled from stream riffles and also from multiple habitats along the length of the sampling reach. We use some of the NECB data to derive a four-variable urbanintensity index (NECB-UII), where each variable represents a distinct component of urbanization: increasing human presence, expanding infrastructure, landscape development, and riparian vegetation loss. Using the NECB-UII as a characterization of urbanization, we describe how landscape fragmentation occurs with urbanization and how changes in the invertebrate assemblages, represented by metrics of ecological condition, are related to urbanization. Metrics with a strong linear response included EPT taxa richness, percentage richness of non-insect taxa, and pollution-tolerance values. Additionally, we describe how these relations can help in estimating the expected condition of a stream for its level of urbanization, thereby establishing a baseline for evaluating possible affects from specific point-source stressors.

Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing for Analysis of Landscape Ecological Processes: Current Insights and Trends. Chapter 3

Science.gov (United States)

Quattrochi, Dale A.; Luvall, Jeffrey C.

2014-01-01

NASA or NOAA Earth-observing satellites are not the only space-based TIR platforms. The European Space Agency (ESA), the Chinese, and other countries have in orbit or plan to launch TIR remote sensing systems. Satellite remote sensing provides an excellent opportunity to study land-atmosphere energy exchanges at the regional scale. A predominant application of TIR data has been in inferring evaporation, evapotranspiration (ET), and soil moisture. In addition to using TIR data for ET and soil moisture analysis over vegetated surfaces, there is also a need for using these data for assessment of drought conditions. The concept of ecological thermodynamics provides a quantification of surface energy fluxes for landscape characterization in relation to the overall amount of energy input and output from specific land cover types.

The Race for Space: Tracking Land-Cover Transformation in a Socio-ecological Landscape, South Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Coetzer, Kaera L.; Erasmus, Barend F. N.; Witkowski, Edward T. F.; Reyers, Belinda

2013-09-01

Biosphere Reserves attempt to align existing biodiversity conservation with sustainable resource use, specifically for improving socio-economic circumstances of resident communities. Typically, the Biosphere Reserve model is applied to an established landscape mosaic of existing land uses; these are often socio-ecological systems where strict environmental protection and community livelihoods are in conflict, and environmental degradation frequently accompanies "use". This raises challenges for successful implementation of the model, as the reality of the existing land-use mosaic undermines the theoretical aspirations of the Biosphere concept. This study focuses on the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Reserve (K2C), South Africa; a socio-ecological landscape where formal conservation is juxtaposed against extensive impoverished rural communities. We focus on land-cover changes of the existing land-use mosaic (1993-2006), specifically selected land-cover classes identified as important for biodiversity conservation and local-level resource utilization. We discuss the implications of transformation for conservation, sustainable resource-use, and K2C's functioning as a "Biosphere Reserve". Spatially, changes radiated outward from the settlement expanse, with little regard for the theoretical land-use zonation of the Biosphere Reserve. Settlement growth tracked transport routes, transforming cohesive areas of communal-use rangelands. Given the interdependencies between the settlement population and local environmental resources, the Impacted Vegetation class expanded accordingly, fragmenting the Intact Vegetation class, and merging rangelands. This has serious implications for sustainability of communal harvesting areas, and further transformation of intact habitat. The distribution and magnitude of Intact Vegetation losses raise concerns around connectivity and edge effects, with long-term consequences for ecological integrity of remnant habitat, and K2C's existing network

The Value of Landscape Essence

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Maria da Conceição Marques Freire

2014-08-01

Full Text Available A new approach to interpreting the landscape is examined by accepting its complexity through inductive reasoning. While attempting to identify the essence of the landscape in the city and municipality of Óbidos, Portugal, several architectural recommendations of Venturi (2004 have been adapted as a framework for understanding this landscape. These will then guide the process of landscape transformation through:•••using the concepts of closed and contained spaces and the concept of fluid space;•recognising the existence of interstitial open spaces;•using those elements which are common to the distinct typologies of space;•defining the components that should be respected and those that can be respected;•observing landscape as a whole , while emphasising the relationship between the parts and the whole; and•rejecting simplification in the landscape transformation process.valuing the ambiguity incorporating the complexity Underlying this approach is the belief that the process of transformation must be based on the essence of each landscape. This implies the use of elements and structures of the landscape which are related to ecological, morphological and cultural systems. These elements and structures represent points of reference which should be considered in the process of landscape transformation.

A landscape ecological perspective on the regulation of N, P and organic matter in the Danish agri-environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Erling; Vejre, Henrik; Dalgaard, Tommy

ecological models. The study includes analyses of policy documents, action plans, legislation, guidelines and other implementation papers. We identify spatially targeted measures and underlying assumptions regarding the landscape and assess the landscape component of models used for policy design...... of the Danish approach to (non)targeting. Today there is a broad consensus among stakeholders and farmers on the need for spatially differentiation and the next generation of measures are likely to reflect this. This will target the mitigation efforts towards high load areas affecting vulnerable ecosystems...... regulation in Denmark. In the early plans of the 1980s focus was on simple measures such as improving manure storage facilities and handling with no or few links to landscapes. This changed with the introduction of fertilization plans (1987) and norm based fertilizer rules (1991). However, the measures were...

Environmental research - ecological research. Annual report 1996

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

In the annual report 1996 of the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology, the points of emphasis of the ecological research programme and their financing are discussed. The individual projects in the following subject areas are described in detail: urban-industrial landscapes, forests, agricultural landscapes, river and lake landscapes, other ecosystems and landscapes, terrestrial ecosystem research, environmental pollution and human health and cross-sectional activities in ecological research. (vhe) [de

Landscape genetics for the empirical assessment of resistance surfaces: The European pine marten (Martes martes) as a target-species of a regional ecological network

Science.gov (United States)

Aritz Ruiz-Gonzalez; Mikel Gurrutxaga; Samuel A. Cushman; Maria Jose Madeira; Ettore Randi; Benjamin J. Gomez-Moliner

2014-01-01

Coherent ecological networks (EN) composed of core areas linked by ecological corridors are being developed worldwide with the goal of promoting landscape connectivity and biodiversity conservation. However, empirical assessment of the performance of EN designs is critical to evaluate the utility of these networks to mitigate effects of habitat loss and...

STUDY ON ECOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT OF GUANGXI COASTAL ZONE BASED ON 3S TECHNOLOGY

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Z. Zhong

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This paper takes Guangxi coastal zone as the study area, following the standards of land use type, divides the coastal zone of ecological landscape into seven kinds of natural wetland landscape types such as woodland, farmland, grassland, water, urban land and wetlands. Using TM data of 2000–2015 such 15 years, with the CART decision tree algorithm, for analysis the characteristic of types of landscape’s remote sensing image and build decision tree rules of landscape classification to extract information classification. Analyzing of the evolution process of the landscape pattern in Guangxi coastal zone in nearly 15 years, we may understand the distribution characteristics and change rules. Combined with the natural disaster data, we use of landscape index and the related risk interference degree and construct ecological risk evaluation model in Guangxi coastal zone for ecological risk assessment results of Guangxi coastal zone.

Action Research in Landscape Ecology (Šumava Biosphere Reserve, Czech Republic Case Study

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Kušová Drahomíra

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Current landscape ecological research applies trans-disciplinarity as a principle when considering the study of landscape as a multifunctional entity. The principle can be practically applied by use of participatory action research. The paper reports on the use of participatory action research in the process of step-by-step institutionalization of the Šumava Biosphere Reserve, as a complement to the state-conducted nature conservation, which took place in the period 1991−2016. To briefly summarize the main findings, we can suggest that the present institutional model of the Šumava Biosphere Reserve emerged primarily thanks to the ‘permanent jointly conducted experiment’ that followed the spiral scheme of action research, in which outputs of one implementation project served as a starting point to formulate, and subsequently realize the follow-up projects(s. The local community was engaged in the whole process, hence lessons learned became a part of local social and cultural capital, which since can be considered important endogenous developmental potential of the region.

A Land Systems Science Framework for Bridging Land System Architecture and Landscape Ecology: A Case Study from the Southern High Plains

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Jacqueline M. Vadjunec

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Resource-use decisions affect the ecological and human components of the coupled human and natural system (CHANS, but a critique of some frameworks is that they do not address the complexity and tradeoffs within and between the two systems. Land system architecture (LA was suggested to account for these tradeoffs at multiple levels/scales. LA and landscape ecology (LE focus on landscape structure (i.e., composition and configuration of land-use and land-cover change [LULCC] and the processes (social-ecological resulting from and shaping LULCC. Drawing on mixed-methods research in the Southern Great Plains, we develop a framework that incorporates LA, LE, and governance theory. Public land and water are commons resources threatened by overuse, degradation, and climate change. Resource use is exacerbated by public land and water policies at the state- and local-levels. Our framework provides a foundation for investigating the mechanisms of land systems science (LSS couplings across multiple levels/scales to understand how and why governance impacts human LULCC decisions (LA and how those LULCC patterns influence, and are influenced by, the underlying ecological processes (LE. This framework provides a mechanism for investigating the feedbacks between and among the different system components in a CHANS that subsequently impact future human design decisions.

Habitat Re-Creation (Ecological Restoration) as a Strategy for Conserving Insect Communities in Highly Fragmented Landscapes.

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Shuey, John A

2013-12-05

Because of their vast diversity, measured by both numbers of species as well as life history traits, insects defy comprehensive conservation planning. Thus, almost all insect conservation efforts target individual species. However, serious insect conservation requires goals that are set at the faunal level and conservation success requires strategies that conserve intact communities. This task is complicated in agricultural landscapes by high levels of habitat fragmentation and isolation. In many regions, once widespread insect communities are now functionally trapped on islands of ecosystem remnants and subject to a variety of stressors associated with isolation, small population sizes and artificial population fragmentation. In fragmented landscapes ecological restoration can be an effective strategy for reducing localized insect extinction rates, but insects are seldom included in restoration design criteria. It is possible to incorporate a few simple conservation criteria into restoration designs that enhance impacts to entire insect communities. Restoration can be used as a strategy to address fragmentation threats to isolated insect communities if insect communities are incorporated at the onset of restoration planning. Fully incorporating insect communities into restoration designs may increase the cost of restoration two- to three-fold, but the benefits to biodiversity conservation and the ecological services provided by intact insect communities justify the cost.

Transformation of rural-urban cultural landscapes in Europe: Integrating approaches from ecological, socio-economic and planning perspectives

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S. Pauleit

2010-10-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a review of the presentations and synthesis of the discussion during a Symposium on ‘Transformation of rural-urban cultural landscapes in Europe: Integrating approaches from ecological, socio-economic and planning perspectives’ held at the European IALE conference 2009 in Salzburg, Austria. The symposium addressed an extended and much debated subject of the landscape dynamics in Europe. The papers presented during the symposium showcased a broad spectrum of cutting edge research questions and challenges faced by the cultural landscapes of Europe. During six sessions, 18 presentations (besides 20 posters were made by 36 scientists (including co-authors from 14 countries, representing 25 institutions of Europe. A glance at the presentations revealed that the state-of-the-art focuses on driving forces and selected aspects of transformation processes, methods of its analysis and planning support as dimensions of research in this field. However, inter- and transdisciplinary research and integrative approaches to the development of rural-urban cultural landscapes are needed. The extended discussion session at the latter part of the symposium highlighted some critical and unaddressed research questions which remained a pending agenda for future research.

Influence of landscape structure on reef fish assemblages

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Grober-Dunsmore, R.; Frazer, T.K.; Beets, J.P.; Lindberg, W.J.; Zwick, P.; Funicelli, N.A.

2008-01-01

Management of tropical marine environments calls for interdisciplinary studies and innovative methodologies that consider processes occurring over broad spatial scales. We investigated relationships between landscape structure and reef fish assemblage structure in the US Virgin Islands. Measures of landscape structure were transformed into a reduced set of composite indices using principal component analyses (PCA) to synthesize data on the spatial patterning of the landscape structure of the study reefs. However, composite indices (e.g., habitat diversity) were not particularly informative for predicting reef fish assemblage structure. Rather, relationships were interpreted more easily when functional groups of fishes were related to individual habitat features. In particular, multiple reef fish parameters were strongly associated with reef context. Fishes responded to benthic habitat structure at multiple spatial scales, with various groups of fishes each correlated to a unique suite of variables. Accordingly, future experiments should be designed to test functional relationships based on the ecology of the organisms of interest. Our study demonstrates that landscape-scale habitat features influence reef fish communities, illustrating promise in applying a landscape ecology approach to better understand factors that structure coral reef ecosystems. Furthermore, our findings may prove useful in design of spatially-based conservation approaches such as marine protected areas (MPAs), because landscape-scale metrics may serve as proxies for areas with high species diversity and abundance within the coral reef landscape. ?? 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Identifying the characteristic of SundaParahiyangan landscape for a model of sustainable agricultural landscape

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Dahlan, M. Z.; Nurhayati, H. S. A.; Mugnisjah, W. Q.

2017-10-01

This study was an explorative study of the various forms of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of Sundanese people in the context of sustainable agriculture. The qualitative method was used to identify SundaParahiyangan landscape by using Rapid Participatory Rural Appraisal throughsemi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and field survey. The Landscape Characteristic Assessment and Community Sustainability Assessment were used to analyze the characteristic of landscape to achieve the sustainable agricultural landscape criteria proposed by US Department of Agriculture. The results revealed that the SundaParahiyangan agricultural landscape has a unique characteristic as a result of the long-term adaptation of agricultural society to theirlandscape through a learning process for generations. In general, this character was reflected in the typical of Sundanese’s agroecosystems such as forest garden, mixed garden, paddy field, and home garden. In addition, concept of kabuyutan is one of the TEKs related to understanding and utilization of landscape has been adapted on revitalizing the role of landscape surrounding the agroecosystem as the buffer zone by calculating and designating protected areas. To support the sustainability of production area, integrated practices of agroforestry with low-external-input and sustainable agriculture (LEISA) system can be applied in utilizing and managing agricultural resources.

Using Landscape metrics to analyze the landscape evolution under land abandonment

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Pelorosso, Raffaele; Della Chiesa, Stefano; Gobattoni, Federica; Leone, Antonio

2010-05-01

The human actions and the human-linked land use changes are the main responsible of the present landscapes and vegetation patterns (Antrop, 2005; Pelorosso et al., 2009). Hence, revised concept of potential natural vegetation has been developed in landscape ecology. In fact, it cannot more be considered as the optimum for a certain landscape, but only as a general indication never widely reached. In particular Ingegnoli and Pignatti (2007) introduced the concept of fittest vegetation as "the most suitable or suited vegetation for the specific climate and geomorphic conditions, in a limited period of time and in a certain defined place with a particular range of incorporable disturbances (including man's) under natural or not natural conditions". Anthropic exploitation of land and its resources to obtain goods and services (Willemen et al, 2008) can be considered therefore the main cause of landscape change as an integrant part of nature, not external. The abandon of the land by farmers or other users it is one of the more felt problems for the marginal territories of Mediterranean basin. It is therefore caused by socio-economic changes of last decades and cause several impact on biodiversity (Geri et al. 2010) and hydro-geological assessment. A mountain landscape has however the capacity to provide goods like timber and services like aesthetic pleasure or regulation of water system. The necessity of a conservation strategy and the development of sustainable socio-economic management plan play a very important role in governing land and quality of life for people and ecosystems also for marginal territory. After a land abandonment, soil conditions and several climatic and orographic characteristic plus human disturbance affect the length of time required by secondary succession, throwing the establishment of vegetation with different association, structure and composition until a (stable or meta-stable) equilibrium is reached (Ingegnoli and Pignatti, 2007). In this

THE CONCEPT OF THE LANDSCAPE AND ITS ACCEPTANCE IN THE PRACTICE

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LÁSZLÓ MIKLÓS

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The landscape is historically perceived basically in two ways: as a tangible material reality and also as an intangible, mental and artistic experience. The basic practical policies related to the landscape ecology under the umbrella conception of the integrated land resources management are based on materialistic geocomplex/geosystem conception. In last decades a massive wave of the “friends of landscape” appeared, who shifted their attendance to the cultural-historical-value and perception based approach to the landscape. This wave is supported by the compromiss soft definition of the landscape and the wording of the European Landscape Convention. Nevertheless, the penetration of the landscape to the practical policies requires the materialistic approach and definition of the landscape.

Geographic Information Systems for Assessing Existing and Potential Bio-energy Resources: Their Use in Determining Land Use and Management Options which Minimize Ecological and Landscape Impacts in Rural Areas

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Jackman, A. E.; Fabos, J. G.; Carlozzi, C. C.

1982-01-01

A management construct is described which forms part of an overall landscape ecological planning model which has as a principal objective the extension of the traditional descriptive land use mapping capabilities of geographic information systems into land management realms. It is noted that geographic information systems appear to be moving to more comprehensive methods of data handling and storage, such as relational and hierarchical data management systems, and a clear need has simultaneously arisen therefore for planning assessment techniques and methodologies which can actually use such complex levels of data in a systematic, yet flexible and scenario dependent way. The descriptive of mapping method proposed broaches such issues and utilizes a current New England bioenergy scenario, stimulated by the use of hardwoods for household heating purposes established in the post oil crisis era and the increased awareness of the possible landscape and ecological ramifications of the continued increasing use of the resource.

Maize Cropping Systems Mapping Using RapidEye Observations in Agro-Ecological Landscapes in Kenya.

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Richard, Kyalo; Abdel-Rahman, Elfatih M; Subramanian, Sevgan; Nyasani, Johnson O; Thiel, Michael; Jozani, Hosein; Borgemeister, Christian; Landmann, Tobias

2017-11-03

Cropping systems information on explicit scales is an important but rarely available variable in many crops modeling routines and of utmost importance for understanding pests and disease propagation mechanisms in agro-ecological landscapes. In this study, high spatial and temporal resolution RapidEye bio-temporal data were utilized within a novel 2-step hierarchical random forest (RF) classification approach to map areas of mono- and mixed maize cropping systems. A small-scale maize farming site in Machakos County, Kenya was used as a study site. Within the study site, field data was collected during the satellite acquisition period on general land use/land cover (LULC) and the two cropping systems. Firstly, non-cropland areas were masked out from other land use/land cover using the LULC mapping result. Subsequently an optimized RF model was applied to the cropland layer to map the two cropping systems (2nd classification step). An overall accuracy of 93% was attained for the LULC classification, while the class accuracies (PA: producer's accuracy and UA: user's accuracy) for the two cropping systems were consistently above 85%. We concluded that explicit mapping of different cropping systems is feasible in complex and highly fragmented agro-ecological landscapes if high resolution and multi-temporal satellite data such as 5 m RapidEye data is employed. Further research is needed on the feasibility of using freely available 10-20 m Sentinel-2 data for wide-area assessment of cropping systems as an important variable in numerous crop productivity models.

Maize Cropping Systems Mapping Using RapidEye Observations in Agro-Ecological Landscapes in Kenya

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Kyalo Richard

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Cropping systems information on explicit scales is an important but rarely available variable in many crops modeling routines and of utmost importance for understanding pests and disease propagation mechanisms in agro-ecological landscapes. In this study, high spatial and temporal resolution RapidEye bio-temporal data were utilized within a novel 2-step hierarchical random forest (RF classification approach to map areas of mono- and mixed maize cropping systems. A small-scale maize farming site in Machakos County, Kenya was used as a study site. Within the study site, field data was collected during the satellite acquisition period on general land use/land cover (LULC and the two cropping systems. Firstly, non-cropland areas were masked out from other land use/land cover using the LULC mapping result. Subsequently an optimized RF model was applied to the cropland layer to map the two cropping systems (2nd classification step. An overall accuracy of 93% was attained for the LULC classification, while the class accuracies (PA: producer’s accuracy and UA: user’s accuracy for the two cropping systems were consistently above 85%. We concluded that explicit mapping of different cropping systems is feasible in complex and highly fragmented agro-ecological landscapes if high resolution and multi-temporal satellite data such as 5 m RapidEye data is employed. Further research is needed on the feasibility of using freely available 10–20 m Sentinel-2 data for wide-area assessment of cropping systems as an important variable in numerous crop productivity models.

On the ecological relevance of landscape mapping and its application in the spatial planning of very large marine protected areas.

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Hogg, Oliver T; Huvenne, Veerle A I; Griffiths, Huw J; Linse, Katrin

2018-06-01

In recent years very large marine protected areas (VLMPAs) have become the dominant form of spatial protection in the marine environment. Whilst seen as a holistic and geopolitically achievable approach to conservation, there is currently a mismatch between the size of VLMPAs, and the data available to underpin their establishment and inform on their management. Habitat mapping has increasingly been adopted as a means of addressing paucity in biological data, through use of environmental proxies to estimate species and community distribution. Small-scale studies have demonstrated environmental-biological links in marine systems. Such links, however, are rarely demonstrated across larger spatial scales in the benthic environment. As such, the utility of habitat mapping as an effective approach to the ecosystem-based management of VLMPAs remains, thus far, largely undetermined. The aim of this study was to assess the ecological relevance of broadscale landscape mapping. Specifically we test the relationship between broad-scale marine landscapes and the structure of their benthic faunal communities. We focussed our work at the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, site of one of the largest MPAs in the world. We demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between environmentally derived landscape mapping clusters, and the composition of presence-only species data from the region. To demonstrate this relationship required specific re-sampling of historical species occurrence data to balance biological rarity, biological cosmopolitism, range-restricted sampling and fine-scale heterogeneity between sampling stations. The relationship reveals a distinct biological signature in the faunal composition of individual landscapes, attributing ecological relevance to South Georgia's environmentally derived marine landscape map. We argue therefore, that landscape mapping represents an effective framework for ensuring representative protection of habitats in management

Countermeasures for China’s Ecological Environment Construction in Land Reclamation

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Chen; LI; Xinfeng; LIU; Zhe; PENG; Tao; SI; Lingfeng; KONG

2013-01-01

Basic situation of the current ecological environment construction in land consolidation and rehabilitation of China is introduced. The related advanced experience abroad is summarized from mainly four aspects, namely policy, system as well as subject development, planning guidance, design method of project planning and engineering study, and practical countermeasures to China’s ecological environment construction in land reclamation are proposed. In terms of policy, system and subject, relevant regulations, policies and system construction should be strengthened and the framework of policy, system and subject development in ecological landscape construction of China’s land reclamation should be proposed, integrating ecological environment construction into land reclamation. At the level of strategic planning, the spatial layout and construction key points of green infrastructure in land reclamation of "urban multi-functional developing region, eastern economic developed region, central modern agricultural region and northwestern ecological fragile region" should be achieved. At the level of project planning design, ecological principles, sustainable landscape design principles and vernacular landscape design methods are to be integrated into the planning procedure to form operable technique regulations or introductions. At the level of engineering design, engineering technique system, standards and regulations of ditches, roads, forests and channels with local distinctions should be formulated according to the characters and strategic demands of urbanization, industrialization, agriculture modernization and ecological environment preservation in different regions.

Calculating the configurational entropy of a landscape mosaic

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Samuel A. Cushman

2016-01-01

Applications of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics in landscape ecology are rare and poorly developed. This is a fundamental limitation given the centrally important role the second law plays in all physical and biological processes. A critical first step to exploring the utility of thermodynamics in landscape ecology is to define the configurational...

Examining Vegetation of Built Landscapes and Their Relationship to Existing Ecosystems

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Margaret Livingston

2004-06-01

Full Text Available An understanding of the various influences of urbanisation on plant communities is critical for planning a sustainable future for the planet. For example, landscape practices and sense of place driven by aesthetic influences often dominate in the design of built landscapes, resulting in strikingly different vegetation communities from that of the surrounding communities. Furthermore, these built landscapes in metropolitan areas often markedly influence an inhabitant's impressions of a region's biotic foundation and sense of place. Inhabitants may not consider or understand the ecological impacts of practices that are typically dominated by contemporary cultural aesthetics. Do these cultural aesthetic drivers result in relatively similar landscapes in terms of appearance, regardless of region? The purpose of this study was to document general trends in landscape structure and composition from two distinct, different regions. Specifically, we addressed the questions: how do these built landscapes deviate from their surrounding natural communities and are these built landscapes from the two regions similar in structure and composition? This paper characterised landscape vegetation patterns of typical residential areas in two cities with relatively diverse climatic regions, Tucson, Arizona and Atlanta, Georgia. Comparisons were done on data for plant diversity, density, life form (tree, shrub, groundcover, and vines and species origin (native versus non-native from sites within typical residential subdivisions throughout the two cities. Results were compared with the composition of local typology in order to determine what differences and similarities existed in relation to native biotic communities. In both cities, residential landscapes converged on savannah-type landscapes, emphasising scattered overstory and minimal understory that were more compositionally diverse than the native biotic communities because of the introduction of non

Sustaining ecosystem services in cultural landscapes

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Tobias Plieninger

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Classical conservation approaches focus on the man-made degradation of ecosystems and tend to neglect the social-ecological values that human land uses have imprinted on many environments. Throughout the world, ingenious land-use practices have generated unique cultural landscapes, but these are under pressure from agricultural intensification, land abandonment, and urbanization. In recent years, the cultural landscapes concept has been broadly adopted in science, policy, and management. The interest in both outstanding and vernacular landscapes finds expression in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, the European Landscape Convention, and the IUCN Protected Landscape Approach. These policies promote the protection, management, planning, and governance of cultural landscapes. The ecosystem services approach is a powerful framework to guide such efforts, but has rarely been applied in landscape research and management. With this paper, we introduce a special feature that aims to enhance the theoretical, empirical and practical knowledge of how to safeguard the resilience of ecosystem services in cultural landscapes. It concludes (1 that the usefulness of the ecosystem services approach to the analysis and management of cultural landscapes should be reviewed more critically; (2 that conventional ecosystem services assessment needs to be complemented by socio-cultural valuation; (3 that cultural landscapes are inherently changing, so that a dynamic view on ecosystem services and a focus on drivers of landscape change are needed; and (4 that managing landscapes for ecosystem services provision may benefit from a social-ecological resilience perspective.

Landscape & Imagination: riflettere insieme

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Mariella Zoppi

2015-10-01

Full Text Available In Paris, at La Villette University, was four-days of debate on 2-4 Mai 2013, in which faculty members of all the world discussed on methods and experiences in teaching landscape. The conference was organized in multiple sessions: history, theories, representation, process, science and governance. All the fields discussed were related to the main problem of the identity of territories in the landscape project -from the theories to the practices- and applied in a very large range of different situations: from the rural world between conservation and transformations to the coastal areas under the pressure of tourism, from the ecology in the city life renovation to the land use control and project by community and the emergency management in natural catastrophes.

Landscape evaluation of heterogeneous areas using fuzzy sets

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Ralf-Uwe Syrbe

1998-02-01

Full Text Available Landscape evaluation is an interesting field for fuzzy approaches, because it happens on the transition line between natural and social systems. Both are very complex. Therefore, transformation of scientific results to politically significant statements on environmental problems demands intelligent support. Particularly landscape planners need methods to gather natural facts of an area and assess them in consideration of its meaning to society as a whole. Since each land unit is heterogeneous, a special methodology is necessary. Such an evaluation technique was developed within a Geographical Information System (ARC/INFO. The methodology combines several known methods with fuzzy approaches to catch the intrinsic fuzziness of ecological systems as well as the heterogeneity of landscape. Additionally, a way will be discussed to vary the fuzzy inference in order to consider spatial relations of various landscape elements. Fuzzy logic is used to process the data uncertainty, to simulate the vagueness of knowledge about ecological functionality, and to model the spatial structure of landscape. Fuzzy sets describe the attributes of thematically defined land units and their assessment results. In this way, the available information will be preserved in their full diversity. The fuzzy operations are executed by AML-programs (ARC/INFO Macro Language. With such a tight coupling, it is possible to use the geographical functions (neighbourhoods, distances, etc. of GIS within the fuzzy system directly.

Epigenetic Inheritance Across the Landscape

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Amy Vaughn Whipple

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The study of epigenomic variation at the landscape-level in plants may add important insight to studies of adaptive variation. A major goal of landscape genomic studies is to identify genomic regions contributing to adaptive variation across the landscape. Heritable variation in epigenetic marks, resulting in transgenerational plasticity, can influence fitness-related traits. Epigenetic marks are influenced by the genome, the environment, and their interaction, and can be inherited independently of the genome. Thus, epigenomic variation likely influences the heritability of many adaptive traits, but the extent of this influence remains largely unknown. Here we summarize the relevance of epigenetic inheritance to ecological and evolutionary processes, and review the literature on landscape-level patterns of epigenetic variation. Landscape-level patterns of epigenomic variation in plants generally show greater levels of isolation by distance and isolation by environment then is found for the genome, but the causes of these patterns are not yet clear. Linkage between the environment and epigenomic variation has been clearly shown within a single generation, but demonstrating transgenerational inheritance requires more complex breeding and/or experimental designs. Transgenerational epigenetic variation may alter the interpretation of landscape genomic studies that rely upon phenotypic analyses, but should have less influence on landscape genomic approaches that rely upon outlier analyses or genome-environment associations. We suggest that multi-generation common garden experiments conducted across multiple environments will allow researchers to understand which parts of the epigenome are inherited, as well as to parse out the relative contribution of heritable epigenetic variation to the phenotype.

Epigenetic Inheritance across the Landscape.

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Whipple, Amy V; Holeski, Liza M

2016-01-01

The study of epigenomic variation at the landscape-level in plants may add important insight to studies of adaptive variation. A major goal of landscape genomic studies is to identify genomic regions contributing to adaptive variation across the landscape. Heritable variation in epigenetic marks, resulting in transgenerational plasticity, can influence fitness-related traits. Epigenetic marks are influenced by the genome, the environment, and their interaction, and can be inherited independently of the genome. Thus, epigenomic variation likely influences the heritability of many adaptive traits, but the extent of this influence remains largely unknown. Here, we summarize the relevance of epigenetic inheritance to ecological and evolutionary processes, and review the literature on landscape-level patterns of epigenetic variation. Landscape-level patterns of epigenomic variation in plants generally show greater levels of isolation by distance and isolation by environment then is found for the genome, but the causes of these patterns are not yet clear. Linkage between the environment and epigenomic variation has been clearly shown within a single generation, but demonstrating transgenerational inheritance requires more complex breeding and/or experimental designs. Transgenerational epigenetic variation may alter the interpretation of landscape genomic studies that rely upon phenotypic analyses, but should have less influence on landscape genomic approaches that rely upon outlier analyses or genome-environment associations. We suggest that multi-generation common garden experiments conducted across multiple environments will allow researchers to understand which parts of the epigenome are inherited, as well as to parse out the relative contribution of heritable epigenetic variation to the phenotype.

[Landscape planning approaches for biodiversity conservation in agriculture].

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Liu, Yun-hui; Li, Liang-tao; Yu, Zhen-rong

2008-11-01

Biodiversity conservation in agriculture not only relates to the sustainable development of agriculture, but also is an essential part of species conservation. In recent years, the landscape planning approach for biodiversity was highlighted instead of species-focused approach. In this paper, the landscape factors affecting the biodiversity in agriculture were reviewed, and the possible landscape approaches at three different scales for more efficient conservation of biodiversity in agro-landscape were suggested, including: (1) the increase of the proportion of natural or semi-natural habitats in agriculture, diversification of land use or crop pattern, and protection or construction of corridor at landscape level; (2) the establishment of non-cropping elements such as field margin at between-field level; and (3) the application of reasonable crop density, crop distribution pattern and rotation, and intercrop etc. at within-field level. It was suggested that the relevant policies for natural conservation, land use planning, and ecological compensation should be made to apply the landscape approaches for biodiversity conservation at larger scale.

Discussions on the Design of the Pool Landscape in the Rain Garden Construction

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Zou, Shuzhen; Zhu, Yirong; Wei, Chaojun; Tao, Biaohong

2018-03-01

With rapid urbanization, the environmental problems are becoming increasingly prominent and diversified ecological landscape designs consequently appear with the rain garden landscape design as a typical. Based on the introduction to rain garden ecological functions and in combination with domestic and international rain garden landscape design cases, this paper discussed the rain garden pool landscape design.

Coupled Socio-Ecological Drivers of Carbon Storage in South African Coastal Lowland Landscapes

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Smithwick, E. A.

2011-12-01

The amount of carbon stored in African terrestrial ecosystems is unknown, varying from 30 to >250 Mg C ha-1 in tropical forests. Several prominent efforts are improving this estimate through forest inventories and modeling, but carbon storage varies across ecosystems and some ecosystems remain vastly understudied. This is critical given that Africa's net carbon flux ranges from a source to a substantial carbon sink, making it one of the weakest links in the global carbon cycle. One such understudied ecosystem is the coastal lowland forest along the Eastern Cape of South Africa, which lies between two internationally recognized biodiversity hotspots and is a current focus of conservation efforts in the region. Six permanent forest plots were established within two nature reserves during February 2011. Using empirical wood density estimates, aboveground tree carbon was estimated using established allometric equations. Results indicated that forests store between 50 and 100 Mg C ha-1, with significant variability among sites. However, the landscapes of the nature reserves differ significantly in the amount of forest cover due to differences in fire frequencies (ranging from 100 years), which are largely determined by rates of wildlife poaching within nature reserves. Thus, although estimates of forest carbon storage are heterogeneous within Eastern Cape forests, landscape-scale carbon storage is governed largely by human activities and reflects strongly coupled socio-ecological drivers. Estimates of landscape-scale carbon storage can help guide conservation management strategies and form the basis of future modeling efforts exploring interactions of climate, disturbance, and human livelihoods.

A Trivalent Approach to the Quality of the “Khoshk” River Landscape in Shiraz

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Mehdi Khakzand

2015-03-01

Full Text Available By considering certain factors like those mentioned by Ian Thompson (2005 in his definition of landscape, i.e. ecology, community and delight, in designing landscapes, one can find the vocation more applicable and useful. City rivers can play a very important role with regard to such values. In fact, the presence of nature and wildlife could not only be the lifeline of a city, but also a factor for community activities. Environmental quality improvement case study (aesthetically among today‟s building constructions is the result of approaching landscape from such a perspective. In the present paper, a river in Shiraz called the „Khoshk River‟–the river that keeps people safe during the rainy seasons by providing a passage for the excess water–is studied based on the factors of designing landscapes. In this regard, the ecological effect of the river as a natural corridor in a warm and dry climate is obvious; however, the two other effects of community and delight are ignored in relation to the landscape of this natural axis. Thus, apart from considering its ecological role, bringing the spirit of society and delight back into the seasonal lifeline is one of the purposes of this study. The river was a recreation area for the people in the past. However, it is now surrounded by different residential, commercial, and administrative buildings, and the society factor (with minimum attention to its ecological and landscape values is active outside this natural axis. In attention towards the river‟s landscape, using the river to resolve traffic problems (building overpasses and underpasses, and a subway nearby, have created an undesirable image of this natural phenomenon.

Ecologically Sound Procedural Generation of Natural Environments

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Benny Onrust

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Current techniques for the creation and exploration of virtual worlds are largely unable to generate sound natural environments from ecological data and to provide interactive web-based visualizations of such detailed environments. We tackle this challenge and propose a novel framework that (i explores the advantages of landscape maps and ecological statistical data, translating them to an ecologically sound plant distribution, and (ii creates a visually convincing 3D representation of the natural environment suitable for its interactive visualization over the web. Our vegetation model improves techniques from procedural ecosystem generation and neutral landscape modeling. It is able to generate diverse ecological sound plant distributions directly from landscape maps with statistical ecological data. Our visualization model integrates existing level of detail and illumination techniques to achieve interactive frame rates and improve realism. We validated with ecology experts the outcome of our framework using two case studies and concluded that it provides convincing interactive visualizations of large natural environments.

Testing the ecological site group concept

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The 2016 “Ecological Sites for Landscape Management” special issue of Rangelands recommended an update to our thinking of Ecological Sites, suggesting that in our desire to make Ecological Sites more quantitative, we abandoned consideration of Ecological Sites’ spatial context. In response, Ecologic...

Forest landscape analysis and design: a process for developing and implementing land management objectives for landscape patterns.

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Nancy Diaz; Dean. Apostol

1992-01-01

This publication presents a Landscape Design and Analysis Process, along with some simple methods and tools for describing landscapes and their function. The information is qualitative in nature and highlights basic concepts, but does not address landscape ecology in great depth. Readers are encouraged to consult the list of selected references in Chapter 2 if they...

A Landscape Indicator Approach to the Identification and Articulation of the Ecological Consequences of Land Cover Change in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, 1970-2000

Science.gov (United States)

Slonecker, Terrence

2008-01-01

The advancement of geographic science in the area of land surface status and trends and land cover change is at the core of the current geographic scientific research of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (McMahon and others, 2005). Perhaps the least developed or articulated aspects of USGS land change science have been the identification and analysis of the ecological consequences of land cover change. Changes in land use and land cover significantly affect the ability of ecosystems to provide essential ecological goods and services, which, in turn, affect the economic, public health, and social benefits that these ecosystems provide. One of the great scientific challenges for geographic science is to understand and calibrate the effects of land use and land cover change and the complex interaction between human and biotic systems at a variety of natural, geographic, and political scales. Understanding the dynamics of land surface change requires an increased understanding of the complex nature of human-environmental systems and will require a suite of scientific tools that include traditional geographic data and analysis methods, such as remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS), as well as innovative approaches to understanding the dynamics of complex systems. One such approach that has gained much recent scientific attention is the landscape indicator, or landscape assessment, approach, which has been developed with the emergence of the science of landscape ecology.

Forest-edge utilization by carnivores in relation to local and landscape habitat characteristics in central European farmland

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Šálek, Martin; Červinka, J.; Pavluvčík, P.; Poláková, S.; Tkadlec, Emil

2014-01-01

Roč. 79, č. 3 (2014), s. 176-182 ISSN 1616-5047 Institutional support: RVO:68081766 Keywords : Carnivores * Farmland * Forest-edge utilization * Landscape characteristics * Local characteristics Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour Impact factor: 1.478, year: 2014

Landscape Sustainability in a Sonoran Desert City

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chris A. Martin

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to discuss concepts of landscape sustainability in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Phoenix is situated in the greater Salt River Valley of the lower Sonoran Desert in the southwest United States. In this paper I use the ecological frameworks of ecosystem services and resiliency as a metric for understanding landscape sustainability. An assessment of landscape sustainability performance benchmarks were made by surveying research findings of scientists affiliated with the Central Arizona Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research Project (CAP LTER. In Phoenix, present day emphases on cultural, aesthetic, and habitat formation ecosystem services within an arid ecoregion of low natural resilience coupled to a complex matrix of socioeconomic stratification, excessive landscape water use and pruning practices has had the undesired effect of degrading landscape sustainability. This has been measured as mixed patterns of plant diversity and human-altered patterns of carbon regulation, microclimate control, and trophic dynamics. In the future, sustainable residential landscaping in desert cities such as Phoenix may be fostered through use of water-conserving irrigation technologies, oasis-style landscape design motifs, recycling of landscape green waste, and conservative plant pruning strategies.

Three-dimensional habitat structure and landscape genetics: a step forward in estimating functional connectivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Milanesi, P; Holderegger, R; Bollmann, K; Gugerli, F; Zellweger, F

2017-02-01

Estimating connectivity among fragmented habitat patches is crucial for evaluating the functionality of ecological networks. However, current estimates of landscape resistance to animal movement and dispersal lack landscape-level data on local habitat structure. Here, we used a landscape genetics approach to show that high-fidelity habitat structure maps derived from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data critically improve functional connectivity estimates compared to conventional land cover data. We related pairwise genetic distances of 128 Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) genotypes to least-cost path distances at multiple scales derived from land cover data. Resulting β values of linear mixed effects models ranged from 0.372 to 0.495, while those derived from LiDAR ranged from 0.558 to 0.758. The identification and conservation of functional ecological networks suffering from habitat fragmentation and homogenization will thus benefit from the growing availability of detailed and contiguous data on three-dimensional habitat structure and associated habitat quality. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

Understanding the Factors that Influence Perceptions of Post-Wildfire Landscape Recovery Across 25 Wildfires in the Northwestern United States

Science.gov (United States)

Kooistra, C.; Hall, T. E.; Paveglio, T.; Pickering, M.

2018-01-01

Disturbances such as wildfire are important features of forested landscapes. The trajectory of changes following wildfires (often referred to as landscape recovery) continues to be an important research topic among ecologists and wildfire scientists. However, the landscape recovery process also has important social dimensions that may or may not correspond to ecological or biophysical perspectives. Perceptions of landscape recovery may affect people's attitudes and behaviors related to forest and wildfire management. We explored the variables that influence people's perceptions of landscape recovery across 25 fires that occurred in 2011 or 2012 in the United States of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana and that represented a range of fire behavior characteristics and landscape impacts. Residents near each of the 25 fires were randomly selected to receive questionnaires about their experiences with the nearby fire, including perceived impacts and how the landscape had recovered since the fire. People generally perceived landscapes as recovering, even though only one to two years had passed. Regression analysis suggested that perceptions of landscape recovery were positively related to stronger beliefs about the ecological role of fire and negatively related to loss of landscape attachment, concern about erosion, increasing distance from the fire perimeter, and longer lasting fires. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analysis indicated that the above relationships were largely consistent across fires. These findings highlight that perceptions of post-fire landscape recovery are influenced by more than vegetation changes and include emotional and cognitive factors. We discuss the management implications of these findings.

Simulating Spatial-Temporal Changes of Land-Use Based on Ecological Redline Restrictions and Landscape Driving Factors: A Case Study in Beijing

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Zimu Jia

2018-04-01

Full Text Available A change in the usage of land is influenced by a variety of driving factors and policies on spatial constraints. On the basis of considering the conventional natural and socio-economic indicators, the landscape pattern indicators were considered as new driving forces in the conversion of land use and its effects at small regional extent (CLUE-S model to simulate spatial and temporal changes of land-use in Beijing. Compared with traditional spatial restrictions characterized by small and isolated areas, such as forest parks and natural reserves, the ecological redline areas increase the spatial integrity and connectivity of ecological and environmental functions at a regional scale, which were used to analyze the distribution patterns and behaviors of land use conversion in the CLUE-S model. The observed results indicate that each simulation scenario has a Kappa coefficient of more than 0.76 beyond the threshold value of 0.6 and represents high agreements between the actual and simulated land use maps. The simulation scenarios including landscape pattern indicators are more accurate than those without consideration of these new driving forces. The simulation results from using ecological redline areas as space constraints have the highest precision compared with the unrestricted and traditionally restricted scenarios. Therefore, the CLUE-S model based on the restriction of ecological redline and the consideration of landscape pattern factors has shown better effectiveness in simulating the future land use change. The conversion of land use types mainly occurred between construction land and cropland during the period from 2010 to 2020. Meanwhile, a large number of grasslands are being changed to construction lands in the mountain towns of northwest Beijing and large quantities of water bodies have disappeared and been replaced by construction lands due to rapid urbanization in the eastern and southern plains. To improve the sustainable use of

The effects of landscape fragmentation on pollination dynamics: absence of evidence not evidence of absence.

Science.gov (United States)

Hadley, Adam S; Betts, Matthew G

2012-08-01

Animal-mediated pollination is essential for both ecosystem services and conservation of global biodiversity, but a growing body of work reveals that it is negatively affected by anthropogenic disturbance. Landscape-scale disturbance results in two often inter-related processes: (1) habitat loss, (2) disruptions of habitat configuration (i.e. fragmentation). Understanding the relative effects of such processes is critical in designing effective management strategies to limit pollination and pollinator decline. We reviewed existing published work from 1989 to 2009 and found that only six of 303 studies considering the influence of landscape context on pollination separated the effects of habitat loss from fragmentation. We provide a synthesis of the current landscape, behavioural, and pollination ecology literature in order to present preliminary multiple working hypotheses explaining how these two landscape processes might independently influence pollination dynamics. Landscape disturbance primarily influences three components of pollination interactions: pollinator density, movement, and plant demography. We argue that effects of habitat loss on each of these components are likely to differ substantially from the effects of fragmentation, which is likely to be more complex and may influence each pollination component in contrasting ways. The interdependency between plants and animals inherent to pollination systems also has the possibility to drive cumulative effects of fragmentation, initiating negative feedback loops between animals and the plants they pollinate. Alternatively, due to their asymmetrical structure, pollination networks may be relatively robust to fragmentation. Despite the potential importance of independent effects of habitat fragmentation, its effects on pollination remain largely untested. We postulate that variation across studies in the effects of 'fragmentation' owes much to artifacts of the sampling regimes adopted, particularly (1

Landscape ecology: a concept for protecting park resources

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Craig D.; Lissoway, John; Yarborough, Keith

1990-01-01

The Southwest Region has been supporting Resource Basic Inventory (RBI) efforts to establish baseline data for comparisons with long-term monitoring results to be conducted in the future. This “pulse taking” is a part of the Servicewide initiative being fostered so that resource managers, scientists, and park managers will be able to track the health of park resources by determining changes and trends. The RBI work is being linked with the development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at Bandelier, Big Thicket, Big Bend, Padre Island, and Guadalupe Mountains. Many of the parks in the southwest Region have only partially completed RBIs. This informational shortcoming is a pervasive threat to the parks because without detailed knowledge of the parks’ respective resources the Service cannot protect them adequately. To overcome this deficiency, the SWRO’s Division of Natural Resources Management and Science has fostered at Bandelier a pilot research effort, which started in FY ’87 and utilizes a landscape ecology paradigm. This concept links the RBI, GIS, and research activities in a park to present an overall picture of the park in its regional ecosystem setting. The flowchart diagrams this project’s concept. The results have been encouraging. A final report was recently completed (Allen 1989). This concept may now be applied to other Southwest Region parks.

Condensed landscape experience

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Earon, Ofri

2011-01-01

demands, quality of space, mixture of functions, urban complexity, public life and cultural heritage. In order to launch such an approach, an understanding of the spatial, social and environmental significance of a radical re-thinking of relationships between architecture and landscape is necessary...... is becoming a standard in contemporary architecture. Merging architecture and landscape has turned into a principle for an ecological / sustainable architecture. Yet, my aspiration is to achieve a wider interaction involving an application of a wider range of perspectives, such as: urban identity, social......‘Re-thinking interaction between landscape and urban buildings’ participates in an interdisciplinary discourse about the theoretical and practical advantages of openly juxtaposing landscape and architecture without having one more advanced in importance. Recently, the greenification of buildings...

Exploring an Ecologically Sustainable Scheme for Landscape Restoration of Abandoned Mine Land: Scenario-Based Simulation Integrated Linear Programming and CLUE-S Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Liping; Zhang, Shiwen; Huang, Yajie; Cao, Meng; Huang, Yuanfang; Zhang, Hongyan

2016-03-24

Understanding abandoned mine land (AML) changes during land reclamation is crucial for reusing damaged land resources and formulating sound ecological restoration policies. This study combines the linear programming (LP) model and the CLUE-S model to simulate land-use dynamics in the Mentougou District (Beijing, China) from 2007 to 2020 under three reclamation scenarios, that is, the planning scenario based on the general land-use plan in study area (scenario 1), maximal comprehensive benefits (scenario 2), and maximal ecosystem service value (scenario 3). Nine landscape-scale graph metrics were then selected to describe the landscape characteristics. The results show that the coupled model presented can simulate the dynamics of AML effectively and the spatially explicit transformations of AML were different. New cultivated land dominates in scenario 1, while construction land and forest land account for major percentages in scenarios 2 and 3, respectively. Scenario 3 has an advantage in most of the selected indices as the patches combined most closely. To conclude, reclaiming AML by transformation into more forest can reduce the variability and maintain the stability of the landscape ecological system in study area. These findings contribute to better mapping AML dynamics and providing policy support for the management of AML.

Landscape-scale forest disturbance regimes in southern Peruvian Amazonia.

Science.gov (United States)

Boyd, Doreen S; Hill, Ross A; Hopkinson, Chris; Baker, Timothy R

2013-10-01

Landscape-scale gap-size frequency distributions in tropical forests are a poorly studied but key ecological variable. Currently, a scale gap currently exists between local-scale field-based studies and those employing regional-scale medium-resolution satellite data. Data at landscape scales but of fine resolution would, however, facilitate investigation into a range of ecological questions relating to gap dynamics. These include whether canopy disturbances captured in permanent sample plots (PSPs) are representative of those in their surrounding landscape, and whether disturbance regimes vary with forest type. Here, therefore, we employ airborne LiDAR data captured over 142.5 km2 of mature, swamp, and regenerating forests in southeast Peru to assess the landscape-scale disturbance at a sampling resolution of up to 2 m. We find that this landscape is characterized by large numbers of small gaps; large disturbance events are insignificant and infrequent. Of the total number of gaps that are 2 m2 or larger in area, just 0.45% were larger than 100 m2, with a power-law exponent (alpha) value of the gap-size frequency distribution of 2.22. However, differences in disturbance regimes are seen among different forest types, with a significant difference in the alpha value of the gap-size frequency distribution observed for the swamp/regenerating forests compared with the mature forests at higher elevations. Although a relatively small area of the total forest of this region was investigated here, this study presents an unprecedented assessment of this landscape with respect to its gap dynamics. This is particularly pertinent given the range of forest types present in the landscape and the differences observed. The coupling of detailed insights into forest properties and growth provided by PSPs with the broader statistics of disturbance events using remote sensing is recommended as a strong basis for scaling-up estimates of landscape and regional-scale carbon balance.

Ecological thresholds in the savanna landscape: developing a protocol for monitoring the change in composition and utilisation of large trees.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dave J Druce

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Acquiring greater understanding of the factors causing changes in vegetation structure -- particularly with the potential to cause regime shifts -- is important in adaptively managed conservation areas. Large trees (> or =5 m in height play an important ecosystem function, and are associated with a stable ecological state in the African savanna. There is concern that large tree densities are declining in a number of protected areas, including the Kruger National Park, South Africa. In this paper the results of a field study designed to monitor change in a savanna system are presented and discussed. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Developing the first phase of a monitoring protocol to measure the change in tree species composition, density and size distribution, whilst also identifying factors driving change. A central issue is the discrete spatial distribution of large trees in the landscape, making point sampling approaches relatively ineffective. Accordingly, fourteen 10 m wide transects were aligned perpendicular to large rivers (3.0-6.6 km in length and eight transects were located at fixed-point photographic locations (1.0-1.6 km in length. Using accumulation curves, we established that the majority of tree species were sampled within 3 km. Furthermore, the key ecological drivers (e.g. fire, herbivory, drought and disease which influence large tree use and impact were also recorded within 3 km. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The technique presented provides an effective method for monitoring changes in large tree abundance, size distribution and use by the main ecological drivers across the savanna landscape. However, the monitoring of rare tree species would require individual marking approaches due to their low densities and specific habitat requirements. Repeat sampling intervals would vary depending on the factor of concern and proposed management mitigation. Once a monitoring protocol has been identified and evaluated, the next

Rove beetles (Coleoptera Staphylilnidae) in neotropical riverine landscapes: characterising their distribution.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gutierrez Chacon, C.; Del Carmen Zuniga, M.; van Bodegom, P.M.; Chara, J.; Giraldo, L.M.

2009-01-01

1. The diversity and ecology of Staphylinidae in the Neotropical region has been poorly investigated, especially in riverine landscapes where these beetles are among the dominant organisms. Therefore, the relation between the occurrence of Staphylinidae and environmental variables was investigated

Sustainable Land-Use Planning to Improve the Coastal Resilience of the Social-Ecological Landscape

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Min Kim

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The dynamics of land-use transitions decrease the coastal resilience of the social-ecological landscape (SEL, particularly in light of the fact that it is necessary to analyze the causal relationship between the two systems because operations of the social system and the ecological system are correlated. The purpose of this study is to analyze the dynamics of the coastal SEL and create a sustainable land-use planning (SLUP strategy to enhance coastal resilience. The selected study site was Shindu-ri, South Korea, where land-use transitions are increasing and coastal resilience is therefore decreasing. Systems thinking was used to analyze the study, which was performed in four steps. First, the issues affecting the coastal area in Shindu-ri were defined as coastal landscape management, the agricultural structure, and the tourism industry structure. Second, the main variables for each issue were defined, and causal relationships between the main variables were created. Third, a holistic causal loop diagram was built based on both dynamic thinking and causal thinking. Fourth, five land-uses, including those of the coastal forest, the coastal grassland, the coastal dune, the agricultural area, and developed sites, were selected as leverage points for developing SLUP strategies to increase coastal resilience. The results show that “decrease in the size of the coastal forest”, “decrease in the size of the coastal dune”, and “increase in the size of the coastal grasslands” were considered parts of a land-use plan to enhance the resilience of the Shindu-ri SEL. This study developed integrated coastal land-use planning strategies that may provide effective solutions for complex and dynamic issues in the coastal SEL. Additionally, the results may be utilized as basic data to build and implement coastal land-use planning strategies.

Incorporating the Spatial Road Disturbance Index (SPROADI in Ecological Impacts Assessment of Roads at Landscape Scale (Case study: Eastern Part of Isfahan Province

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sh. Nematollahi

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Development of roads can have deleterious effects on natural habitats containing species of conservation concern. Fragmentation of habitat into small, non-contiguous patches may result in dramatic population declines. Thus appropriate studies quantifying ecological impacts of roads at landscape scale are essential. In this study, the Spatial Road Disturbance Index (SPROADI was applied for the ecological impact assessment of the roads network in Eastern part of Isfahan Province, including Abassabad wildlife refuge and Siahkouh National park, which are among the most important habitats for Asiatic Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus classified as Critically Endangered (CR on the IUCN Red List. This new landscape index uses three sub-indices including traffic intensity, vicinity impact and fragmentation grade to calculate the ecological impacts of roads network. Results obtained through quantifying the Spatial Road Disturbance Index showed that the degree of disturbance by roads network is between 0 and 54.53. Our results also revealed that 12 percent of Abassabad wildlife refuge and wide range of suitable habitats for Asiatic Cheetah were affected by roads network, which presents a conservation concern for this critically endangered species.

Landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns and processes - eight hypotheses

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tscharntke, T.; Tylianakis, J.M.; Rand, T.A.; Didham, R.K.; Fahrig, L.; Batary, P.; Bengtsson, J.; Clough, Y.; Crist, T.O.; Dormann, C.; Ewers, R.M.; Frund, J.; Holt, R.D.; Holzschuh, A.; Klein, A.M.; Kleijn, D.; Kremen, C.; Landis, D.A.; Laurance, W.F.; Lindenmayer, D.B.; Scherber, C.; Sodhi, N.; Steffan-Dewenter, I.; Thies, C.; Putten, van der W.H.; Westphal, C.

2012-01-01

Understanding how landscape characteristics affect biodiversity patterns and ecological processes at local and landscape scales is critical for mitigating effects of global environmental change. In this review, we use knowledge gained from human-modified landscapes to suggest eight hypotheses, which

Aspects of Landscape and Pollinators—What is Important to Bee Conservation?

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Gleiciani B. Patrício-Roberto

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Pollinators, especially bees, are essential to terrestrial ecosystems. They ensure the maintenance of certain ecological processes, like superior plants’ reproduction. In the past decades, agricultural intensification has caused extensive environmental changes, with major impacts on biodiversity, especially on the pollinators, which reflects the loss of fruits and seeds sets. Here, we review studies that elucidate the causes of decline of pollinators, consequences of landscape changes to agriculture and possibilities to bees’ conservation. Many studies have related the loss of pollinators to changes in the landscape, such as the conversion of native forests into cultivated areas, which causes loss of important elements for bees (e.g., sources of pollen, nectar and oil, as well as varied nesting sites. Studies involving landscape ecology allow us to assess the effects of different farming practices over the richness and abundance of pollinators. Among the landscape elements performing positive influence on bees, the presence of remaining forests nearby cultivated areas proved to be a very important factor. Nevertheless, studies that evaluate all ground cover with a more integrated approach are still required to assess the effects of landscape context on the diversity and on the abundance of bees related to productivity of crops. Researches like these could provide specific data that strengthen the need for the conservation of different plants and animals, and could offer subsidies to propose necessary information for the execution of public and private policies, aimed at the conservation of the biodiversity.

Simulating natural selection in landscape genetics

Science.gov (United States)

E. L. Landguth; S. A. Cushman; N. Johnson

2012-01-01

Linking landscape effects to key evolutionary processes through individual organism movement and natural selection is essential to provide a foundation for evolutionary landscape genetics. Of particular importance is determining how spatially- explicit, individual-based models differ from classic population genetics and evolutionary ecology models based on ideal...

Between Smallholder Traditions and “Ecological Modernisation” – Agricultural Transformation, Landscape Change and the Cap in Austria 1995–2015

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Kurz Peter

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The paper explores transformations in agriculture during the period 1995–2015 and shows their impact on rural landscapes in the case of Austria. When Austria joined the European Union in 1995, this meant a minor gash in agricultural politics, from broad support of smallholder agriculture to a programme of modernisation and rationalisation. Austrian politicians defined this shift as a process of “ecological modernisation” (Fischler et al. 1994, incorporating agri-environmental schemes as instruments and modifying existing programmes of direct payments. The survey forms the groundwork for a discussion on landscape effects of the CAP as an “ecological” modernisation programme and possible impact of the CAP-reform 2020.

[Land layout for lake tourism based on ecological restraint].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jian-Ying; Li, Jiang-Feng; Zou, Li-Lin; Liu, Shi-Bin

2012-10-01

To avoid the decrease and deterioration of lake wetlands and the other ecological issues such as lake water pollution that were caused by the unreasonable exploration of lake tourism, a land layout for the tourism development of Liangzi Lake with the priority of ecological security pattern was proposed, based on the minimal cumulative resistance model and by using GIS technology. The study area was divided into four ecological function zones, i. e., core protection zone, ecological buffer zone, ecotone zone, and human activity zone. The core protection zone was the landscape region of ecological source. In the protection zone, new tourism land was forbidden to be increased, and some of the existing fundamental tourism facilities should be removed while some of them should be upgraded. The ecological buffer zone was the landscape region with resistance value ranged from 0 to 4562. In the buffer zone, expansion of tourism land should be forbidden, the existing tourism land should be downsized, and human activities should be isolated from ecological source by converting the human environment to the natural environment as far as possible. The ecotone zone was the landscape region with resistance value ranged from 4562 to 30797. In this zone, the existing tourism land was distributed in patches, tourism land could be expanded properly, and the lake forestry ecological tourism should be developed widely. The human activity zone was the landscape region with resistance value ranged from 30797 to 97334, which would be the key area for the land layout of lake tourism. It was suggested that the land layout for tourism with the priority of landscape ecological security pattern would be the best choice for the lake sustainable development.

Birds in Anthropogenic Landscapes: The Responses of Ecological Groups to Forest Loss in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Carlos Morante-Filho

Full Text Available Habitat loss is the dominant threat to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in terrestrial environments. In this study, we used an a priori classification of bird species based on their dependence on native forest habitats (forest-specialist and habitat generalists and specific food resources (frugivores and insectivores to evaluate their responses to forest cover reduction in landscapes in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. From the patch-landscapes approach, we delimited 40 forest sites, and quantified the percentage of native forest within a 2 km radius around the center of each site (from 6 - 85%. At each site, we sampled birds using the point-count method. We used a null model, a generalized linear model and a four-parameter logistic model to evaluate the relationship between richness and abundance of the bird groups and the native forest amount. A piecewise model was then used to determine the threshold value for bird groups that showed nonlinear responses. The richness and abundance of the bird community as a whole were not affected by changes in forest cover in this region. However, a decrease in forest cover had a negative effect on diversity of forest-specialist, frugivorous and insectivorous birds, and a positive effect on generalist birds. The species richness and abundance of all ecological groups were nonlinearly related to forest reduction and showed similar threshold values, i.e., there were abrupt changes in individuals and species numbers when forest amount was less than approximately 50%. Forest sites within landscapes with forest cover that was less than 50% contained a different bird species composition than more extensively forested sites and had fewer forest-specialist species and higher beta-diversity. Our study demonstrated the pervasive effect of forest reduction on bird communities in one of the most important hotspots for bird conservation and shows that many vulnerable species require extensive forest cover to persist.

Birds in Anthropogenic Landscapes: The Responses of Ecological Groups to Forest Loss in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

Science.gov (United States)

Morante-Filho, José Carlos; Faria, Deborah; Mariano-Neto, Eduardo; Rhodes, Jonathan

2015-01-01

Habitat loss is the dominant threat to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in terrestrial environments. In this study, we used an a priori classification of bird species based on their dependence on native forest habitats (forest-specialist and habitat generalists) and specific food resources (frugivores and insectivores) to evaluate their responses to forest cover reduction in landscapes in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. From the patch-landscapes approach, we delimited 40 forest sites, and quantified the percentage of native forest within a 2 km radius around the center of each site (from 6 - 85%). At each site, we sampled birds using the point-count method. We used a null model, a generalized linear model and a four-parameter logistic model to evaluate the relationship between richness and abundance of the bird groups and the native forest amount. A piecewise model was then used to determine the threshold value for bird groups that showed nonlinear responses. The richness and abundance of the bird community as a whole were not affected by changes in forest cover in this region. However, a decrease in forest cover had a negative effect on diversity of forest-specialist, frugivorous and insectivorous birds, and a positive effect on generalist birds. The species richness and abundance of all ecological groups were nonlinearly related to forest reduction and showed similar threshold values, i.e., there were abrupt changes in individuals and species numbers when forest amount was less than approximately 50%. Forest sites within landscapes with forest cover that was less than 50% contained a different bird species composition than more extensively forested sites and had fewer forest-specialist species and higher beta-diversity. Our study demonstrated the pervasive effect of forest reduction on bird communities in one of the most important hotspots for bird conservation and shows that many vulnerable species require extensive forest cover to persist.

[Impacts of farmland consolidation on farmland landscape].

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Jinsong; Wang, Ke; Li, Jun; Xu, Junfeng; Shen, Zhangquan; Gao, Yurong

2006-01-01

Farmland consolidation is the act of regulating, improving, and comprehensively renovating the structure, quality, and layout of field, water, road, forestry, and village in the countryside in a certain area by means of administration, economy, law, and engineering techniques according to the goal and usage defined by land use planning, so as to improve farmland use rate and its output rate, to increase farmland area, and to achieve better productive, living, and ecological environment. Recently, farmland consolidation has been carried out all over the country, especially in its economy-developed regions. But, unscientific planning and unsuitable farmland consolidation engineering have negative effects on field ecological system. In this paper, based on the technology of GIS and RS, the basic theories and methods of landscape ecology and a compositive grading method were applied to analysis the dynamics of farmland landscape fragmentation in Tongxiang county. The results showed that the farmland landscape fragmentation in this county was strongly affected by consolidation. More attention should be paid to the protection of farmland landscape during consolidation, and to avoid or decrease the negative effects resulted from unscientific planning and unsuitable farmland consolidation engineering.

Exploring ecosystem-change and society through a landscape lens

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Plieninger, Tobias; Kizos, Thanasis; Bieling, Claudia

2015-01-01

Landscapes are closely linked to human well-being, but they are undergoing rapid and fundamental change. Understanding the societal transformation underlying these landscape changes, as well as the ecological and societal outcomes of landscape transformations across scales are prime areas for lan...

From State-controlled to Polycentric Governance in Forest Landscape Restoration: The Case of the Ecological Forest Purchase Program in Yong'an Municipality of China.

Science.gov (United States)

Long, Hexing; Liu, Jinlong; Tu, Chengyue; Fu, Yimin

2018-07-01

Forest landscape restoration is emerging as an effective approach to restore degraded forests for the provision of ecosystem services and to minimize trade-offs between conservation and rural livelihoods. Policy and institutional innovations in China illustrate the governance transformation of forest landscape restoration from state-controlled to polycentric governance. Based on a case study of the Ecological Forest Purchase Program in Yong'an municipality, China's Fujian Province, this paper explores how such forest governance transformation has evolved and how it has shaped the outcomes of forest landscape restoration in terms of multi-dimensionality and actor configurations. Our analysis indicates that accommodating the participation of multiple actors and market-based instruments facilitate a smoother transition from state-centered to polycentric governance in forest landscape restoration. Governance transitions for forest landscape restoration must overcome a number of challenges including ensurance of a formal participation forum, fair participation, and a sustainable legislative and financial system to enhance long-term effectiveness.

Determining landscape extent for succession and disturbance simulation modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Eva C. Karau; Robert E. Keane

2007-01-01

Dividing regions into manageable landscape units presents special problems in landscape ecology and land management. Ideally, a landscape should be large enough to capture a broad range of vegetation, environmental and disturbance dynamics, but small enough to be useful for focused management objectives. The purpose of this study was to determine the optimal landscape...

Riverscape genetics identifies replicated ecological divergence across an Amazonian ecotone.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooke, Georgina M; Landguth, Erin L; Beheregaray, Luciano B

2014-07-01

Ecological speciation involves the evolution of reproductive isolation and niche divergence in the absence of a physical barrier to gene flow. The process is one of the most controversial topics of the speciation debate, particularly in tropical regions. Here, we investigate ecologically based divergence across an Amazonian ecotone in the electric fish, Steatogenys elegans. We combine phylogenetics, genome scans, and population genetics with a recently developed individual-based evolutionary landscape genetics approach that incorporates selection. This framework is used to assess the relative contributions of geography and divergent natural selection between environments as biodiversity drivers. We report on two closely related and sympatric lineages that exemplify how divergent selection across a major Amazonian aquatic ecotone (i.e., between rivers with markedly different hydrochemical properties) may result in replicated ecologically mediated speciation. The results link selection across an ecological gradient with reproductive isolation and we propose that assortative mating based on water color may be driving the divergence. Divergence resulting from ecologically driven selection highlights the importance of considering environmental heterogeneity in studies of speciation in tropical regions. Furthermore, we show that framing ecological speciation in a spatially explicit evolutionary landscape genetics framework provides an important first step in exploring a wide range of the potential effects of spatial dependence in natural selection. © 2014 The Author(s). Evolution © 2014 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Unpaid ecological costs related to emissions in the air

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moreau, Sylvain; Bottin, Anne; Nauroy, Frederic; Boitard, Corinne; Bird, Geoffrey; David, Michel; Greffet, Pierre; Mordant, Guillaume; Moreau, Sylvain; Nirascou, Francoise; Le Moullec, Aurelie; Berthier, Jean-Pierre; Hassan, Marie-Elizabeth; Curri-Lemaitre, Elen; Lagarenne, Christine; Devaux, Jeremy; Nicklaus, Doris; Puydarrieux, Philippe; Vanoli, Andre; Schucht, Simone

2014-05-01

This study proposes an analysis of unpaid ecological terms based on the use of new economic indicators related to sustainable development (going beyond the GDP, adjusted accounting aggregates, accounting unpaid ecological costs), an analysis of unpaid ecological costs related to climate change (context, used results and data, definitions of trajectories associated with greenhouse gas emissions, cost to be applied to emissions to get rid of, assessment of unpaid ecological costs), and an analysis of unpaid ecological costs related to air pollution (objectives, standard to be adopted, towards more ambitious emission reduction and re-assessed costs, unpaid ecological costs in 2010)

Urban Landscapes and Sustainable Cities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erik Andersson

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Ecological research targeting sustainable urban landscapes needs to include findings and methods from many lines of ecological research, such as the link between biodiversity and ecosystem function, the role of humans in ecosystems, landscape connectivity, and resilience. This paper reviews and highlights the importance of these issues for sustainable use of ecosystem services, which is argued to be one aspect of sustainable cities. The paper stresses the need to include social and economic factors when analyzing urban landscapes. Spatially explicit data can be used to assess the roles different green areas have in providing people with ecosystem services, and whether people actually have access to the services. Such data can also be used to assess connectivity and heterogeneity, both argued to be central for continuous, long-term provision of these services, and to determine the role urban form has for sustainability.

Defining the landscape of adaptive genetic diversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Eckert, Andrew J; Dyer, Rodney J

2012-06-01

Whether they are used to describe fitness, genome architecture or the spatial distribution of environmental variables, the concept of a landscape has figured prominently in our collective reasoning. The tradition of landscapes in evolutionary biology is one of fitness mapped onto axes defined by phenotypes or molecular sequence states. The characteristics of these landscapes depend on natural selection, which is structured across both genomic and environmental landscapes, and thus, the bridge among differing uses of the landscape concept (i.e. metaphorically or literally) is that of an adaptive phenotype and its distribution across geographical landscapes in relation to selective pressures. One of the ultimate goals of evolutionary biology should thus be to construct fitness landscapes in geographical space. Natural plant populations are ideal systems with which to explore the feasibility of attaining this goal, because much is known about the quantitative genetic architecture of complex traits for many different plant species. What is less known are the molecular components of this architecture. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Parchman et al. (2012) pioneer one of the first truly genome-wide association studies in a tree that moves us closer to this form of mechanistic understanding for an adaptive phenotype in natural populations of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud.). © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Genetic and ecological outcomes of Inga vera subsp. affinis (Leguminosae) tree plantations in a fragmented tropical landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Cruz Neto, Oswaldo; Aguiar, Antonio V; Twyford, Alex D; Neaves, Linda E; Pennington, R Toby; Lopes, Ariadna V

2014-01-01

Planting of native trees for habitat restoration is a widespread practice, but the consequences for the retention and transmission of genetic diversity in planted and natural populations are unclear. Using Inga vera subsp. affinis as a model species, we genotyped five natural and five planted populations in the Atlantic forest of northeastern Brazil at polymorphic microsatellite loci. We studied the breeding system and population structure to test how much genetic diversity is retained in planted relative to natural populations. We then genotyped seedlings from these populations to test whether genetic diversity in planted populations is restored by outcrossing to natural populations of I. vera. The breeding system of natural I. vera populations was confirmed to be highly outcrossing (t = 0.92; FIS = -0.061, P = 0.04), with populations showing weak population substructure (FST = 0.028). Genetic diversity in planted populations was 50% less than that of natural populations (planted: AR = 14.9, HO = 0.865 and natural: AR = 30.8, HO = 0.655). However, seedlings from planted populations showed a 30% higher allelic richness relative to their parents (seedlings AR = 10.5, parents AR = 7.6). Understanding the processes and interactions that shape this system are necessary to provide ecologically sensible goals and successfully restore hyper-fragmented habitats. Future restoration plans for I. vera must consider the genetic diversity of planted populations and the potential for gene flow between natural populations in the landscape, in order to preserve ecological interactions (i.e. pollination), and promote opportunities for outcrossing.

Monitoring Forest Change in Landscapes Under-Going Rapid Energy Development: Challenges and New Perspectives

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Paul D. Pickell

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The accelerated development of energy resources around the world has substantially increased forest change related to oil and gas activities. In some cases, oil and gas activities are the primary catalyst of land-use change in forested landscapes. We discuss the challenges associated with characterizing ecological change related to energy resource development using North America as an exemplar. We synthesize the major impacts of energy development to forested ecosystems and offer new perspectives on how to detect and monitor anthropogenic disturbance during the Anthropocene. The disturbance of North American forests for energy development has resulted in persistent linear corridors, suppression of historical disturbance regimes, novel ecosystems, and the eradication of ecological memory. Characterizing anthropogenic disturbances using conventional patch-based disturbance measures will tend to underestimate the ecological impacts of energy development. Suitable indicators of anthropogenic impacts in forests should be derived from the integration of multi-scalar Earth observations. Relating these indicators to ecosystem condition will be a capstone in the progress toward monitoring forest change in landscapes undergoing rapid energy development.

Urban Landscape Architecture in the Reshaping of the Contemporary Cityscape

Science.gov (United States)

Ananiadou-Tzimopoulou, Maria; Bourlidou, Anastasia

2017-10-01

The contemporary urban landscape is the evolving image of dynamic social, economic and ecological changes and heterogeneity. It constitutes the mirror of history, natural and cultural, urban processes, as well as locations of hybrid character, such as degraded and fragmented spaces within the urban fabric or in the city boundaries -areas in between, infrastructures, post-industrial and waterfront sites, but also potential grounds for urban development. Along with the awakening of the global ecological awareness and the ongoing discussion on sustainability issues, the cityscape with its new attributes, constitutes a challenging field of research and planning for various disciplines, further more than landscape architecture, such as architecture, planning, ecology, environment and engineering. This paper focuses on the role of urban landscape architecture, via its theory and practice, in the reshaping of the city territory. It aspires to broaden the discussion concerning the upgrading of the contemporary cities, aiming firstly at the determination of a wider vocabulary for the urban landscape and its design, and secondly at the highlighting of landscape architecture’s contribution to the sustainable perspective of urban design and planning. The methodology is based on a comparative research implemented both on a theoretical level and on a level of applied work. Urban landscape architecture is described through theory and practice, along with correlative approaches deriving mainly from landscape urbanism and secondarily from the field of architecture. Urban landscape is approached as a socio-ecological and perceptual legible, a territory of culture, process and production; operating as an entity of ecological, infrastructural systems and planning needs, it is also regarded as a precedent for urban development. Furthermore, the research is supported by selected European and International urban landscape projects, presented in a cohesive multiscalar approach, from the

Potential 'ecological traps' of restored landscapes: koalas Phascolarctos cinereus re-occupy a rehabilitated mine site.

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Cristescu, Romane H; Banks, Peter B; Carrick, Frank N; Frère, Céline

2013-01-01

With progressively increasing anthropogenic habitat disturbances, restoration of impacted landscapes is becoming a critical element of biodiversity conservation. Evaluation of success in restoration ecology rarely includes faunal components, usually only encompassing abiotic and floral components of the ecosystems. Even when fauna is explicitly included, it is usually only species presence/absence criteria that are considered. If restoration is to have a positive outcome, however, populations in restored habitats should exhibit comparable survival and reproductive rates to populations found in undisturbed surroundings. If a species recolonises restored areas but later experiences decreased fitness, restored areas could become ecological sinks or traps. We investigated this possibility in a case study of koalas Phascolarctos cinereus occupying rehabilitated mining areas on North Stradbroke Island, Australia. Our holistic approach compared rehabilitated and undisturbed areas on the basis of their vegetation characteristics, of koalas' body condition, roosting trees, diet, as well as predator index. Koalas using rehabilitated areas appeared to be able to access an adequate supply of roosting and fodder trees, were in good condition and had high reproductive output. We did not find any significant differences in predator density between rehabilitated areas and undisturbed surroundings. The results presented in this study showed there was no evidence that the post-mining rehabilitated areas constitute ecological sinks or traps. However, to reach a definitive conclusion as to whether areas rehabilitated post-mining provide at least equivalent habitat to undisturbed locations, additional research could be undertaken to assess foliar nutrient/water/toxin differences and predation risk in rehabilitated areas compared with undisturbed areas. More generally, the evaluation of whether restoration successfully produces a functional ecological community should include criteria

Potential 'ecological traps' of restored landscapes: koalas Phascolarctos cinereus re-occupy a rehabilitated mine site.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Romane H Cristescu

Full Text Available With progressively increasing anthropogenic habitat disturbances, restoration of impacted landscapes is becoming a critical element of biodiversity conservation. Evaluation of success in restoration ecology rarely includes faunal components, usually only encompassing abiotic and floral components of the ecosystems. Even when fauna is explicitly included, it is usually only species presence/absence criteria that are considered. If restoration is to have a positive outcome, however, populations in restored habitats should exhibit comparable survival and reproductive rates to populations found in undisturbed surroundings. If a species recolonises restored areas but later experiences decreased fitness, restored areas could become ecological sinks or traps. We investigated this possibility in a case study of koalas Phascolarctos cinereus occupying rehabilitated mining areas on North Stradbroke Island, Australia. Our holistic approach compared rehabilitated and undisturbed areas on the basis of their vegetation characteristics, of koalas' body condition, roosting trees, diet, as well as predator index. Koalas using rehabilitated areas appeared to be able to access an adequate supply of roosting and fodder trees, were in good condition and had high reproductive output. We did not find any significant differences in predator density between rehabilitated areas and undisturbed surroundings. The results presented in this study showed there was no evidence that the post-mining rehabilitated areas constitute ecological sinks or traps. However, to reach a definitive conclusion as to whether areas rehabilitated post-mining provide at least equivalent habitat to undisturbed locations, additional research could be undertaken to assess foliar nutrient/water/toxin differences and predation risk in rehabilitated areas compared with undisturbed areas. More generally, the evaluation of whether restoration successfully produces a functional ecological community

How landscape scale changes affect ecological processes in conservation areas: external factors influence land use by zebra (Equus burchelli) in the Okavango Delta.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartlam-Brooks, Hattie L A; Bonyongo, Mpaphi C; Harris, Stephen

2013-09-01

Most large-bodied wildlife populations in sub-Saharan Africa only survive in conservation areas, but are continuing to decline because external changes influence ecological processes within reserves, leading to a lack of functionality. However, failure to understand how landscape scale changes influence ecological processes limits our ability to manage protected areas. We used GPS movement data to calculate dry season home ranges for 14 zebra mares in the Okavango Delta and investigated the effects of a range of landscape characteristics (number of habitat patches, mean patch shape, mean index of juxtaposition, and interspersion) on home range size. Resource utilization functions (RUF) were calculated to investigate how specific landscape characteristics affected space use. Space use by all zebra was clustered. In the wetter (Central) parts of the Delta home range size was negatively correlated with the density of habitat patches, more complex patch shapes, low juxtaposition of habitats and an increased availability of floodplain and grassland habitats. In the drier (Peripheral) parts of the Delta, higher use by zebra was also associated with a greater availability of floodplain and grassland habitats, but a lower density of patches and simpler patch shapes. The most important landscape characteristic was not consistent between zebra within the same area of the Delta, suggesting that no single foraging strategy is substantially superior to others, and so animals using different foraging strategies may all thrive. The distribution and complexity of habitat patches are crucial in determining space use by zebra. The extent and duration of seasonal flooding is the principal process affecting habitat patch characteristics in the Okavango Delta, particularly the availability of floodplains, which are the habitat at greatest risk from climate change and anthropogenic disturbance to the Okavango's catchment basin. Understanding how the factors that determine habitat

Aquaculture in artificially developed wetlands in urban areas: an application of the bivariate relationship between soil and surface water in landscape ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Paul, Abhijit

2011-01-01

Wetlands show a strong bivariate relationship between soil and surface water. Artificially developed wetlands help to build landscape ecology and make built environments sustainable. The bheries, wetlands of eastern Calcutta (India), utilize the city sewage to develop urban aquaculture that supports the local fish industries and opens a new frontier in sustainable environmental planning research.

Landscape anthropogenic disturbance in the Mediterranean ecosystem: is the current landscape sustainable?

Science.gov (United States)

Biondi, Guido; D'Andrea, Mirko; Fiorucci, Paolo; Franciosi, Chiara; Lima, Marco

2013-04-01

Mediterranean landscape during the last centuries has been subject to strong anthropogenic disturbances who shifted natural vegetation cover in a cultural landscape. Most of the natural forest were destroyed in order to allow cultivation and grazing activities. In the last century, fast growing conifer plantations were introduced in order to increase timber production replacing slow growing natural forests. In addition, after the Second World War most of the grazing areas were changed in unmanaged mediterranean conifer forest frequently spread by fires. In the last decades radical socio economic changes lead to a dramatic abandonment of the cultural landscape. One of the most relevant result of these human disturbances, and in particular the replacement of deciduous forests with coniferous forests, has been the increasing in the number of forest fires, mainly human caused. The presence of conifers and shrubs, more prone to fire, triggered a feedback mechanism that makes difficult to return to the stage of potential vegetation causing huge economic, social and environmental damages. The aim of this work is to investigate the sustainability of the current landscape. A future landscape scenario has been simulated considering the natural succession in absence of human intervention assuming the current fire regime will be unaltered. To this end, a new model has been defined, implementing an ecological succession model coupled with a simply Forest Fire Model. The ecological succession model simulates the vegetation dynamics using a rule-based approach discrete in space and time. In this model Plant Functional Types (PFTs) are used to describe the landscape. Wildfires are randomly ignited on the landscape, and their propagation is simulated using a stochastic cellular automata model. The results show that the success of the natural succession toward a potential vegetation cover is prevented by the frequency of fire spreading. The actual landscape is then unsustainable

Functional ecomorphology: Feedbacks between form and function in fluvial landscape ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Stuart G.; Heffernan, James B.; Sponseller, Ryan A.; Welter, Jill R.

2007-09-01

The relationship between form and function has been a central organizing principle in biology throughout its history as a formal science. This concept has been relevant from molecules to organisms but loses meaning at population and community levels where study targets are abstract collectives and assemblages. Ecosystems include organisms and abiotic factors but ecosystem ecology too has developed until recently without a strong spatially explicit reference. Landscape ecology provides an opportunity to once again anneal form and function and to consider reciprocal causation between them. This ecomorphologic view can be applied at a variety of ecologically relevant scales and consists of an investigation of how geomorphology provides a structural template that shapes, and is shaped by ecological processes. Running water ecosystems illustrate several principles governing the interaction of landscape form and ecological function subsumed by the concept of "Functional Ecomorphology". Particularly lucrative are ecosystem-level interactions between geologic form and biogeochemical processes integrated by hydrologic flowpaths. While the utility of a flowpath-based approach is most apparent in streams, spatially explicit biogeochemical processing pervades all landscapes and may be of general ecological application.

Analysis on Key Points of Construction and Management of Municipal Landscape Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Mingxia; Fei, Cheng

2018-02-01

At present, China has made great efforts to promote the construction of ecological civilization and promote the development of ecological protection and environmental construction. It has important practical significance to maintain the ecological balance and environmental quality of our country. Especially with the gradual improvement in people’s awareness of environmental protection, so that the green of the city also put forward higher requirements at the same time with the rising of the level of urbanization. In the process of urban landscape construction, the rational planning of urban landscaping involves a lot of subject knowledge. In the green process, we should fully consider the system of urban development and construction in China, based on the design of urban development and long-term planning of the landscaping project. In addition, we must also consider the traditional layout of the city area and the physical and geographical situation and so on, to enhance the objective and scientific nature of urban landscape. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to ensure the quality of landscaping in the effective management of municipal landscape engineering.

Integrating social, economic, and ecological values across large landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Jessica E. Halofsky; Megan K. Creutzburg; Miles A. Hemstrom

2014-01-01

The Integrated Landscape Assessment Project (ILAP) was a multiyear effort to produce information, maps, and models to help land managers, policymakers, and others conduct mid- to broad-scale (e.g., watersheds to states and larger areas) prioritization of land management actions, perform landscape assessments, and estimate cumulative effects of management actions for...

Appropriate complexity landscape modeling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Larsen, Laurel G.; Eppinga, Maarten B.; Passalacqua, Paola; Getz, Wayne M.; Rose, Kenneth A.; Liang, Man

Advances in computing technology, new and ongoing restoration initiatives, concerns about climate change's effects, and the increasing interdisciplinarity of research have encouraged the development of landscape-scale mechanistic models of coupled ecological-geophysical systems. However,

Geomorpho-Landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Farabollini, Piero; Lugeri, Francesca; Amadio, Vittorio

2014-05-01

value -referring to biodiversity, geodiversity, culture- which can be considered as a special heritage. Starting from the concept of Geomorphosite, a geomorphologic landform with a scientific, cultural and socio-economical value (Panizza 2001), we propose a further definition, useful in the preliminary steps of the landscape analysis: "geomorpho-landscape" as a spatial object or component of a geological landscape, whose geo-morphological evolution, linked to the geological setting, are elements of aesthetical, semiological as well as historical and cultural value. The structure of the landscape is represented by the physical shape and spatial organization, in dynamic way: it is necessary to provide a readout of the landscape components that supplements the geo-morphological, lithological, geodiversity data (Lugeri et alii, 2012). The concept of "geomorpho-landscape" is conceived to address the need to describe by a synthetic approach the geological processes emerging at the landscape scale, allowing to link spatial patterns to geological processes Each geo-form has in itself geological, geo-morphological, landmark, historical and cultural features, of such special relevance, that they can be defined in terms of scientific quality, rarity, aesthetic appeal and educational and cultural value. Reference List AMADIO V. (2003). Analisi di sistemi e progetti di paesaggio. Franco Angeli, Milano, pp 236 AMADIO V, AMADEI M, BAGNAIA R, DI BUCCI D, LAURETI L, LISI A, LUGERI FR, LUGERI N. (2002). The role of Geomorphology in Landscape Ecology: The Landscape Unit Map of Italy', Scale 1: 250,000 ("Carta della Natura" Project). In: Allison RJ (ed) Applied Geomorphology: theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons, London, pp 265-282 APAT (2003). Carta della natura alla scala 1:250,000: metodologie di realizzazione. APAT, Manuali e linee guida 17/2003, Roma, pp 103 LUGERI F.R., FARABOLLINI P., GRAVIANO G. & AMADIO V. (2012). Geoheritage: Nature and culture in a landscape approach. European

A stratification of the South African forestry landscape based on ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The appropriateness of these variables is discussed in terms of its relation to plant physiology and landscape ecology. The provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga are used as a case study for demonstration purposes. A total of nine growth day classes and 17 growth temperature classes were identified. An analysis ...

Study on ecological conservation planning of Xianyue Park in Xiamen City, China

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Naizhong; Xi, Rong; Ren, Tingyan; Zhao, Peng; Chuai, Zeyao

2017-08-01

The paper discusses the current situation and existing problems of ecological restoration and tourist infrastructure development of Xiamen Xianyue Park located in Xiamen Island, China. Issues of ecosystem restoration and landscape improvement, restoring habitats, and ecosystem management system are analyzed. Options of further optimization of the tourist-targeted infrastructure are proposed, which take into account the ecological system and landscape pattern optimization, promotion of ecotourism, and implementation of the ecological management system. The particular solution envisages the park zoning with three primary zones (ecological protection, ecological buffer, and general activity zones) and five secondary ones (scenic landscape, ecotourism, religious activity, buildings and structures, and entertainment zones). By integrating the ecological principles into other land use objectives, taking full advantage of the park ecological and cultural heritage, and improving its ecological management, it is expected to provide the ecological restoration of the park under study and optimize its contribution to the regional economic and social development.

Landscape characterization and biodiversity research

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dale, V.H. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States); Offerman, H. [Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States). Geography Dept.; Frohn, R. [Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); Gardner, R.H. [Appalachian Environmental Lab., Frostburg, MD (United States)

1995-03-01

Rapid deforestation often produces landscape-level changes in forest characteristics and structure, including area, distribution, and forest habitat types. Changes in landscape pattern through fragmentation or aggregation of natural habitats can alter patterns of abundance for single species and entire communities. Examples of single-species effects include increased predation along the forest edge, the decline in the number of species with poor dispersal mechanisms, and the spread of exotic species that have deleterious effects (e.g., gypsy moth). A decrease in the size and number of natural habitat patches increases the probability of local extirpation and loss of diversity of native species, whereas a decline in connectivity between habitat patches can negatively affect species persistence. Thus, there is empirical justification for managing entire landscapes, not just individual habitat types, in order to insure that native plant and animal diversity is maintained. A landscape is defined as an area composed of a mosaic of interacting ecosystems, or patches, with the heterogeneity among the patches significantly affecting biotic and abiotic processes in the landscape. Patches comprising a landscape are usually composed of discrete areas of relatively homogeneous environmental conditions and must be defined in terms of the organisms of interest. A large body of theoretical work in landscape ecology has provided a wealth of methods for quantifying spatial characteristics of landscapes. Recent advances in remote sensing and geographic information systems allow these methods to be applied over large areas. The objectives of this paper are to present a brief overview of common measures of landscape characteristics, to explore the new technology available for their calculation, to provide examples of their application, and to call attention to the need for collection of spatially-explicit field data.

The ecological impact assessment of a proposed road development (the Slovak approach)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Igondova, Erika; Pavlickova, Katarina; Majzlan, Oto

2016-01-01

The construction of roads is one of the most widespread forms of natural landscape modification. Over the last 20 years, dozens of road constructions have been assessed in Slovakia, which makes it possible to talk about methodological positives and negatives. A special feature of Slovakia is that many planned or renovated roads are located in protected areas or are in contact with them (including Natura 2000 sites). Therefore, it is important to understand the scope of the roads' ecological impacts and find ways for their appropriate evaluation and incorporation into the Environmental Impact Assessment process. For this reason, the Ecological Impact Assessment methodology can be used as a basis for our research, which consists of three stages. In the first stage (scoping), a buffer circumventing the proposed road is created to determine the area for impact prediction and evaluation. Subsequently, the landscape structure and baseline landscape conditions are discussed, a map of current landscape structure is created and the current ecological status of the affected area is calculated. In the second stage (the evaluation of ecological resources), important ecological parts of the landscape are delineated. This step is based on the importance of previous information and its vulnerability, and leads to the mapping of the road ecological impact zone. In the third stage (impact assessment), important ecological parts are spatially correlated with the proposed road construction. Finally, the significance of ecological impacts of the activity is evaluated by applying specific criteria (duration, reversibility, magnitude, size and road ecological impact zone significance). A scale is proposed for each criterion to evaluate the total significance of impacts. In this way, detailed significant ecological impacts can be found which will help lead to proposed correct mitigation measures and a post-project analysis. - Highlights: • This paper proposes a methodology for the Ec

The ecological impact assessment of a proposed road development (the Slovak approach)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Igondova, Erika, E-mail: erika.igondova@gmail.com; Pavlickova, Katarina, E-mail: pavlickova60@gmail.com; Majzlan, Oto, E-mail: majzlan@fns.uniba.sk

2016-07-15

The construction of roads is one of the most widespread forms of natural landscape modification. Over the last 20 years, dozens of road constructions have been assessed in Slovakia, which makes it possible to talk about methodological positives and negatives. A special feature of Slovakia is that many planned or renovated roads are located in protected areas or are in contact with them (including Natura 2000 sites). Therefore, it is important to understand the scope of the roads' ecological impacts and find ways for their appropriate evaluation and incorporation into the Environmental Impact Assessment process. For this reason, the Ecological Impact Assessment methodology can be used as a basis for our research, which consists of three stages. In the first stage (scoping), a buffer circumventing the proposed road is created to determine the area for impact prediction and evaluation. Subsequently, the landscape structure and baseline landscape conditions are discussed, a map of current landscape structure is created and the current ecological status of the affected area is calculated. In the second stage (the evaluation of ecological resources), important ecological parts of the landscape are delineated. This step is based on the importance of previous information and its vulnerability, and leads to the mapping of the road ecological impact zone. In the third stage (impact assessment), important ecological parts are spatially correlated with the proposed road construction. Finally, the significance of ecological impacts of the activity is evaluated by applying specific criteria (duration, reversibility, magnitude, size and road ecological impact zone significance). A scale is proposed for each criterion to evaluate the total significance of impacts. In this way, detailed significant ecological impacts can be found which will help lead to proposed correct mitigation measures and a post-project analysis. - Highlights: • This paper proposes a methodology for the

Landscape function analysis as a base of rural development strategies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Filepné Kovács Krisztina

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Research on ecosystem services and landscape functions are highly important in landscape ecology, landscape planning and open space design. The terms of ecosystem service and landscape function have been evolved parallel to each other in the scientific literature but have different focus. The term of landscape functions evolved from the scientific field of landscape ecology; it reflects the goods and services provided by regions, landscapes where the cultural, economic factors are important as well. As a framework assessment method with additional economic assessment, a landscape function analysis could be an additional tool of rural development, as it gives a complex analysis of multiple aspects, thus it is highly appropriate to explore, analyze the potentials, resources and limits of landscapes and land use systems. In the current research a landscape function analysis was compared with the rural development strategies in Hungarian micro-regions. We focused on the level of landscape functions and the objectives of the rural development strategies of the study areas. The local development strategies do not focus on territorial differences nor potentials evolving from natural, cultural resources or local constrains. The only exception is tourism development, where in some cases there is a holistic spatial approach which intends to develop the region as a whole.

Conceptual Analysis: The Charcoal-Agriculture Nexus to Understand the Socio-Ecological Contexts Underlying Varied Sustainability Outcomes in African Landscapes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miyuki Iiyama

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The production of charcoal is an important socio-economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA. Charcoal production is one of the leading drivers of rural land-use changes in SSA, although the intensity of impacts on the multi-functionality of landscapes varies considerably. Within a given landscape, charcoal production is closely interconnected to agriculture production both as major livelihoods, while both critically depend on the same ecosystem services. The interactions between charcoal and agricultural production systems can lead to positive synergies of impacts, but will more often result in trade-offs and even vicious cycles. Such sustainability outcomes vary from one site to another due to the heterogeneity of contexts, including agricultural production systems that affect the adoption of technologies and practices. Trade-offs or cases of vicious cycles occur when one-off resource exploitation of natural trees for charcoal production for short-term economic gains permanently impairs ecosystem functions. Given the fact that charcoal, as an important energy source for the growing urban populations and an essential livelihood for the rural populations, cannot be readily substituted in SSA, there must be policies to support charcoal production. Policies should encourage sustainable technologies and practices, either by establishing plantations or by encouraging regeneration, whichever is more suitable for the local environment. To guide context-specific interventions, this paper presents a new perspective—the charcoal-agriculture nexus—aimed at facilitating the understanding of the socio-economic and ecological interactions of charcoal and agricultural production. The nexus especially highlights two dimensions of the socio-ecological contexts: charcoal value chains and tenure systems. Combinations of the two are assumed to underlie varied socio-economic and ecological sustainability outcomes by conditioning incentive mechanisms to affect

Identifying future research needs in landscape genetics: Where to from here?

Science.gov (United States)

Niko Balkenhol; Felix Gugerli; Sam A. Cushman; Lisette P. Waits; Aurelie Coulon; J. W. Arntzen; Rolf Holderegger; Helene H. Wagner

2009-01-01

Landscape genetics is an emerging interdisciplinary field that combines methods and concepts from population genetics, landscape ecology, and spatial statistics. The interest in landscape genetics is steadily increasing, and the field is evolving rapidly. We here outline four major challenges for future landscape genetic research that were identified during an...

Linking animals aloft with the terrestrial landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Buler, Jeffrey J.; Barrow, Wylie; Boone, Matthew; Dawson, Deanna K.; Diehl, Robert H.; Moore, Frank R.; Randall, Lori A.; Schreckengost, Timothy; Smolinsky, Jaclyn A.

2018-01-01

Despite using the aerosphere for many facets of their life, most flying animals (i.e., birds, bats, some insects) are still bound to terrestrial habitats for resting, feeding, and reproduction. Comprehensive broad-scale observations by weather surveillance radars of animals as they leave terrestrial habitats for migration or feeding flights can be used to map their terrestrial distributions either as point locations (e.g., communal roosts) or as continuous surface layers (e.g., animal densities in habitats across a landscape). We discuss some of the technical challenges to reducing measurement biases related to how radars sample the aerosphere and the flight behavior of animals. We highlight a recently developed methodological approach that precisely and quantitatively links the horizontal spatial structure of birds aloft to their terrestrial distributions and provides novel insights into avian ecology and conservation across broad landscapes. Specifically, we present case studies that (1) elucidate how migrating birds contend with crossing ecological barriers and extreme weather events, (2) identify important stopover areas and habitat use patterns of birds along their migration routes, and (3) assess waterfowl response to wetland habitat management and restoration. These studies aid our understanding of how anthropogenic modification of the terrestrial landscape (e.g., urbanization, habitat management), natural geographic features, and weather (e.g., hurricanes) can affect the terrestrial distributions of flying animals.

ecological geological maps: GIS-based evaluation of the Geo-Ecological Quality Index (GEQUI) in Sicily (Central Mediterranean)

Science.gov (United States)

Nigro, Fabrizio; Arisco, Giuseppe; Perricone, Marcella; Renda, Pietro; Favara, Rocco

2010-05-01

The condition of landscapes and the ecological communities within them is strongly related to levels of human activity. As a consequence, determining status and trends in the pattern of human-dominated landscapes can be useful for understanding the overall conditions of geo-ecological resources. Ecological geological maps are recent tools providing useful informations about a-biotic and biotic features worldwide. These maps represents a new generation of geological maps and depict the lithospheric components conditions on surface, where ecological dynamics (functions and properties) and human activities develop. Thus, these maps are too a fundamental political tool to plan the human activities management in relationship to the territorial/environmental patterns of a date region. Different types of ecological geological maps can be develop regarding the: conditions (situations), zoning, prognosis and recommendations. The ecological geological conditions maps reflects the complex of parameters or individual characteristics of lithosphere, which characterized the opportunity of the influence of lithosphere components on the biota (man, fauna, flora, and ecosystem). The ecological geological zoning maps are foundamental basis for prognosis estimation and nature defenses measures. Estimation from the position of comfort and safety of human life and function of ecosystem is given on these maps. The ecological geological prognosis maps reflect the spatial-temporary prognoses of ecological geological conditions changing during the natural dynamic of natural surrounding and the main-during the economic mastering of territory and natural technical systems. Finally, the ecological geological recommendation maps are based on the ecological geological and social-economical informations, aiming the regulation of territory by the regulation of economic activities and the defense of bio- and socio-sphere extents. Each of these maps may also be computed or in analytic or in

A GIS BASED EVALUATION OF LAND USE CHANGES AND ECOLOGICAL CONNECTIVITY INDEX

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Poppy Indrayani

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Recently, the Makassar region is a significant land use planning and management issue, and has many impacts on the ecological function and structure landscape. With the development and infrastructure initiatives mostly around the urban centers, the urbanization and sprawl would impact the environment and the natural resources. Therefore, environmental management and careful strategic spatial planning in landscape ecological network is crucial when aiming for sustainable development. In this paper, the impacts of land use changes from 1997 to 2012 on the landscape ecological connectivity in the Makassar region were evaluated using Geographic Information System (GIS. The resulted GIS analysis clearly showed that land use changes occurring in the Makassar region have caused profound changes in landscape pattern. The spatial model had a predictive capability allowing the quantitative assessment and comparison of the impacts resulting from different land use on the ecological connectivity index. The results had an effective performance in identifying the vital ecological areas and connectivity prior to development plan in areas.

[Simulation of urban ecological security pattern based on cellular automata: a case of Dongguan City, Guangdong Province of South China].

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Qing-Sheng; Qiao, Ji-Gang; Ai, Bin

2013-09-01

Taking the Dongguan City with rapid urbanization as a case, and selecting landscape ecological security level as evaluation criterion, the urbanization cellular number of 1 km x 1 km ecological security cells was obtained, and imbedded into the transition rules of cellular automata (CA) as the restraint term to control urban development, establish ecological security urban CA, and simulate ecological security urban development pattern. The results showed the integrated landscape ecological security index of the City decreased from 0.497 in 1998 to 0.395 in 2005, indicating that the ecological security at landscape scale was decreased. The CA-simulated integrated ecological security index of the City in 2005 was increased from the measured 0.395 to 0.479, showing that the simulated urban landscape ecological pressure from human became lesser, ecological security became better, and integrated landscape ecological security became higher. CA could be used as an effective tool in researching urban ecological security.

Modeling Soil-Landscape Relations in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Regmi, N. R.; Rasmussen, C.

2015-12-01

Digital soil mapping (DSM) techniques that integrate remotely sensed surface topography and reflectance, and map soil-landscape associations have the potential in improve understanding of critical zone evolution and landscape processes. The goal of this study was to understand the soil-geomorphic evolution of Quaternary alluvial and eolian deposits in the Sonoran Desert using a data-driven DSM technique and mapping of soil-landscape relationships. An iterative principal component analysis (iPCA) data reduction routine was developed and implemented for a set of LiDAR elevation- and Landsat ETM+-derived environmental covariates that characterize soil-landscape variability. Principal components that explain more than 95% of the soil-landscape variability were then integrated and classified based on an ISODATA (Iterative Self-Organizing Data) unsupervised technique. The classified map was then segmented based on a region growing algorithm and multi-scale maps of soil-landscape relations were developed, which then compared with maps of major arid-region landforms that can be identified on aerial photographs and satellite images by their distinguishing tone and texture, and in the field by their distinguishing surface and sub-surface soil physical, chemical and biological properties. The approach identified and mapped the soil-landscape variability of alluvial and eolian landscapes, and illustrated the applicability of coupling covariate selection and integration by iPCA, ISODATA classifications of integrated layers, and image segmentation for effective spatial prediction of soil-landscape characteristics. The approach developed here is data-driven, cost- and time-effective, applicable for multi-scale mapping, allows incorporation of wide variety of covariates, and provides accurate quantitative prediction of wide range of soil-landscape attributes that are necessary for hydrologic models, land and ecosystem management decisions, and hazard assessment.

European cultural landscapes: Connecting science, policy and practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hernandez Morcillo, Monica

their biocultural diversity and affecting their ability to provide these benefits. Developing indicators to improve accountability of cultural ecosystem services and connecting the multiple stakeholders’ knowledge involved in land use decisions would help to delineate more sustainable pathways. The aims of this Ph......D thesis are to: 1) examine the measures and potential of cultural ecosystem services and traditional ecological knowledge in Europe, and; 2) explore transdisciplinary methods to develop joint research-action agendas for European cultural landscapes. The findings indicate that local knowledge improves......European cultural landscapes are especially valued for the abundance of cultural ecosystem services and the richness of traditional ecological knowledge they provide to society. In recent decades, land use changes have dramatically altered cultural landscapes across Europe, reducing...

Protected areas as social-ecological systems: perspectives from resilience and social-ecological systems theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Cumming, Graeme S; Allen, Craig R

2017-09-01

Conservation biology and applied ecology increasingly recognize that natural resource management is both an outcome and a driver of social, economic, and ecological dynamics. Protected areas offer a fundamental approach to conserving ecosystems, but they are also social-ecological systems whose ecological management and sustainability are heavily influenced by people. This editorial, and the papers in the invited feature that it introduces, discuss three emerging themes in social-ecological systems approaches to understanding protected areas: (1) the resilience and sustainability of protected areas, including analyses of their internal dynamics, their effectiveness, and the resilience of the landscapes within which they occur; (2) the relevance of spatial context and scale for protected areas, including such factors as geographic connectivity, context, exchanges between protected areas and their surrounding landscapes, and scale dependency in the provision of ecosystem services; and (3) efforts to reframe what protected areas are and how they both define and are defined by the relationships of people and nature. These emerging themes have the potential to transform management and policy approaches for protected areas and have important implications for conservation, in both theory and practice. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

Wasteland ecologies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hoag, Colin Brewster; Bertoni, Filippo; Bubandt, Nils Ole

2018-01-01

landscapes, this article argues, are the result of unheralded multispecies collaboration that can be traced empirically by attending ethnographically to multispecies forms of “gain-making,” the ways in which humans and other species leverage difference to find economic and ecological opportunity....... in the 1970s, when prevailing perceptions were that the entire mining area was a polluted wasteland, the AFLD Fasterholt waste and recycling plant has since changed in response to new EU waste management regulations, as well as the unexpected proliferation of non-human life in the area. Based on field...... research at this site—an Anthropocene landscape in the heartland of an EU-configured welfare state — this article is a contribution to the multispecies ethnography and political ecology of wastelands. We argue that “waste” is a co-species, biopolitical happening — a complex symbolic, political, biological...

Primary blood-hosts of mosquitoes are influenced by social and ecological conditions in a complex urban landscape.

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Goodman, Heather; Egizi, Andrea; Fonseca, Dina M; Leisnham, Paul T; LaDeau, Shannon L

2018-04-10

Temperate urban landscapes support persistent and growing populations of Culex and Aedes mosquito vectors. Large urban mosquito populations can represent a significant risk for transmission of emergent arboviral infection. However, even large mosquito populations are only a risk to the animals they bite. The purpose of this study is to identify and assess spatial patterns of host-use in a temperate urban landscape with heterogeneous socio-economic and ecological conditions. Mosquito blood meals were collected from neighborhoods categorized along a socio-economic gradient in Baltimore, MD, USA. Blood meal hosts were identified for two Aedes (Ae. albopictus and Ae. japonicus) and three Culex (Cx. pipiens, Cx. restuans and Cx. salinarius) species. The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) was the most frequently detected host in both Aedes species and Cx. salinarius. Human biting was evident in Aedes and Culex species and the proportion of human blood meals from Ae. albopictus varied significantly with neighborhood socio-economic status. Aedes albopictus was most likely to feed on human blood hosts (at 50%) in residential blocks categorized as having income above the city median, although there were still more total human bites detected from lower income blocks where Ae. albopictus was more abundant. Birds were the most frequently detected Culex blood hosts but were absent from all Aedes sampled. This study highlights fine-scale variation in host-use by medically important mosquito vectors and specifically investigates blood meal composition at spatial scales relevant to urban mosquito dispersal and human exposure. Further, the work emphasizes the importance of neighborhood economics and infrastructure management in shaping both the relative abundance of vectors and local blood feeding strategies. The invasive brown rat was an important blood source across vector species and neighborhoods in Baltimore. We show that social and economic conditions can be important predictors of

Potential ‘Ecological Traps’ of Restored Landscapes: Koalas Phascolarctos cinereus Re-Occupy a Rehabilitated Mine Site

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Cristescu, Romane H.; Banks, Peter B.; Carrick, Frank N.; Frère, Céline

2013-01-01

With progressively increasing anthropogenic habitat disturbances, restoration of impacted landscapes is becoming a critical element of biodiversity conservation. Evaluation of success in restoration ecology rarely includes faunal components, usually only encompassing abiotic and floral components of the ecosystems. Even when fauna is explicitly included, it is usually only species presence/absence criteria that are considered. If restoration is to have a positive outcome, however, populations in restored habitats should exhibit comparable survival and reproductive rates to populations found in undisturbed surroundings. If a species recolonises restored areas but later experiences decreased fitness, restored areas could become ecological sinks or traps. We investigated this possibility in a case study of koalas Phascolarctos cinereus occupying rehabilitated mining areas on North Stradbroke Island, Australia. Our holistic approach compared rehabilitated and undisturbed areas on the basis of their vegetation characteristics, of koalas' body condition, roosting trees, diet, as well as predator index. Koalas using rehabilitated areas appeared to be able to access an adequate supply of roosting and fodder trees, were in good condition and had high reproductive output. We did not find any significant differences in predator density between rehabilitated areas and undisturbed surroundings. The results presented in this study showed there was no evidence that the post-mining rehabilitated areas constitute ecological sinks or traps. However, to reach a definitive conclusion as to whether areas rehabilitated post-mining provide at least equivalent habitat to undisturbed locations, additional research could be undertaken to assess foliar nutrient/water/toxin differences and predation risk in rehabilitated areas compared with undisturbed areas. More generally, the evaluation of whether restoration successfully produces a functional ecological community should include criteria

Industrial Archaeology, Landscapes, and Historical Knowledge of Sustainability

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Donald L. Hardesty

2006-01-01

The emergence of industrial life support systems in the last three centuries dramatically changed humanenvironmental relationships. Industrial landscapes are repositories of historical knowledge about this ecological revolution. The key components of industrial landscapes include landforms (for example, waste rock dumps from mines), industrial buildings and structures...

Calculation of Configurational Entropy in Complex Landscapes

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Samuel A Cushman

2018-04-01

configurational entropy of a landscape is highly related to the dimensionality of the landscape, the number of cover classes, the evenness of landscape composition across classes, and landscape heterogeneity. These advances provide a means for researchers to directly estimate the frequency distribution of all possible macrostates of any observed landscape, and then directly calculate the relative configurational entropy of the observed macrostate, and to understand the ecological meaning of different amounts of configurational entropy. These advances enable scientists to take configurational entropy from a concept to an applied tool to measure and compare the disorder of real landscapes with an objective and unbiased measure based on entropy and the second law.

Landscape pattern metrics and regional assessment

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O'Neill, R. V.; Riitters, K.H.; Wickham, J.D.; Jones, K.B.

1999-01-01

The combination of remote imagery data, geographic information systems software, and landscape ecology theory provides a unique basis for monitoring and assessing large-scale ecological systems. The unique feature of the work has been the need to develop and interpret quantitative measures of spatial pattern-the landscape indices. This article reviews what is known about the statistical properties of these pattern metrics and suggests some additional metrics based on island biogeography, percolation theory, hierarchy theory, and economic geography. Assessment applications of this approach have required interpreting the pattern metrics in terms of specific environmental endpoints, such as wildlife and water quality, and research into how to represent synergystic effects of many overlapping sources of stress.

Spatial Analysis of Agricultural Landscape and Hymenoptera Biodiversity at Cianjur Watershed

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YAHERWANDI

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Hymenoptera is one of the four largest insect order (the other three are Coleoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera. There are curerently over 115 000 described Hymenoptera species. It is clear that Hymenoptera is one of the major components of insect biodiversity. However, Hymenoptera biodiversity is affected by ecology, environment, and ecosystem management. In an agricultural areas, the spatial structure, habitat diversity, and habitat composition may vary from cleared landscapes to structurally rich landscape. Thus, it is very likely that such large-scale spatial patterns (landscape effects may influence local biodiversity and ecological functions. Therefore, the objective of this research were to study diversity and configuration elements of agricultural landscapes at Cianjur Watershed with geographical information sytems (GIS and its influence on Hymenoptera biodiversity. The structural differences between agricultural landscapes of Nyalindung, Gasol, and Selajambe were characterized by patch analyst with ArcView 3.2 of digital land use data. Results indicated that class of land uses of Cianjur Watershed landscape were housing, mixed gardens, talun and rice, vegetable, and corn fields. Landscape structure influenced the biodiversity of Hymenoptera. Species richness and the species diversity were higher in Nyalindung landscape compare to Gasol and Selajambe landscape.

The genus Attalea (Arecaceae of Bolivia: regional ecologic system affinities

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Mónica Moraes R.

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The documentation of the Neotropical species of the Arecaceae family, based on the recent contributions to its taxonomy and its relationship with natural landscapes, updates the spatial patterns to which they adapt in their range of distribution. In this case 121 records of specimens of the 11 species of the genus Attalea of Bolivia and their relationship with 30 ecological systems that approximate their scope of distribution at regional level are released. To this end, the geographical coordinates were systematized, verified and corrected. Localities of all the specimens collected from the genus Attalea in order to compare them with ecological systems, using the ArgGis tools. We then elaborate a dendrogram (species vs. ecological systems using the minimum distance method in the R program. The analysis of the relation of the species with the ecological systems highlights a species that does not compose to the southwest amazon: A. eichleri and that is native to ecological systems of the Cerrado. Among the SW Amazonian Attalea species, A. blepharopus (endemic to Bolivia is isolated from the others and the rest subgroup species according to their presence in forests and savannas, in addition to the subandean and alluvial, as it is for A. princeps, which is found in 17 systems (57%. Eight species of Attalea are common with Peru and 10 with Brazil. It is important to relate the hierarchical grouping of the Attalea species with ecological systems in function of landscape dynamics to document their space patterns and also for their conservation.

Mapping behavioral landscapes for animal movement: a finite mixture modeling approach

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Tracey, Jeff A.; Zhu, Jun; Boydston, Erin E.; Lyren, Lisa M.; Fisher, Robert N.; Crooks, Kevin R.

2013-01-01

Because of its role in many ecological processes, movement of animals in response to landscape features is an important subject in ecology and conservation biology. In this paper, we develop models of animal movement in relation to objects or fields in a landscape. We take a finite mixture modeling approach in which the component densities are conceptually related to different choices for movement in response to a landscape feature, and the mixing proportions are related to the probability of selecting each response as a function of one or more covariates. We combine particle swarm optimization and an Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of the model parameters. We use this approach to analyze data for movement of three bobcats in relation to urban areas in southern California, USA. A behavioral interpretation of the models revealed similarities and differences in bobcat movement response to urbanization. All three bobcats avoided urbanization by moving either parallel to urban boundaries or toward less urban areas as the proportion of urban land cover in the surrounding area increased. However, one bobcat, a male with a dispersal-like large-scale movement pattern, avoided urbanization at lower densities and responded strictly by moving parallel to the urban edge. The other two bobcats, which were both residents and occupied similar geographic areas, avoided urban areas using a combination of movements parallel to the urban edge and movement toward areas of less urbanization. However, the resident female appeared to exhibit greater repulsion at lower levels of urbanization than the resident male, consistent with empirical observations of bobcats in southern California. Using the parameterized finite mixture models, we mapped behavioral states to geographic space, creating a representation of a behavioral landscape. This approach can provide guidance for conservation planning based on analysis of animal movement data using

Traditional fire-use, landscape transition, and the legacies of social theory past.

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Coughlan, Michael R

2015-12-01

Fire-use and the scale and character of its effects on landscapes remain hotly debated in the paleo- and historical-fire literature. Since the second half of the nineteenth century, anthropology and geography have played important roles in providing theoretical propositions and testable hypotheses for advancing understandings of the ecological role of human-fire-use in landscape histories. This article reviews some of the most salient and persistent theoretical propositions and hypotheses concerning the role of humans in historical fire ecology. The review discusses this history in light of current research agendas, such as those offered by pyrogeography. The review suggests that a more theoretically cognizant historical fire ecology should strive to operationalize transdisciplinary theory capable of addressing the role of human variability in the evolutionary history of landscapes. To facilitate this process, researchers should focus attention on integrating more current human ecology theory into transdisciplinary research agendas.

Editorial: What do we mean by "landscape"?

Science.gov (United States)

Paul H. Gobster; Wei-Ning. Xiang

2012-01-01

As a prelude to revising the Aims and Scope of Landscape and Urban Planning (LAND), our last editorial discussed the journal’s "intellectual landscape" as revealed by an analysis of conceptual and proximal relationships between articles published in LAND and 50 other research journals. The six conceptual themes we identified--ecology, planning and management...

New concept of aging care architecture landscape design based on sustainable development

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Ying

2017-05-01

As the aging problem becoming serious in China, Aging care is now one of the top issuer in front of all of us. Lots of private and public aging care architecture and facilities have been built. At present, we only pay attention to the architecture design and interior design scientific, ecological and sustainable design on aged care architecture landscape. Based on the social economy, population resources, mutual coordination and development of the environment, taking the elderly as the special group, this paper follows the principles of the sustainable development, conducts the comprehensive design planning of aged care landscape architecture and makes a deeper understanding and exploration through changing the form of architectural space, ecological landscape planting, new materials and technology, ecological energy utilization.

Urban Landscape Metrics for Climate and Sustainability Assessments

Science.gov (United States)

Cochran, F. V.; Brunsell, N. A.

2014-12-01

To test metrics for rapid identification of urban classes and sustainable urban forms, we examine the configuration of urban landscapes using satellite remote sensing data. We adopt principles from landscape ecology and urban planning to evaluate urban heterogeneity and design themes that may constitute more sustainable urban forms, including compactness (connectivity), density, mixed land uses, diversity, and greening. Using 2-D wavelet and multi-resolution analysis, landscape metrics, and satellite-derived indices of vegetation fraction and impervious surface, the spatial variability of Landsat and MODIS data from metropolitan areas of Manaus and São Paulo, Brazil are investigated. Landscape metrics for density, connectivity, and diversity, like the Shannon Diversity Index, are used to assess the diversity of urban buildings, geographic extent, and connectedness. Rapid detection of urban classes for low density, medium density, high density, and tall building district at the 1-km scale are needed for use in climate models. If the complexity of finer-scale urban characteristics can be related to the neighborhood scale both climate and sustainability assessments may be more attainable across urban areas.

Between Design and Ecology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bjørn, Mona Chor

such vegetation, based on concepts and theories in plant community ecology. If these communities are based on local forbs there is a continuum in anthropogenic intervention from designed and intensively maintained to semi-natural herbaceous vegetation. Results from a large field experiment show that, after three...... colonised by grasses and eventually woody species. This thesis adds useful basic knowledge in plant community ecology and species-specific growth, which are relevant to research and planning in landscape architecture and ecology....

ECOLOGICAL STABILITY AS A DETERMINANT OF NITRA REGION DEVELOPMENT IN SLOVAKIA

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Marián KOTRLA

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Nitra region is evaluated based on the analysis of land use ecological stability in the present article, which is significant for its development, particularly in terms of increasing potential for tourism. The coefficient of ecological stability (CES was used to evaluate the ecological stability of the region as a relatively simple ecological indicator for quality of life determination in the region. Three basic methods were used of calculating CES according to the methodology Míchal (1982, Löw et al. (1984 and Miklós (1986. The districts of Nitra region differs by natural conditions from each other. There are represented three types of natural areas: foothill (Zlaté Moravce, upland (Nitra, Levice, Topoľčany and lowland area (Šaľa, Nové Zámky, Komárom. The highest value of CES was in the district of Zlaté Moravce. A higher value of CES was in the district of Topoľčany. The lowest value of CES was evaluated in the district of Šaľa, where do absent ecologically stable elements. Nitra region is classifies as an area of low to median ecological stability, which is critical to the improvement and development of the region need to make eco-stabilizing elements and eco-stabilizing management measures. On the basis of country originality can be expressed the impact of human activity on the landscape and its features. Originality coefficient of the cultural landscape for individual districts of Nitra region is following: Komárno and Levice - 0.16; Nitra - 0.17; Nové Zámky - 0.15; Šaľa - 0.07; Topoľčany - 0.56; Zlaté Moravce - 1.49. Slovakia is in terms of the authenticity of cultural landscapes evaluated coefficient of 2.01. Based on the analysis it can be concluded heterogeneity in the origin of cultural landscapes in the Nitra region.

Ecosystem networks: a spatial concept for integrative research and planning of landscapes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Opdam, P.F.M.

2006-01-01

Sustainable development is a widely accepted strategic framework for decisionmaking about the future use of land, but it is not very well adopted in landscape research and planning. Sustainable landscape development aims to ensure the longterm potential of the landscape to sustain ecological,

The landscape genetics of infectious disease emergence and spread.

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Biek, Roman; Real, Leslie A

2010-09-01

The spread of parasites is inherently a spatial process often embedded in physically complex landscapes. It is therefore not surprising that infectious disease researchers are increasingly taking a landscape genetics perspective to elucidate mechanisms underlying basic ecological processes driving infectious disease dynamics and to understand the linkage between spatially dependent population processes and the geographic distribution of genetic variation within both hosts and parasites. The increasing availability of genetic information on hosts and parasites when coupled to their ecological interactions can lead to insights for predicting patterns of disease emergence, spread and control. Here, we review research progress in this area based on four different motivations for the application of landscape genetics approaches: (i) assessing the spatial organization of genetic variation in parasites as a function of environmental variability, (ii) using host population genetic structure as a means to parameterize ecological dynamics that indirectly influence parasite populations, for example, gene flow and movement pathways across heterogeneous landscapes and the concurrent transport of infectious agents, (iii) elucidating the temporal and spatial scales of disease processes and (iv) reconstructing and understanding infectious disease invasion. Throughout this review, we emphasize that landscape genetic principles are relevant to infection dynamics across a range of scales from within host dynamics to global geographic patterns and that they can also be applied to unconventional 'landscapes' such as heterogeneous contact networks underlying the spread of human and livestock diseases. We conclude by discussing some general considerations and problems for inferring epidemiological processes from genetic data and try to identify possible future directions and applications for this rapidly expanding field.

Protected areas as social-ecological systems: perspectives from resilience and social-ecological systems theory

Science.gov (United States)

Cumming, Graeme S.; Allen, Craig R.

2017-01-01

Conservation biology and applied ecology increasingly recognize that natural resource management is both an outcome and a driver of social, economic, and ecological dynamics. Protected areas offer a fundamental approach to conserving ecosystems, but they are also social-ecological systems whose ecological management and sustainability are heavily influenced by people. This editorial, and the papers in the invited feature that it introduces, discuss three emerging themes in social-ecological systems approaches to understanding protected areas: (1) the resilience and sustainability of protected areas, including analyses of their internal dynamics, their effectiveness, and the resilience of the landscapes within which they occur; (2) the relevance of spatial context and scale for protected areas, including such factors as geographic connectivity, context, exchanges between protected areas and their surrounding landscapes, and scale dependency in the provision of ecosystem services; and (3) efforts to reframe what protected areas are and how they both define and are defined by the relationships of people and nature. These emerging themes have the potential to transform management and policy approaches for protected areas and have important implications for conservation, in both theory and practice.

Exploring indigenous landscape classification across different dimensions: a case study from the Bolivian Amazon.

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Riu-Bosoms, Carles; Vidal-Amat, Teresa; Duane, Andrea; Fernandez-Llamazares, Alvaro; Guèze, Maximilien; Luz, Ana C; Macía, Manuel J; Paneque-Gálvez, Jaime; Reyes-García, Victoria

Decisions on landscape management are often dictated by government officials based on their own understandings of how landscape should be used and managed, but rarely considering local peoples' understandings of the landscape they inhabit. We use data collected through free listings, field transects, and interviews to describe how an Amazonian group of hunter-horticulturalists, the Tsimane', classify and perceive the importance of different elements of the landscape across the ecological, socioeconomic, and spiritual dimensions. The Tsimane' recognize nine folk ecotopes (i.e., culturally-recognized landscape units) and use a variety of criteria (including geomorphological features and landscape uses) to differentiate ecotopes from one another. The Tsimane' rank different folk ecotopes in accordance with their perceived ecological, socioeconomic, and spiritual importance. Understanding how local people perceive their landscape contributes towards a landscape management planning paradigm that acknowledges the continuing contributions to management of landscape inhabitants, as well as their cultural and land use rights.

Understanding protected area resilience: a multi-scale, social-ecological approach

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Cumming, Graeme S.; Allen, Craig R.; Ban, Natalie C.; Biggs, Duan; Biggs, Harry C.; Cumming, David H.M; De Vos, Alta; Epstein, Graham; Etienne, Michel; Maciejewski, Kristine; Mathevet, Raphael; Moore, Christine; Nenadovic, Mateja; Schoon, Michael

2015-01-01

Protected areas (PAs) remain central to the conservation of biodiversity. Classical PAs were conceived as areas that would be set aside to maintain a natural state with minimal human influence. However, global environmental change and growing cross-scale anthropogenic influences mean that PAs can no longer be thought of as ecological islands that function independently of the broader social-ecological system in which they are located. For PAs to be resilient (and to contribute to broader social-ecological resilience), they must be able to adapt to changing social and ecological conditions over time in a way that supports the long-term persistence of populations, communities, and ecosystems of conservation concern. We extend Ostrom's social-ecological systems framework to consider the long-term persistence of PAs, as a form of land use embedded in social-ecological systems, with important cross-scale feedbacks. Most notably, we highlight the cross-scale influences and feedbacks on PAs that exist from the local to the global scale, contextualizing PAs within multi-scale social-ecological functional landscapes. Such functional landscapes are integral to understand and manage individual PAs for long-term sustainability. We illustrate our conceptual contribution with three case studies that highlight cross-scale feedbacks and social-ecological interactions in the functioning of PAs and in relation to regional resilience. Our analysis suggests that while ecological, economic, and social processes are often directly relevant to PAs at finer scales, at broader scales, the dominant processes that shape and alter PA resilience are primarily social and economic.

Affordances and Landscapes: Overcoming the Nature-Culture Dichotomy through Niche Construction Theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Heras-Escribano, Manuel; De Pinedo-García, Manuel

2017-01-01

In this paper we reject the nature-culture dichotomy by means of the idea of affordance or possibility for action, which has important implications for landscape theory. Our hypothesis is that, just as the idea of affordance can serve to overcome the subjective-objective dichotomy, the ideas of landscape and ecological niche, properly defined, would allow us to also transcend the nature-culture dichotomy. First, we introduce an overview of landscape theory, emphasizing processual landscape theory as the most suitable approach for satisfying both cultural and naturalist approaches. After that, we introduce the idea of affordance and we analyze a tension between sociocultural and transcultural affordances (affordances that depend on cultural conventions and affordances that depend on lawful information and bodily aspects of agents). This tension has various implications for landscape theory and ecological niches. Our proposal is that sociocultural and transcultural aspects of affordances could be systematically accommodated if we apply niche construction theory (the theory that explains the process by which organisms modify their selective environments) as a methodological framework for explaining the emergence of ecological niches. This approach will lead us to an integrative account of landscapes as the products of the interaction between human and environmental elements, making it a clear example of a concept that transcends the nature-culture dichotomy.

Scale Mismatches in Management of Urban Landscapes

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Sara T. Borgström

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Urban landscapes constitute the future environment for most of the world's human population. An increased understanding of the urbanization process and of the effects of urbanization at multiple scales is, therefore, key to ensuring human well-being. In many conventional natural resource management regimes, incomplete knowledge of ecosystem dynamics and institutional constraints often leads to institutional management frameworks that do not match the scale of ecological patterns and processes. In this paper, we argue that scale mismatches are particularly pronounced in urban landscapes. Urban green spaces provide numerous important ecosystem services to urban citizens, and the management of these urban green spaces, including recognition of scales, is crucial to the well-being of the citizens. From a qualitative study of the current management practices in five urban green spaces within the Greater Stockholm Metropolitan Area, Sweden, we found that 1 several spatial, temporal, and functional scales are recognized, but the cross-scale interactions are often neglected, and 2 spatial and temporal meso-scales are seldom given priority. One potential effect of the neglect of ecological cross-scale interactions in these highly fragmented landscapes is a gradual reduction in the capacity of the ecosystems to provide ecosystem services. Two important strategies for overcoming urban scale mismatches are suggested: 1 development of an integrative view of the whole urban social-ecological landscape, and 2 creation of adaptive governance systems to support practical management.

From Forest Landscape to Agricultural Landscape in the Developing Tropical Country of Malaysia: Pattern, Process, and Their Significance on Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Abdullah, Saiful Arif; Hezri, Adnan A.

2008-11-01

Agricultural expansion and deforestation are spatial processes of land transformation that impact on landscape pattern. In peninsular Malaysia, the conversion of forested areas into two major cash crops—rubber and oil palm plantations—has been identified as driving significant environmental change. To date, there has been insufficient literature studying the link between changes in landscape patterns and land-related development policies. Therefore, this paper examines: (i) the links between development policies and changes in land use/land cover and landscape pattern and (ii) the significance and implications of these links for future development policies. The objective is to generate insights on the changing process of land use/land cover and landscape pattern as a functional response to development policies and their consequences for environmental conditions. Over the last century, the development of cash crops has changed the country from one dominated by natural landscapes to one dominated by agricultural landscapes. But the last decade of the century saw urbanization beginning to impact significantly. This process aligned with the establishment of various development policies, from land development for agriculture between the mid 1950s and the 1970s to an emphasis on manufacturing from the 1980s onward. Based on a case study in Selangor, peninsular Malaysia, a model of landscape pattern change is presented. It contains three stages according to the relative importance of rubber (first stage: 1900-1950s), oil palm (second stage: 1960s-1970s), and urban (third stage: 1980s-1990s) development that influenced landscape fragmentation and heterogeneity. The environmental consequences of this change have been depicted through loss of biodiversity, geohazard incidences, and the spread of vector-borne diseases. The spatial ecological information can be useful to development policy formulation, allowing diagnosis of the country’s “health” and sustainability

Urbanization and stream ecology: Diverse mechanisms of change

Science.gov (United States)

Roy, Allison; Capps, Krista A.; El-Sabaawi, Rana W.; Jones, Krista L.; Parr, Thomas B.; Ramirez, Alonso; Smith, Robert F.; Walsh, Christopher J.; Wenger, Seth J.

2016-01-01

The field of urban stream ecology has evolved rapidly in the last 3 decades, and it now includes natural scientists from numerous disciplines working with social scientists, landscape planners and designers, and land and water managers to address complex, socioecological problems that have manifested in urban landscapes. Over the last decade, stream ecologists have met 3 times at the Symposium on Urbanization and Stream Ecology (SUSE) to discuss current research, identify knowledge gaps, and promote future research collaborations. The papers in this special series on urbanization and stream ecology include both primary research studies and conceptual synthesis papers spurred from discussions at SUSE in May 2014. The themes of the meeting are reflected in the papers in this series emphasizing global differences in mechanisms and responses of stream ecosystems to urbanization and management solutions in diverse urban streams. Our hope is that this series will encourage continued interdisciplinary and collaborative research to increase the global understanding of urban stream ecology toward stream protection and restoration in urban landscapes.

Sustaining ecosystem services in cultural landscapes

OpenAIRE

Plieninger, T.; van der Horst, D.; Schleyer, C.; Bieling, C.

2014-01-01

Classical conservation approaches focus on the man-made degradation of ecosystems and tend to neglect the social-ecological values that human land uses have imprinted on many environments. Throughout the world, ingenious land-use practices have generated unique cultural landscapes, but these are under pressure from agricultural intensification, land abandonment, and urbanization. In recent years, the cultural landscapes concept has been broadly adopted in science, policy, and management. The ...

Honey bee foraging ecology: Season but not landscape diversity shapes the amount and diversity of collected pollen.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nadja Danner

Full Text Available The availability of pollen in agricultural landscapes is essential for the successful growth and reproduction of honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera L.. The quantity and diversity of collected pollen can influence the growth and health of honey bee colonies, but little is known about the influence of landscape structure on pollen diet. In a field experiment, we rotated 16 honey bee colonies across 16 agricultural landscapes, used traps to collect samples of collected pollen and observed intra-colonial dance communication to gain information about foraging distances. DNA metabarcoding was applied to analyze mixed pollen samples. Neither the amount of collected pollen nor pollen diversity was related to landscape diversity. However, we found a strong seasonal variation in the amount and diversity of collected pollen in all sites independent of landscape diversity. The observed increase in foraging distances with decreasing landscape diversity suggests that honey bees compensated for lower landscape diversity by increasing their pollen foraging range in order to maintain pollen amount and diversity. Our results underscore the importance of a diverse pollen diet for honey bee colonies. Agri-environmental schemes aiming to support pollinators should focus on possible spatial and temporal gaps in pollen availability and diversity in agricultural landscapes.

Science for action at the local landscape scale

Science.gov (United States)

Paul Opddam; Joan Iverson Nassauer; Zhifang Wang; Christian Albert; Gary Bentrup; Jean-Christophe Castella; Clive McAlpine; Jianguo Liu; Stephen Sheppard; Simon Swaffield

2013-01-01

For landscape ecology to produce knowledge relevant to society, it must include considerations of human culture and behavior, extending beyond the natural sciences to synthesize with many other disciplines. Furthermore, it needs to be able to support landscape change processes which increasingly take the shape of deliberative and collaborative decision making by local...

Effect of landscape matrix type on nesting ecology of the Northern Cardinal

Science.gov (United States)

R.A. Sargent; J.C. Kilgo; B.R. Chapman; K.V. Miller

2015-01-01

Spatial distribution of forests relative to other habitats in a landscape may influence nest success of songbirds. For example, nest predation in mature forests increases as the percentage of clear-cut land in the surrounding matrix increases (Yahner and Scott 1988). Blake and Karr (1987) noted that birds breeding in forest fragments may incorporate adjacent habitats,...

The Landscape Architecture - Between the Art of the Gardens and the Science of the Landscape Interventions

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Doina-Mira Dascălu

2005-01-01

Full Text Available The modern landscape architecture being a profession that has an important impact on the environment, tries and succeeds to cover a very wide area. Because of its complex preoccupations area, the profession of the landscape architect may find itself in a nebula regarding the comprehension and the reaction of the public and cities mayors towards it. The landscape architecture has as purpose the realization of an ambience that is favourable to the human life progress, having in view the increasing of life’s quality and of the urban comfort, the maintenance of the ecological equilibrium. Despite the complexity of its preoccupations, the landscape architecture has been often lowered to the same level with the exclusive arrangement of green spaces.

Greenhouse warming and landscape care

Science.gov (United States)

Kevin T. Smith

2009-01-01

Climate change is one of the few truly planetary processes that influence the assessments and actions of governments and of everyday citizens. Principles and practices of ecological landscaping fit well with concern about hte effects of climate change.

Landscape genetics of high mountain frog metapopulations

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy, M.A.; Dezzani, R.; Pilliod, D.S.; Storfer, A.

2010-01-01

Explaining functional connectivity among occupied habitats is crucial for understanding metapopulation dynamics and species ecology. Landscape genetics has primarily focused on elucidating how ecological features between observations influence gene flow. Functional connectivity, however, may be the result of both these between-site (landscape resistance) landscape characteristics and at-site (patch quality) landscape processes that can be captured using network based models. We test hypotheses of functional connectivity that include both between-site and at-site landscape processes in metapopulations of Columbia spotted frogs (Rana luteiventris) by employing a novel justification of gravity models for landscape genetics (eight microsatellite loci, 37 sites, n = 441). Primarily used in transportation and economic geography, gravity models are a unique approach as flow (e.g. gene flow) is explained as a function of three basic components: distance between sites, production/attraction (e.g. at-site landscape process) and resistance (e.g. between-site landscape process). The study system contains a network of nutrient poor high mountain lakes where we hypothesized a short growing season and complex topography between sites limit R. luteiventris gene flow. In addition, we hypothesized production of offspring is limited by breeding site characteristics such as the introduction of predatory fish and inherent site productivity. We found that R. luteiventris connectivity was negatively correlated with distance between sites, presence of predatory fish (at-site) and topographic complexity (between-site). Conversely, site productivity (as measured by heat load index, at-site) and growing season (as measured by frost-free period between-sites) were positively correlated with gene flow. The negative effect of predation and positive effect of site productivity, in concert with bottleneck tests, support the presence of source-sink dynamics. In conclusion, gravity models provide a

Quantifying Landscape Spatial Pattern: What Is the State of the Art?

Science.gov (United States)

Eric J. Gustafson

1998-01-01

Landscape ecology is based on the premise that there are strong links between ecological pattern and ecological function and process. Ecological systems are spatially heterogeneous, exhibiting consid-erable complexity and variability in time and space. This variability is typically represented by categorical maps or by a collection of samples taken at specific spatial...

Challenges of forest landscape modeling - simulating large landscapes and validating results

Science.gov (United States)

Hong S. He; Jian Yang; Stephen R. Shifley; Frank R. Thompson

2011-01-01

Over the last 20 years, we have seen a rapid development in the field of forest landscape modeling, fueled by both technological and theoretical advances. Two fundamental challenges have persisted since the inception of FLMs: (1) balancing realistic simulation of ecological processes at broad spatial and temporal scales with computing capacity, and (2) validating...

Whose landscape? - An anthropological perspective on landscape perception in reindeer tending (In Swedish with Summary in English

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Anna Järpe

2005-04-01

Full Text Available When we talk publicly about landscape and land use, both in legal and in popular contexts, the evaluation of our natural environment is usually based on an industrial concept of land and landscape. "Nature" is seen as a resource to be used or managed in different ways. My research originates in a questioning of this assumption: can we take for granted that the same perceptions and evaluations are shared by all concerned parties? In this article, I will use an ecologic anthropological perspective to consider the livelihood of reindeer tending and suggest an alternative to what can be called a scientific understanding of the world. I maintain that the relations that people have with their environment, and the values that they ascribe to it, are perceptions that are shaped and affected in our interactions with the surrounding world, and that these perceptions vary between different groups of people. Land use, land rights, access to fishing waters, and who gets to hunt what; these are not only questions about how we should manage the landscape, but also about whose landscape we are managing. Arguing that the reindeer tenders' landscape is a shifting mosaic of varying conditions that they must relate to rather than an object to be used and controlled by human interests, I want to show how anthropological research can provide an insight into the different perspectives and modes of understanding that we need to consider in the formulation of future policies and laws. At least if we want to resolve land use conflicts in contested areas fairly and on a sustainable long-term basis.

Forest landscape restoration in the drylands of Latin America

OpenAIRE

Newton, Adrian C.; Del Castillo, Rafael F.; Echeverría, Cristian; Geneletti, Davide; González Espinosa, Mario; Malizia, Lucio R.; Premoli, Andrea C.; Rey Benayas, José María; Smith Ramírez, Cecilia; Williams Linera, Guadalupe

2012-01-01

Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) involves the ecological restoration of degraded forest landscapes, with the aim of benefiting both biodiversity and human well-being. We first identify four fundamental principles of FLR, based on previous definitions. We then critically evaluate the application of these principles in practice, based on the experience gained during an international, collaborative research project conducted in six dry forest landscapes of Latin America. Research highlighted t...

How to Set Up a Research Framework to Analyze Social-Ecological Interactive Processes in a Rural Landscape

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Marc Deconchat

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Interdisciplinary research frameworks can be useful in providing answers to the environmental challenges facing rural environments, but concrete implementation of them remains empirical and requires better control. We present our practical experience of an interdisciplinary research project dealing with non-industrial private forestry in rural landscapes. The theoretical background, management, and methodological aspects, as well as results of the project, are presented in order to identify practical key factors that may influence its outcomes. Landscape ecology plays a central role in organizing the project. The efforts allocated for communication between scientists from different disciplines must be clearly stated in order to earn reciprocal trust. Sharing the same nested sampling areas, common approaches, and analytical tools (GIS is important, but has to be balanced by autonomy for actual implementation of field work and data analysis in a modular and evolving framework. Data sets are at the heart of the collaboration and GIS is necessary to ensure their long-term management and sharing. The experience acquired from practical development of such projects should be shared more often in networks of teams to compare their behavior and identify common rules of functioning.

Coupling Intensive Land Use and Landscape Ecological Security for Urban Sustainability: An Integrated Socioeconomic Data and Spatial Metrics Analysis in Hangzhou City

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Xiaoteng Cen

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Despite the unprecedented rate of urbanization throughout the world, human society is still facing the challenge of coordinating urban socioeconomic development and ecological conservation. In this article, we integrated socioeconomic data and spatial metrics to investigate the coupling relationship between intensive land use (ILU system and landscape ecological security (LES system for urban sustainable development, and to determine how these systems interact with each other. The values of ILU and LES were first calculated according to two evaluation subsystems under the pressure-state-response (PSR framework. A coupling model was then established to analyze the coupling relationship within these two subsystems. The results showed that the levels of both subsystems were generally increasing, but there were several fluctuation changes in LES. The interaction in each system was time lagged; urban land use/cover change (LUCC and ecosystem transformation were determined by political business cycles and influenced by specific factors. The coupling relationship underwent a coordinated development mode from 1992–2012. From the findings we concluded that the coupling system maintained a stable condition and underwent evolving threshold values. The integrated ILU and LES system was a coupling system in which subsystems were related to each other and internal elements had mutual effects. Finally, it was suggested that our results provided a multi-level interdisciplinary perspective on linking socioeconomic-ecological systems. The implications for urban sustainable development were also discussed.

Dynamic Changes of Landscape Pattern and Vulnerability Analysis in Qingyi River Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ziwei; Xie, Chaoying; He, Xiaohui; Guo, Hengliang; Wang, Li

2017-11-01

Environmental vulnerability research is one of the core areas of global environmental change research. Over the past 10 years, ecologically fragile zones or transition zones had been significantly affected by environmental degradation and climate change and human activities. In this paper, we analyzed the spatial and temporal changes of landscape pattern and landscape vulnerability degree in Qingyi River Basin by calculating the landscape sensitivity index and landscape restoration degree index based on Landsat images of 2005, 2010 and 2015. The results showed that: (1) The top conversion area was farmland, woodland and grassland area decreased, city land and rural residential land increased fastest. (2) The fragility of the landscape pattern along the Qingyi River gradually increased between 2005 and 2015, the downstream area was influenced by the influence of human activities. (3) Landscape pattern changes and fragility are mainly affected by urbanization. These findings are helpful for understanding the evolution of landscape pattern as well as urban ecology, which both have significant implications for urban planning and minimize the potential environmental impacts of urbanization in Qingyi River Basin.

European ecological networks and greenways

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristiansen, Ib; Jongman, Rob H.G.; Kulvik, Mart

2004-01-01

renewed. Within the framework of nature conservation, the notion of an ecological network has become increasingly important. Throughout Europe, regional and national approaches are in different phases of development, which are all based on recent landscape ecological principles. Ecological networks......In the context of European integration, networks are becoming increasingly important in both social and ecological sense. Since the beginning of the 1990s, societal and scientific exchanges are being restructured as the conceptual approaches towards new nature conservation strategies have been....... This complex interaction between cultural and natural features results in quite different ways for the elaboration of ecological networks and greenways....

Travelling in the eastern Mediterranean with landscape character assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Abu Jaber, N.; Abunnasr, Y.; Abu Yahya, A.; Boulad, N.; Christou, O.; Dimitropoulos, G.; Dimopoulos, T.; Gkoltsiou, K.; Khreis, N.; Manolaki, P.; Michael, K.; Odeh, T.; Papatheodoulou, A.; Sorotou, A.; Sinno, S.; Suliman, O.; Symons, N.; Terkenli, T.; Trigkas, Vassilis; Trovato, M. G.; Victora, M.; Zomeni, M.; Vogiatzakis, I. N.

2015-06-01

Following its application in Northern Europe, Landscape Character Assessment has also been implemented in Euro-Mediterranean countries as a tool for classifying, describing and assessing landscapes. Many landscape classifications employed in the Euro-Mediterranean area are similar in philosophy and application to the ones developed in Northern Europe. However, many aspects of landform, climate, land-use and ecology, as well as socio-economic context are distinctive of Mediterranean landscapes. The paper discusses the conceptual and methodological issues faced during landscape mapping and characterisation in four East-Mediterranean countries (within the MEDSCAPES project): Cyprus, Greece, Jordan and Lebanon. The major hurdles to overcome during the first phase of methodology development include variation in availability, quality, scale and coverage of spatial datasets between countries and also terminology semantics around landscapes. For example, the concept of landscape - a well-defined term in Greek and English - did not exist in Arabic. Another issue is the use of relative terms like 'high mountains,' `uplands' `lowlands' or ' hills'. Such terms, which are regularly used in landscape description, were perceived slightly differently in the four participating countries. In addition differences exist in nomenclature and classification systems used by each country for the dominant landscape-forming factors i.e. geology, soils and land use- but also in the cultural processes shaping the landscapes - compared both to each other and to the Northern-European norms. This paper argues for the development of consistent, regionally adapted, relevant and standardised methodologies if the results and application of LCA in the eastern Mediterranean region are to be transferable and comparable between countries.

Responding to Landscape Change: Stakeholder Participation and Social Capital in Five European Landscapes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thanasis Kizos

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The concept of landscape has been increasingly used, in the last decades, in policy and land use planning, both in regard to so-called “special” and to “ordinary” or “everyday” landscapes. This has raised the importance of local and public participation in all issues that refer to landscapes and the definition of the groups that “have a stake” in the landscape. In this paper, we provide insights into how stakeholders perceive the dynamics of local processes of landscape change (and continuity and which processes of landscape change they perceive as important, in positive and negative ways, from five communities within the European Union. These landscapes involve different landscape issues “at stake”, different national and local planning and decision-making traditions and practices, and varying degrees of engagement. The understanding of these complexities and the unraveling of the insights is done through the concept of social capital and its different forms. We report on three series of workshops that have been organized to discuss landscape issues and approaches or ideas for landscape management. We witnessed interactions between the different stakeholders and gained insights into how social capital affects landscape change. We found that despite differences, similarities emerged concerning the interplay between “expert” and “local” knowledge and between “insideness” and “outsideness”. Social capital plays an important part, as it provides the template for personal and collective evaluation of landscape changes, who should manage these changes and how they should be managed. These findings are important to develop in-depth insights on dynamics and values of cultural landscapes and visions for re-coupling social and ecological components in cultural landscapes and translate them into policy and management options.

Predictors of breeding site occupancy by amphibians in montane landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Groff, Luke A.; Loftin, Cynthia S.; Calhoun, Aram J.K.

2017-01-01

Ecological relationships and processes vary across species’ geographic distributions, life stages and spatial, and temporal scales. Montane landscapes are characterized by low wetland densities, rugged topographies, and cold climates. Consequently, aquatic-dependent and low-vagility ectothermic species (e.g., pool-breeding amphibians) may exhibit unique ecological associations in montane landscapes. We evaluated the relative importance of breeding- and landscape-scale features associated with spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) and wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) wetland occupancy in Maine's Upper Montane-Alpine Zone ecoregion, and we determined whether models performed better when the inclusive landscape-scale covariates were estimated with topography-weighted or circular buffers. We surveyed 135 potential breeding sites during May 2013–June 2014 and evaluated environmental relationships with multi-season implicit dynamics occupancy models. Breeding site occupancy by both species was influenced solely by breeding-scale habitat features. Spotted salamander occupancy probabilities increased with previous or current beaver (Castor canadensis) presence, and models generally were better supported when the inclusive landscape-scale covariates were estimated with topography-weighted rather than circular buffers. Wood frog occupancy probabilities increased with site area and percent shallows, but neither buffer type was better supported than the other. Model rank order and support varied between buffer types, but model inferences did not. Our results suggest pool-breeding amphibian conservation in montane Maine include measures to maintain beaver populations and large wetlands with proportionally large areas of shallows ≤1-m deep. Inconsistencies between our study and previous studies substantiate the value of region-specific research for augmenting species’ conservation management plans and suggest the application of out-of-region inferences may promote

Environmental determinants of the old oaks in wood-pastures from a changing traditional social-ecological system of Romania.

Science.gov (United States)

Moga, Cosmin Ioan; Samoilă, Ciprian; Öllerer, Kinga; Băncilă, Raluca I; Réti, Kinga-Olga; Craioveanu, Cristina; Poszet, Szilárd; Rákosy, László; Hartel, Tibor

2016-05-01

Large, old trees are keystone ecological structures, their decline having disproportional ecological consequences. There is virtually no information available regarding the status and occurrence of old trees in traditional cultural landscapes from Eastern Europe. In this study, we explore the environmental determinants of the old oaks found in wood-pastures from a changing traditional rural landscape from Central Romania. Both the old oaks and the wood-pastures harboring them have exceptional cultural, historical, and ecological values, yet are vulnerable to land-use change. We surveyed 41 wood-pastures from Southern Transylvania and counted the old oaks in them. We then related the number of old oaks from these wood-pastures to a set of local and landscape level variables related to wood-pastures. We found 490 old oaks in 25 wood-pastures. The number of old oaks was positively related to the size of the wood-pasture and the amount of pasture and forest around it (500 m buffer), and negatively related to the proximity of the village. Furthermore, we found a significant interaction between the effects of sheepfolds in the wood-pasture and the size of the wood-pasture on the number of old trees, indicating a negative influence of sheepfolds on the number of old trees in smaller sized wood-pastures. There is an increasing risk for losing old trees in the traditional cultural landscapes due to the lack of formal recognition of these trees. Therefore, while presenting the positive example of local initiatives and citizen science, we argue for an urgent development and implementation of conservation policies along with education strategies targeting the old trees and rural communities from the changing traditional cultural landscapes of Eastern Europe.

From Product to Place-Spatializing governance in a commodified landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

van Oosten, Cora; Moeliono, Moira; Wiersum, Freerk

2018-07-01

This article analyzes the potential for landscape governance in large-scale commodity landscapes in Indonesia. It conceptualizes landscape governance as the spatialization of governance, which entails the interplay between natural-spatial conditions of place, public-private actor constellations, and policy responses. The article presents the case of a commodified oil palm landscape in West Kalimantan, where a potentially new type of landscape governance is emerging out of the experimental activities of an ecologically responsible commercial enterprise. It describes the development of a multifunctional concession as a process of productive bricolage involving the creative combination of different land uses within a single productive space. It also describes how such a multifunctional concession does not fit into existing policies, which are sectorally defined and embedded in sticky institutional frames. The formation of new public-private institutional arrangements needed for the development of multifunctional concessions is a difficult process, as it requires an alignment of contrasting discourses and an integration of sectorally-defined policy frames. If successful, it might facilitate the transition from multifunctional concessions to multifunctional landscapes. Such a fundamental change in land use and production relations however requires intensive stakeholder engagement and policy dialog. Indonesia's continuous decentralization process offers opportunities for this, as it increasingly provides institutional space at the landscape level, for public and private actors to explore common concerns, and craft public-private arrangements specific to the landscape.

Affordances and Landscapes: Overcoming the Nature–Culture Dichotomy through Niche Construction Theory

Science.gov (United States)

Heras-Escribano, Manuel; De Pinedo-García, Manuel

2018-01-01

In this paper we reject the nature–culture dichotomy by means of the idea of affordance or possibility for action, which has important implications for landscape theory. Our hypothesis is that, just as the idea of affordance can serve to overcome the subjective–objective dichotomy, the ideas of landscape and ecological niche, properly defined, would allow us to also transcend the nature–culture dichotomy. First, we introduce an overview of landscape theory, emphasizing processual landscape theory as the most suitable approach for satisfying both cultural and naturalist approaches. After that, we introduce the idea of affordance and we analyze a tension between sociocultural and transcultural affordances (affordances that depend on cultural conventions and affordances that depend on lawful information and bodily aspects of agents). This tension has various implications for landscape theory and ecological niches. Our proposal is that sociocultural and transcultural aspects of affordances could be systematically accommodated if we apply niche construction theory (the theory that explains the process by which organisms modify their selective environments) as a methodological framework for explaining the emergence of ecological niches. This approach will lead us to an integrative account of landscapes as the products of the interaction between human and environmental elements, making it a clear example of a concept that transcends the nature–culture dichotomy. PMID:29375426

Using nitrogen concentration and isotopic composition in lichens to spatially assess the relative contribution of atmospheric nitrogen sources in complex landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinho, P; Barros, C; Augusto, S; Pereira, M J; Máguas, C; Branquinho, C

2017-11-01

Reactive nitrogen (Nr) is an important driver of global change, causing alterations in ecosystem biodiversity and functionality. Environmental assessments require monitoring the emission and deposition of both the amount and types of Nr. This is especially important in heterogeneous landscapes, as different land-cover types emit particular forms of Nr to the atmosphere, which can impact ecosystems distinctively. Such assessments require high spatial resolution maps that also integrate temporal variations, and can only be feasibly achieved by using ecological indicators. Our aim was to rank land-cover types according to the amount and form of emitted atmospheric Nr in a complex landscape with multiple sources of N. To do so, we measured and mapped nitrogen concentration and isotopic composition in lichen thalli, which we then related to land-cover data. Results suggested that, at the landscape scale, intensive agriculture and urban areas were the most important sources of Nr to the atmosphere. Additionally, the ocean greatly influences Nr in land, by providing air with low Nr concentration and a unique isotopic composition. These results have important consequences for managing air pollution at the regional level, as they provide critical information for modeling Nr emission and deposition across regional as well as continental scales. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Visions of Restoration in Fire-Adapted Forest Landscapes: Lessons from the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program

Science.gov (United States)

Urgenson, Lauren S.; Ryan, Clare M.; Halpern, Charles B.; Bakker, Jonathan D.; Belote, R. Travis; Franklin, Jerry F.; Haugo, Ryan D.; Nelson, Cara R.; Waltz, Amy E. M.

2017-02-01

Collaborative approaches to natural resource management are becoming increasingly common on public lands. Negotiating a shared vision for desired conditions is a fundamental task of collaboration and serves as a foundation for developing management objectives and monitoring strategies. We explore the complex socio-ecological processes involved in developing a shared vision for collaborative restoration of fire-adapted forest landscapes. To understand participant perspectives and experiences, we analyzed interviews with 86 respondents from six collaboratives in the western U.S., part of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program established to encourage collaborative, science-based restoration on U.S. Forest Service lands. Although forest landscapes and group characteristics vary considerably, collaboratives faced common challenges to developing a shared vision for desired conditions. Three broad categories of challenges emerged: meeting multiple objectives, collaborative capacity and trust, and integrating ecological science and social values in decision-making. Collaborative groups also used common strategies to address these challenges, including some that addressed multiple challenges. These included use of issue-based recommendations, field visits, and landscape-level analysis; obtaining support from local agency leadership, engaging facilitators, and working in smaller groups (sub-groups); and science engagement. Increased understanding of the challenges to, and strategies for, developing a shared vision of desired conditions is critical if other collaboratives are to learn from these efforts.

Visions of Restoration in Fire-Adapted Forest Landscapes: Lessons from the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program.

Science.gov (United States)

Urgenson, Lauren S; Ryan, Clare M; Halpern, Charles B; Bakker, Jonathan D; Belote, R Travis; Franklin, Jerry F; Haugo, Ryan D; Nelson, Cara R; Waltz, Amy E M

2017-02-01

Collaborative approaches to natural resource management are becoming increasingly common on public lands. Negotiating a shared vision for desired conditions is a fundamental task of collaboration and serves as a foundation for developing management objectives and monitoring strategies. We explore the complex socio-ecological processes involved in developing a shared vision for collaborative restoration of fire-adapted forest landscapes. To understand participant perspectives and experiences, we analyzed interviews with 86 respondents from six collaboratives in the western U.S., part of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program established to encourage collaborative, science-based restoration on U.S. Forest Service lands. Although forest landscapes and group characteristics vary considerably, collaboratives faced common challenges to developing a shared vision for desired conditions. Three broad categories of challenges emerged: meeting multiple objectives, collaborative capacity and trust, and integrating ecological science and social values in decision-making. Collaborative groups also used common strategies to address these challenges, including some that addressed multiple challenges. These included use of issue-based recommendations, field visits, and landscape-level analysis; obtaining support from local agency leadership, engaging facilitators, and working in smaller groups (sub-groups); and science engagement. Increased understanding of the challenges to, and strategies for, developing a shared vision of desired conditions is critical if other collaboratives are to learn from these efforts.

Recent developments in computer modeling add ecological realism to landscape genetics

Science.gov (United States)

Background / Question / Methods A factor limiting the rate of progress in landscape genetics has been the shortage of spatial models capable of linking life history attributes such as dispersal behavior to complex dynamic landscape features. The recent development of new models...

Controlled experiments of hillslope co-evolution at the Biosphere 2 Landscape Evolution Observatory: toward prediction of coupled hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological change

Science.gov (United States)

Volkmann, T. H. M.; Sengupta, A.; Pangle, L.; Abramson, N.; Barron-Gafford, G.; Breshears, D. D.; Bugaj, A.; Chorover, J.; Dontsova, K.; Durcik, M.; Ferre, T. P. A.; Harman, C. J.; Hunt, E.; Huxman, T. E.; Kim, M.; Maier, R. M.; Matos, K.; Alves Meira Neto, A.; Meredith, L. K.; Monson, R. K.; Niu, G. Y.; Pelletier, J. D.; Rasmussen, C.; Ruiz, J.; Saleska, S. R.; Schaap, M. G.; Sibayan, M.; Tuller, M.; Van Haren, J. L. M.; Wang, Y.; Zeng, X.; Troch, P. A.

2017-12-01

the evolutionary trajectory, integrating data with models, and fostering community-wide collaborations, we envision that emergent landscape structures and functions can be linked and significant progress can be made toward predicting the coupled hydro-biogeochemical and ecological responses to global change.

An operational methodology for riparian land cover fine scale regional mapping for the study of landscape influence on river ecological status

Science.gov (United States)

Tormos, T.; Kosuth, P.; Souchon, Y.; Villeneuve, B.; Durrieu, S.; Chandesris, A.

2010-12-01

Preservation and restoration of river ecosystems require an improved understanding of the mechanisms through which they are influenced by landscape at multiple spatial scales and particularly at river corridor scale considering the role of riparian vegetation for regulating and protecting river ecological status and the relevance of this specific area for implementing efficient and realistic strategies. Assessing correctly this influence over large river networks involves accurate broad scale (i.e. at least regional) information on Land Cover within Riparian Areas (LCRA). As the structure of land cover along rivers is generally not accessible using moderate-scale satellite imagery, finer spatial resolution imagery and specific mapping techniques are needed. For this purpose we developed a generic multi-scale Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) scheme able to produce LCRA maps in different geographic context by exploiting information available from very high spatial resolution imagery (satellite or airborne) and/or metric to decametric spatial thematic data on a given study zone thanks to fuzzy expert knowledge classification rules. A first experimentation was carried out on the Herault river watershed (southern of France), a 2650 square kilometers basin that presents a contrasted landscape (different ecoregions) and a total stream length of 1150 Km, using high and very high multispectral remotely-sensed images (10m Spot5 multispectral images and 0.5m aerial photography) and existing spatial thematic data. Application of the OBIA scheme produced a detailed (22 classes) LCRA map with an overall accuracy of 89% and a Kappa index of 83% according to a land cover pressures typology (six categories). A second experimentation (using the same data sources) was carried out on a larger test zone, a part of the Normandy river network (25 000 square kilometers basin; 6000 km long river network; 155 ecological stations). This second work aimed at elaborating a robust statistical

Application of Source-Sink Landscape Influence Values to Commuter Traffic: A Case Study of Xiamen Island

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tong Wu

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Landscape patterns are closely related to ecological processes. Different spatial scales and research methods may lead to different results. Therefore, it is crucial to choose suitable research methods when studying different landscape patterns and ecological processes. In the present study, the methods of source-sink landscape theory were applied to the interactions between urban landscape characteristics and commuter traffic behavior around the arterial roads in Xiamen Island. After classification of land use types using remote sensing images from the IKONOS satellite and ArcGIS software (ESRI, Redlands, CA, USA, the landscape patterns of areas surrounding arterial roads (within 1 km were evaluated using source-sink landscape influence (SLI. The results showed that Xiamen Island’s urban expressway had the highest SLI value (0.191, followed by the state highways (0.067, the provincial highways (0.030, and the county roads (0.025. When considering all road types, the correlation between a road’s SLI value and its commuter traffic flow was 0.684. This result was explained by three observations: (1 The contribution of the core area of each landscape pattern to traffic flow was positively correlated with the traffic flow. (2 Areas surrounding the urban expressway and the state highways had lower values for Shannon’s diversity index, indicating that these areas had a lower degree of landscape fragmentation. (3 The landscape patterns surrounding the urban expressway and the state highways were more concentrated and complex than those around other road types. The application of source-sink landscape pattern theory allows for researchers to integrate the relationships between landscape patterns surrounding roads and commuter traffic flow on those roads and to analyze the reasons for these relationships.

Regional Landscape System Protection in the Urbanising Desert Southwest: Lessons from the Phoenix Metropolitan Region, USA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Musacchio

2004-12-01

Full Text Available Through the lens of holistic landscape ecology, the authors present for public consideration a desert landscape typology and plan assessment criteria. As a case study, historical trends in open space planning and two contrasting examples of recent open space plans from the Phoenix metropolitan area were analysed and compared to the typology in order to understand how successfully the open space planning efforts had addressed protection of the regional landscape system in the Sonoran Desert. We also developed an approach for the analysis of the landscape ecological component of plans that was based on Baer's general plan assessment criteria (1997. Our results indicate the desert landscape typology is a valuable step as part of a plan assessment of two regional, open space plans, but more importantly, the assessment criteria presented in this paper could be used as the foundation for a more thorough assessment method of the landscape ecological component of plans. The desert landscape typology and plan assessment criteria presented in this paper can be used to increase understanding about how the decision making of planners and designers has influenced the temporal and spatial dimensions of landscape legacies, trajectories and transformations, such as connectivity and fragmentation of open space.

Implementing forest landscape restoration, a practitioner's guide

Science.gov (United States)

John Stanturf; Stephanie Mansourian; Michael (eds.). Kleine

2017-01-01

Forest landscape restoration (FLR) in a nutshell FLR was defined in 2000 by a group of 30 specialists as “a planned process that aims to regain ecological integrity and enhance human wellbeing in deforested or degraded landscapes”. It does not seek to recreate past ecosystems given the uncertainty concerning the “past”, the significantly altered conditions of the...

Weather and landscape factors affect white-tailed deer neonate survival at ecologically important life stages in the Northern Great Plains

Science.gov (United States)

Michel, Eric S.; Jenks, Jonathan A.; Kaskie, Kyle D.; Klaver, Robert W.; Jensen, William F.

2018-01-01

Offspring survival is generally more variable than adult survival and may limit population growth. Although white-tailed deer neonate survival has been intensively investigated, recent work has emphasized how specific cover types influence neonate survival at local scales (single study area). These localized investigations have often led to inconsistences within the literature. Developing specific hypotheses describing the relationships among environmental, habitat, and landscape factors influencing white-tailed deer neonate survival at regional scales may allow for detection of generalized patterns. Therefore, we developed 11 hypotheses representing the various effects of environmental (e.g., winter and spring weather), habitat (e.g., hiding and escape cover types), and landscape factors (e.g., landscape configuration regardless of specific cover type available) on white-tailed deer neonate survival up to one-month and from one- to three-months of age. At one-month, surviving fawns experienced a warmer lowest recorded June temperature and more June precipitation than those that perished. At three-months, patch connectance (percent of patches of the corresponding patch type that are connected within a predefined distance) positively influenced survival. Our results are consistent with white-tailed deer neonate ecology: increased spring temperature and precipitation are likely associated with a flush of nutritional resources available to the mother, promoting increased lactation efficiency and neonate growth early in life. In contrast, reduced spring temperature with increased precipitation place neonates at risk to hypothermia. Increased patch connectance likely reflects increased escape cover available within a neonate’s home range after they are able to flee from predators. If suitable escape cover is available on the landscape, then managers could focus efforts towards manipulating landscape configuration (patch connectance) to promote increased neonate

Ecological networks and greenways; concept, design, implementation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jongman, R.H.G.; Pungetti, G.

2004-01-01

The establishment of ecological networks in Europe and greenways in America has required some of the most advanced applications of the principles of landscape ecology to land use planning. This book provides a thorough overview of recent developments in this emerging field, combining theoretical

Spatial variation and prediction of forest biomass in a heterogeneous landscape

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

S.Lamsal; D.M.Rizzo; R.K.Meentemeyer

2012-01-01

Large areas assessments of forest biomass distribution are a challenge in heterogeneous landscapes,where variations in tree growth and species composition occur over short distances.In this study,we use statistical and geospatial modeling on densely sampled forest biomass data to analyze the relative importance of ecological and physiographic variables as determinants of spatial variation of forest biomass in the environmentally heterogeneous region of the Big Sur,California.We estimated biomass in 280 forest plots (one plot per 2.85 km2) and measured an array of ecological (vegetation community type,distance to edge,amount of surrounding non-forest vegetation,soil properties,fire history) and physiographic drivers (elevation,potential soil moisture and solar radiation,proximity to the coast) of tree growth at each plot location.Our geostatistical analyses revealed that biomass distribution is spatially structured and autocorrelated up to 3.1 km.Regression tree (RT) models showed that both physiographic and ecological factors influenced biomass distribution.Across randomly selected sample densities (sample size 112 to 280),ecological effects of vegetation community type and distance to forest edge,and physiographic effects of elevation,potentialsoil moisture and solar radiation were the most consistent predictors of biomass.Topographic moisture index and potential solar radiation had a positive effect on biomass,indicating the importance of topographicallymediated energy and moisture on plant growth and biomass accumulation.RT model explained 35% of the variation in biomass and spatially autocorrelated variation were retained in regession residuals.Regression kriging model,developed from RT combined with kriging of regression residuals,was used to map biomass across the Big Sur.This study demonstrates how statistical and geospatial modeling can be used to discriminate the relative importance of physiographic and ecologic effects on forest biomass and develop

Dictionary of applied ecology. English-German, German-English

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-01-01

The book comprises about 14.000 terms of the following subject fields: Fundamentals (ecological factors, ecosystems and mark hazard factors, dynamics of ecosystems), environmental toxicology, environmental analysis (chemical methods of analysis, biological indicators), models and forecasts for ecosystems, environmental technology (waste water treatment, air pollution abatement, soil regeneration, landfill reclamation, recycling technologies, low-waste technologies), special ecological problems (forest ecology, landscape ecology), and environmental law. (orig.) [de

Southern Great Plains Rapid Ecoregional assessment—Volume I. Ecological communities

Science.gov (United States)

Reese, Gordon C.; Burris, Lucy; Carr, Natasha B.; Leinwand, Ian I.F.; Melcher, Cynthia P.

2017-10-19

The Southern Great Plains Rapid Ecoregional Assessment was conducted in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative. The overall goal of the Rapid Ecoregional Assessments (REAs) is to compile and synthesize regional datasets to facilitate evaluation of the cumulative effects of change agents on priority ecological communities and species. In particular, the REAs identify and map the distribution of communities and wildlife habitats at broad spatial extents and provide assessments of ecological conditions. The REAs also identify where and to what degree ecological resources are currently at risk from change agents, such as development, fire, invasive species, and climate change. The REAs can help managers identify and prioritize potential areas for conservation or restoration, assess cumulative effects as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, and inform landscape-level planning and management decisions for multiple uses of public lands.Management questions form the basis for the REA framework and were developed in conjunction with the BLM and other stakeholders. Conservation elements are communities and species that are of regional management concern. Core management questions relate to the key ecological attributes and change agents associated with each conservation element. Integrated management questions synthesize the results of the primary core management questions into overall landscape-level ranks for each conservation element.The ecological communities evaluated as conservation elements are shortgrass, mixed-grass, and sand prairies; all grasslands; riparian and nonplaya wetlands; playa wetlands and saline lakes; and prairie streams and rivers. Species and species assemblages evaluated are the freshwater mussel assemblage, Arkansas River shiner (Notropis girardi), ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis), lesser prairie chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus), snowy plover (Charadrius

Conserving agrobiodiversity amid global change, migration, and nontraditional livelihood networks: the dynamic uses of cultural landscape knowledge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karl S. Zimmerer

2014-06-01

Full Text Available I examined agrobiodiversity in smallholder cultural landscapes with the goal of offering new insights into management and policy options for the resilience-based in situ conservation and social-ecological sustainability of local, food-producing crop types, i.e., landraces. I built a general, integrative approach to focus on both land use and livelihood functions of crop landraces in the context of nontraditional, migration-related livelihoods amid global change. The research involved a multimethod, case-study design focused on a cultural landscape of maize, i.e., corn, growing in the Andes of central Bolivia, which is a global hot spot for this crop's agrobiodiversity. Central questions included the following: (1 What are major agroecological functions and food-related services of the agrobiodiversity of Andean maize landraces, and how are they related to cultural landscapes and associated knowledge systems? (2 What are new migration-related livelihood groups, and how are their dynamic livelihoods propelled through global change, in particular international and national migration, linked to the use and cultural landscapes of agrobiodiversity? (3 What are management and policy options derived from the previous questions? Combined social-ecological services as both cultivation and food resources are found to function in relation to the cultural landscape. Results demonstrated major variations of maturation-based, phenologic traits and food-use properties that are cornerstones of the landrace-level agrobiodiversity of Andean maize. Knowledge of these parameters is widespread. Linkage of these production and consumption functions yields a major insight into dynamics of Andean maize agrobiodiversity. Concurrently, this smallholder cultural landscape has become increasingly dependent on new rural conditions, especially increased livelihood diversification and migration amid growing peri-urban influences. Viability of landrace-level maize

Landscape design methods in architecture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jauslin, D.T.

2012-01-01

Landscape has been used as a metaphor or conceptual reference for an increasing amount of excellent architectural projects in the last two decades. The phenomenon seems to be a substantial innovation of architecture with an interesting potential for artistic, social and ecological gains. To be able

Riverine Landscape Patch Heterogeneity Drives Riparian Ant Assemblages in the Scioto River Basin, USA.

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Paradzayi Tagwireyi

Full Text Available Although the principles of landscape ecology are increasingly extended to include riverine landscapes, explicit applications are few. We investigated associations between patch heterogeneity and riparian ant assemblages at 12 riverine landscapes of the Scioto River, Ohio, USA, that represent urban/developed, agricultural, and mixed (primarily forested, but also wetland, grassland/fallow, and exurban land-use settings. Using remotely-sensed and ground-collected data, we delineated riverine landscape patch types (crop, grass/herbaceous, gravel, lawn, mudflat, open water, shrub, swamp, and woody vegetation, computed patch metrics (area, density, edge, richness, and shape, and conducted coordinated sampling of surface-active Formicidae assemblages. Ant density and species richness was lower in agricultural riverine landscapes than at mixed or developed reaches (measured using S [total number of species], but not using Menhinick's Index [DM], whereas ant diversity (using the Berger-Park Index [DBP] was highest in agricultural reaches. We found no differences in ant density, richness, or diversity among internal riverine landscape patches. However, certain characteristics of patches influenced ant communities. Patch shape and density were significant predictors of richness (S: R2 = 0.72; DM: R2=0.57. Patch area, edge, and shape emerged as important predictors of DBP (R2 = 0.62 whereas patch area, edge, and density were strongly related to ant density (R2 = 0.65. Non-metric multidimensional scaling and analysis of similarities distinguished ant assemblage composition in grass and swamp patches from crop, gravel, lawn, and shrub as well as ant assemblages in woody vegetation patches from crop, lawn, and gravel (stress = 0.18, R2 = 0.64. These findings lend insight into the utility of landscape ecology to river science by providing evidence that spatial habitat patterns within riverine landscapes can influence assemblage characteristics of riparian

Continental-scale quantification of landscape values using social media data.

Science.gov (United States)

van Zanten, Boris T; Van Berkel, Derek B; Meentemeyer, Ross K; Smith, Jordan W; Tieskens, Koen F; Verburg, Peter H

2016-11-15

Individuals, communities, and societies ascribe a diverse array of values to landscapes. These values are shaped by the aesthetic, cultural, and recreational benefits and services provided by those landscapes. However, across the globe, processes such as urbanization, agricultural intensification, and abandonment are threatening landscape integrity, altering the personally meaningful connections people have toward specific places. Existing methods used to study landscape values, such as social surveys, are poorly suited to capture dynamic landscape-scale processes across large geographic extents. Social media data, by comparison, can be used to indirectly measure and identify valuable features of landscapes at a regional, continental, and perhaps even worldwide scale. We evaluate the usefulness of different social media platforms-Panoramio, Flickr, and Instagram-and quantify landscape values at a continental scale. We find Panoramio, Flickr, and Instagram data can be used to quantify landscape values, with features of Instagram being especially suitable due to its relatively large population of users and its functional ability of allowing users to attach personally meaningful comments and hashtags to their uploaded images. Although Panoramio, Flickr, and Instagram have different user profiles, our analysis revealed similar patterns of landscape values across Europe across the three platforms. We also found variables describing accessibility, population density, income, mountainous terrain, or proximity to water explained a significant portion of observed variation across data from the different platforms. Social media data can be used to extend our understanding of how and where individuals ascribe value to landscapes across diverse social, political, and ecological boundaries.

Empirical methods for modeling landscape change, ecosystem services, and biodiversity

Science.gov (United States)

David Lewis; Ralph. Alig

2009-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize recent economics research aimed at integrating discrete-choice econometric models of land-use change with spatially-explicit landscape simulations and quantitative ecology. This research explicitly models changes in the spatial pattern of landscapes in two steps: 1) econometric estimation of parcel-scale transition...

Using landscape disturbance and succession models to support forest management

Science.gov (United States)

Eric J. Gustafson; Brian R. Sturtevant; Anatoly S. Shvidenko; Robert M. Scheller

2010-01-01

Managers of forested landscapes must account for multiple, interacting ecological processes operating at broad spatial and temporal scales. These interactions can be of such complexity that predictions of future forest ecosystem states are beyond the analytical capability of the human mind. Landscape disturbance and succession models (LDSM) are predictive and...

Applying Landscape Science to Natural Resource Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guy M. Robinson

2013-03-01

Full Text Available This is the introduction to the Ecology and Society special feature on "Applying Landscape Science to Natural Resource Management". Primarily drawing upon examples from Australia, the nine papers in the feature illustrate how landscape science seeks to integrate information from diverse sources to generate management solutions for implementation by individual land managers, communities, and governments at different levels. This introduction refers to the genesis of the feature, briefly outlines the nature and content of landscape science, and then summarizes key features of the nine papers. These are organized into two sections: one deals with inputs from human agents in the landscape, and one with the development of models enabling different management scenarios and environmental changes to be envisaged, understood, and applied to policy development.

Inferring ecological and behavioral drivers of African elephant movement using a linear filtering approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Boettiger, Alistair N; Wittemyer, George; Starfield, Richard; Volrath, Fritz; Douglas-Hamilton, Iain; Getz, Wayne M

2011-08-01

Understanding the environmental factors influencing animal movements is fundamental to theoretical and applied research in the field of movement ecology. Studies relating fine-scale movement paths to spatiotemporally structured landscape data, such as vegetation productivity or human activity, are particularly lacking despite the obvious importance of such information to understanding drivers of animal movement. In part, this may be because few approaches provide the sophistication to characterize the complexity of movement behavior and relate it to diverse, varying environmental stimuli. We overcame this hurdle by applying, for the first time to an ecological question, a finite impulse-response signal-filtering approach to identify human and natural environmental drivers of movements of 13 free-ranging African elephants (Loxodonta africana) from distinct social groups collected over seven years. A minimum mean-square error (MMSE) estimation criterion allowed comparison of the predictive power of landscape and ecological model inputs. We showed that a filter combining vegetation dynamics, human and physical landscape features, and previous movement outperformed simpler filter structures, indicating the importance of both dynamic and static landscape features, as well as habit, on movement decisions taken by elephants. Elephant responses to vegetation productivity indices were not uniform in time or space, indicating that elephant foraging strategies are more complex than simply gravitation toward areas of high productivity. Predictions were most frequently inaccurate outside protected area boundaries near human settlements, suggesting that human activity disrupts typical elephant movement behavior. Successful management strategies at the human-elephant interface, therefore, are likely to be context specific and dynamic. Signal processing provides a promising approach for elucidating environmental factors that drive animal movements over large time and spatial

Habitat connectivity and fragmented nuthatch populations in agricultural landscapes

OpenAIRE

Langevelde, van, F.

1999-01-01

In agricultural landscapes, the habitat of many species is subject to fragmentation. When the habitat of a species is fragmented and the distances between patches of habitat are large relative to the movement distances of the species, it can be expected that the degree of habitat connectivity affects processes at population and individual level. In this thesis, I report on a study of effects of habitat fragmentation and opportunities to mitigate these effects by planning ecological n...

The effects of landscape modifications on the long-term persistence of animal populations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacob Nabe-Nielsen

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The effects of landscape modifications on the long-term persistence of wild animal populations is of crucial importance to wildlife managers and conservation biologists, but obtaining experimental evidence using real landscapes is usually impossible. To circumvent this problem we used individual-based models (IBMs of interacting animals in experimental modifications of a real Danish landscape. The models incorporate as much as possible of the behaviour and ecology of four species with contrasting life-history characteristics: skylark (Alauda arvensis, vole (Microtus agrestis, a ground beetle (Bembidion lampros and a linyphiid spider (Erigone atra. This allows us to quantify the population implications of experimental modifications of landscape configuration and composition. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Starting with a real agricultural landscape, we progressively reduced landscape complexity by (i homogenizing habitat patch shapes, (ii randomizing the locations of the patches, and (iii randomizing the size of the patches. The first two steps increased landscape fragmentation. We assessed the effects of these manipulations on the long-term persistence of animal populations by measuring equilibrium population sizes and time to recovery after disturbance. Patch rearrangement and the presence of corridors had a large effect on the population dynamics of species whose local success depends on the surrounding terrain. Landscape modifications that reduced population sizes increased recovery times in the short-dispersing species, making small populations vulnerable to increasing disturbance. The species that were most strongly affected by large disturbances fluctuated little in population sizes in years when no perturbations took place. SIGNIFICANCE: Traditional approaches to the management and conservation of populations use either classical methods of population analysis, which fail to adequately account for the spatial configurations

Multitemporal spatial pattern analysis of Tulum's tropical coastal landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Ramírez-Forero, Sandra Carolina; López-Caloca, Alejandra; Silván-Cárdenas, José Luis

2011-11-01

The tropical coastal landscape of Tulum in Quintana Roo, Mexico has a high ecological, economical, social and cultural value, it provides environmental and tourism services at global, national, regional and local levels. The landscape of the area is heterogeneous and presents random fragmentation patterns. In recent years, tourist services of the region has been increased promoting an accelerate expansion of hotels, transportation and recreation infrastructure altering the complex landscape. It is important to understand the environmental dynamics through temporal changes on the spatial patterns and to propose a better management of this ecological area to the authorities. This paper addresses a multi-temporal analysis of land cover changes from 1993 to 2000 in Tulum using Thematic Mapper data acquired by Landsat-5. Two independent methodologies were applied for the analysis of changes in the landscape and for the definition of fragmentation patterns. First, an Iteratively Multivariate Alteration Detection (IR-MAD) algorithm was used to detect and localize land cover change/no-change areas. Second, the post-classification change detection evaluated using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm. Landscape metrics were calculated from the results of IR-MAD and SVM. The analysis of the metrics indicated, among other things, a higher fragmentation pattern along roadways.

Our Common Landscapes For The Future

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandt, Jesper

2017-01-01

Foreword for Marc Antrop and Veerle van Eetvelde: Landscape Perspectives – The Holistic Nature of Landscapes Our common landscapes for the future by Jesper Brandt The solution of the ecological crisis through a transformation towards sustainable development is the most urgent challenge in our time....... It is not just a question of CO2 and conversion toward renewable energy. The reestablishment and conscious development of our common landscapes at all spatial scales for the combined benefits of biodiversity, our cultural heritage and the preservation and development of ecosystem services will probably...... be the most comprehensive and necessary social task in the future, if a conversion towards a sustainable development shall succeed in due time. This is so because it will be necessary to ensure that the potential material wealth of modern society will be transformed into a good, fruitful and healthy life...

Managing multiple diffuse pressures on water quality and ecological habitat: Spatially targeting effective mitigation actions at the landscape scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Joyce, Hannah; Reaney, Sim

2015-04-01

Catchment systems provide multiple benefits for society, including: land for agriculture, climate regulation and recreational space. Yet, these systems also have undesirable externalities, such as flooding, and the benefits they create can be compromised through societal use. For example, agriculture, forestry and urban land use practices can increase the export of fine sediment and faecal indicator organisms (FIO) delivered to river systems. These diffuse landscape pressures are coupled with pressures on the in stream temperature environment from projected climate change. Such pressures can have detrimental impacts on water quality and ecological habitat and consequently the benefits they provide for society. These diffuse and in-stream pressures can be reduced through actions at the landscape scale but are commonly tackled individually. Any intervention may have benefits for other pressures and hence the challenge is to consider all of the different pressures simultaneously to find solutions with high levels of cross-pressure benefits. This research presents (1) a simple but spatially distributed model to predict the pattern of multiple pressures at the landscape scale, and (2) a method for spatially targeting the optimum location for riparian woodland planting as mitigation action against these pressures. The model follows a minimal information requirement approach along the lines of SCIMAP (www.scimap.org.uk). This approach defines the critical source areas of fine sediment diffuse pollution, rapid overland flow and FIOs, based on the analysis of the pattern of the pressure in the landscape and the connectivity from source areas to rivers. River temperature was modeled using a simple energy balance equation; focusing on temperature of inflowing and outflowing water across a catchment. The model has been calibrated using a long term observed temperature record. The modelling outcomes enabled the identification of the severity of each pressure in relative rather

Forest Landscape Assessment Tool (FLAT): rapid assessment for land management

Science.gov (United States)

Lisa Ciecko; David Kimmett; Jesse Saunders; Rachael Katz; Kathleen L. Wolf; Oliver Bazinet; Jeffrey Richardson; Weston Brinkley; Dale J. Blahna

2016-01-01

The Forest Landscape Assessment Tool (FLAT) is a set of procedures and tools used to rapidly determine forest ecological conditions and potential threats. FLAT enables planners and managers to understand baseline conditions, determine and prioritize restoration needs across a landscape system, and conduct ongoing monitoring to achieve land management goals. The rapid...

Beyond the fragmentation threshold hypothesis: regime shifts in biodiversity across fragmented landscapes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renata Pardini

Full Text Available Ecological systems are vulnerable to irreversible change when key system properties are pushed over thresholds, resulting in the loss of resilience and the precipitation of a regime shift. Perhaps the most important of such properties in human-modified landscapes is the total amount of remnant native vegetation. In a seminal study Andrén proposed the existence of a fragmentation threshold in the total amount of remnant vegetation, below which landscape-scale connectivity is eroded and local species richness and abundance become dependent on patch size. Despite the fact that species patch-area effects have been a mainstay of conservation science there has yet to be a robust empirical evaluation of this hypothesis. Here we present and test a new conceptual model describing the mechanisms and consequences of biodiversity change in fragmented landscapes, identifying the fragmentation threshold as a first step in a positive feedback mechanism that has the capacity to impair ecological resilience, and drive a regime shift in biodiversity. The model considers that local extinction risk is defined by patch size, and immigration rates by landscape vegetation cover, and that the recovery from local species losses depends upon the landscape species pool. Using a unique dataset on the distribution of non-volant small mammals across replicate landscapes in the Atlantic forest of Brazil, we found strong evidence for our model predictions--that patch-area effects are evident only at intermediate levels of total forest cover, where landscape diversity is still high and opportunities for enhancing biodiversity through local management are greatest. Furthermore, high levels of forest loss can push native biota through an extinction filter, and result in the abrupt, landscape-wide loss of forest-specialist taxa, ecological resilience and management effectiveness. The proposed model links hitherto distinct theoretical approaches within a single framework

Using nitrogen concentration and isotopic composition in lichens to spatially assess the relative contribution of atmospheric nitrogen sources in complex landscapes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinho, P.; Barros, C.; Augusto, S.; Pereira, M.J.

2017-01-01

Reactive nitrogen (Nr) is an important driver of global change, causing alterations in ecosystem biodiversity and functionality. Environmental assessments require monitoring the emission and deposition of both the amount and types of Nr. This is especially important in heterogeneous landscapes, as different land-cover types emit particular forms of Nr to the atmosphere, which can impact ecosystems distinctively. Such assessments require high spatial resolution maps that also integrate temporal variations, and can only be feasibly achieved by using ecological indicators. Our aim was to rank land-cover types according to the amount and form of emitted atmospheric Nr in a complex landscape with multiple sources of N. To do so, we measured and mapped nitrogen concentration and isotopic composition in lichen thalli, which we then related to land-cover data. Results suggested that, at the landscape scale, intensive agriculture and urban areas were the most important sources of Nr to the atmosphere. Additionally, the ocean greatly influences Nr in land, by providing air with low Nr concentration and a unique isotopic composition. These results have important consequences for managing air pollution at the regional level, as they provide critical information for modeling Nr emission and deposition across regional as well as continental scales. - Highlights: • Which land-cover types are reactive nitrogen sources or sinks at a landscape level? • Nitrogen concentration and isotopic composition were analyzed in lichens. • This allowed determination of the main nitrogen sources: agricultural and urban areas. • Marine sources provided persistent low concentrations of reactive nitrogen. • The typical signature of each source was also determined. - Reactive-nitrogen concentration and isotopic composition in lichens were used to rank Nr sources at a landscape level.

Landscape morphology metrics for urban areas: analysis of the role of vegetation in the management of the quality of urban environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danilo Marques de Magalhães

2013-05-01

Full Text Available This study has the objective to demonstrate the applicability of landscape metric analysis undertaken in fragments of urban land use. More specifically, it focuses in low vegetation cover, arboreal and shrubbery vegetation and their distribution on land use. Differences of vegetation cover in dense urban areas are explained. It also discusses briefly the state-of-the-art Landscape Ecology and landscape metrics. It develops, as an example, a case study in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. For this study, it selects the use of the area’s metrics, the relation between area, perimeter, core, and circumscribed circle. From this analysis, this paper proposes the definition of priority areas for conservation, urban parks, free spaces of common land, linear parks and green corridors. It is demonstrated that, in order to design urban landscape, studies of two-dimension landscape representations are still interesting, but should consider the systemic relation between different factors related to shape and land use.

Urban foraging and the relational ecologies of belonging

Science.gov (United States)

Melissa R. Poe; Joyce LeCompte; Rebecca McLain; Patrick T. Hurley

2014-01-01

Through a discussion of urban foraging in Seattle, Washington, USA, we examine how people’s plant and mushroom harvesting practices in cities are linked to relationships with species, spaces, and ecologies. Bringing a relational approach to political ecology, we discuss the ways that these particular nature–society relationships are formed, legitimated, and mobilized...

Project D.I.R.T.: A landscape architect's excavation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bargmann, J.

1994-01-01

To a landscape architect interested in the creative manipulation of the land, mineral extraction presents a massive load for design exploration. The primary goal of Project D.I.R.T., Design Investigations Reclaiming Terrain, was to unearth the possibilities for renewing the perception of mining as creatively integral with the cultural and natural evolution of the landscape. The potential collaboration and planning inherent in the multidisciplinary task of reclamation became evident on a journey to document selected mining sites around the country. Various coal, gold, copper, and taconite operations visited represent a diversity of regional landscapes with specific mining and reclamation practices. Both active and abandoned mined sites serve as case studies presented from a landscape architect's perspective. Examining the legal, social, and economic factors uncovered the frustrations with the legislation governing reclamation and the financial and ethical dilemmas of future land use for dependent communities. Reviewing the technical and ecological aspects revealed the innovations and progress of reclamation technology, but also limited application of ecological principles. These current practices of mining and reclamation illustrate a need to revise the legislation and coordinate an interdisciplinary effort to form truly productive and sustainable landscapes. Moreover, from this landscape architect's point of view, a synthetic approach guided by a broader vision of mining must lead to the creation of meaningful places that objectively reveal and celebrate the industrial heritage of the landscape. Mined lands can be an expression of a reciprocal connection between communities and individuals with the land one cultivates and all nurture. These monumental landscapes may come to represent a dynamic relationship between culture and nature for the next century

Terrestrial Soundscapes: Status of Ecological Research in Natural and Human-Dominated Landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Pijanowski, Bryan Christopher

2016-01-01

Soundscape ecological research in terrestrial systems is relatively new. In this paper, I present a brief summary of the origins of this research area, describe research questions related to several research thrusts that are ongoing, summarize several soundscape projects that exist and how these relate to the research thrusts, and briefly describe the work of a global network of scientists, musicians, and engineers that are attempting to move this new field forward.

The role of a fertilizer trial in reconciling agricultural expectations and landscape ecology requirements on an opencast coal site in South Wales, United Kingdom

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Humphries, C.E.L.; Humphries, R.N.; Wesemann, H.

1999-01-01

Since the 1940s the restoration of opencast coal sites in the UK has been predominantly to productive agriculture and forestry. With new UK government policies on sustainability and biodiversity such land uses may be no longer be acceptable or appropriate in the upland areas of South Wales. A scheme was prepared for the upland Nant Helen site with the objective of restoring the landscape ecology of the site; it included acid grassland to provide the landscape setting and for grazing. The scheme met with the approval of the planning authority. An initial forty hectares (about 13% of the site) was restored between 1993 and 1996. While the approved low intensity grazing and low fertilizer regime met the requirements of the planning authority and the statutory agencies, it was not meeting the expectations of the grazers who had grazing rights to the land. To help reconcile the apparent conflict a fertilizer trial was set up. The trial demonstrated that additional fertilizer and intensive grazing was required to meet the nutritional needs of sheep. It also showed typical upland stocking densities of sheep could be achieved with the acid grassland without the need for reseeding with lowland types. However this was not acceptable to the authority and agencies as such fertilizer and grazing regimes would be detrimental to the landscape and ecological objectives of the restoration scheme. A compromise was agreed whereby grazing intensity and additional fertilizer have been zoned. This has been implemented and is working to the satisfaction of all parties. Without the fertilizer trial it is unlikely that the different interests could have been reconciled

Green Infrastructure and Ecological Corridors: A Regional Study Concerning Sardinia

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Ignazio Cannas

2018-04-01

Full Text Available We propose a methodological approach to identify a multifunctional green infrastructure (GI on the basis of four values (conservation value, natural value, recreation value and anthropic heritage that represent many functions (biodiversity conservation, supply of ecosystem services, recreation, identity building performed by the landscape. By taking the Italian region of Sardinia as a case study, we argue that the methodology can support the making of landscape plans as understood in the European Landscape Convention. Moreover, we propose and implement a methodology to identify ecological corridors (ECs connecting Natura 2000 sites (N2Ss, based on the prioritization of functional land patches related to their suitability to ecosystem services delivery, paying particular attention to biodiversity maintenance and enhancement, and taking Sardinia as spatial regional context. The methodology consists of two steps: (i identifying the most suitable patches to be included in ECs on the basis of their connectivity, that is, on their negative attitude towards contributing to landscape fragmentation; (ii assessing, through a discrete-choice-model, the suitability of these ECs to be included in a regional GI, starting from the territorial taxonomy based on biodiversity characteristics related to N2Ss, habitat suitability, and recreational and landscape potentials.

The role of agricultural engineering in the management of landscape changes

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Natalia Fumagalli

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Landscape represents the “sensory aspect” of the land and as such it can be appreciated by all the five senses: sight, smelling, hearing, touch and taste. At the same time, landscape evolves over time and its value – ecological, economical and affective – changes as its constitutive elements change. Engineering can help “to drive” this evolution addressing it towards a condition of balance between individual and community requirements, especially referred to the effect of technological development on landscape. This effect can be referred to three dimensions: perceptive, functional and symbolic dimensions. The possible contribution to the management of landscape changes concerns all the three historic souls of Agricultural Engineering; in particular, Agricultural Hydraulics deals with the topic of landscape referring to both irrigation and the possible recreational use of canal systems; Agricultural Engineering determines plot form and size and woodland view; Rural Building deals with both the recovery of existing buildings and the design and making of new ones and their fitting in the landscape; moreover, the sector has developed new methods for the evaluation and the planning of rural land resources, especially about agriculture and forestry productivity, ecological stability and visual quality of rural land itself.

Assessing the relative importance of isolated Ficus trees to insectivorous birds in an Indian human-modified tropical landscape

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Matthews, Thomas J.; Cottee-Jones, H. Eden W.; Bregman, Tom P.

2017-01-01

The destruction of forest for agricultural expansion has created a vast estate of human-modified land in tropical regions. One group of organisms that are particularly vulnerable to the loss of forest habitat are insectivorous birds. Despite this, few conservation strategies have been identified...... for this group in human-modified landscapes. We survey the use of 104 isolated trees by insectivorous birds in rural Assam, India. We used an information theoretic model comparison approach to determine the important variables driving insectivorous bird diversity within these isolated trees. Our work...... demonstrates that the conservation of large trees in human-modified landscapes may play an important role in maintaining bird diversity and ecological function beyond the forest edge. More specifically, we found that isolated Ficus trees hold assemblages with particularly high insectivore abundance, richness...

Social Ecology and Aesthetic Criticism

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Owen, Connor

2016-12-01

Full Text Available While ecocriticism has become a respected field in literary theory and in the broader landscape of aesthetic philosophy, it could benefit from an enhanced ethical-political framework which social ecology – an underrated critical theory developed by Murray Bookchin – could provide. This essay attempts to tease out the potentials for such a framework, integrating the insights of social ecology, ecocriticism, Critical Realism, and John Dewey's aesthetic concepts into a layered idea-set used for the study of all kinds of aesthetic objects, from popular art to the gallery arts. Its key principles are the emergence of aesthetic objects (including formal artworks out of congealed human experience, the relation between organism and environment in assessing meaning, the breakdown of implicit or overt hierarchies within a work, and the idea of the artist and art-critic as a "gardener".

Integration Research for Shaping Sustainable Regional Landscapes

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David J. Brunckhorst

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Ecological and social systems are complex and entwined. Complex social-ecological systems interact in a multitude of ways at many spatial scales across time. Their interactions can contribute both positive and negative consequences in terms of sustainability and the context in which they exist affecting future landscape change. Non-metropolitan landscapes are the major theatre of interactions where large-scale alteration occurs precipitated by local to global forces of economic, social, and environmental change. Such regional landscape effects are critical also to local natural resource and social sustainability. The institutions contributing pressures and responses consequently shape future landscapes and in turn influence how social systems, resource users, governments, and policy makers perceive those landscapes and their future. Science and policy for “sustainable” futures need to be integrated at the applied “on-ground” level where products and effects of system interactions are fully included, even if unobserved. Government agencies and funding bodies often consider such research as “high-risk.” This paper provides some examples of interdisciplinary research that has provided a level of holistic integration through close engagement with landholders and communities or through deliberately implementing integrative and innovative on-ground experimental models. In retrospect, such projects have to some degree integrated through spatial (if not temporal synthesis, policy analysis, and (new or changed institutional arrangements that are relevant locally and acceptable in business, as well as at broader levels of government and geography. This has provided transferable outcomes that can contribute real options and adaptive capacity for suitable positive futures.

Landscape and urban planning at 100: Looking back moving forward

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Paul H. Gobster

2011-01-01

This issue completes the 100th volume of Landscape and Urban Planning, a benchmark that spans 37 years of publication during which more than 2500 research papers, review articles, and editorials have appeared in the journal and its predecessors, Landscape Planning and Urban Ecology. In commemoration of this achievement we have prepared this Special Issue, inviting...

Networks and landscapes: a framework for setting goals and evaluating performance at the large landscape scale

Science.gov (United States)

R Patrick Bixler; Shawn Johnson; Kirk Emerson; Tina Nabatchi; Melly Reuling; Charles Curtin; Michele Romolini; Morgan Grove

2016-01-01

The objective of large landscape conser vation is to mitigate complex ecological problems through interventions at multiple and overlapping scales. Implementation requires coordination among a diverse network of individuals and organizations to integrate local-scale conservation activities with broad-scale goals. This requires an understanding of the governance options...

Ecological landscape elements: long-term monitoring in Great Britain, the Countryside Survey 1978-2007 and beyond

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Wood, Claire M.; Bunce, Robert G. H.; Norton, Lisa R.; Maskell, Lindsay C.; Smart, Simon M.; Scott, W. Andrew; Henrys, Peter A.; Howard, David C.; Wright, Simon M.; Brown, Michael J.; Scott, Rod J.; Stuart, Rick C.; Watkins, John W.

2018-04-01

The Countryside Survey (CS) of Great Britain (GB) provides a unique and statistically robust series of datasets, consisting of an extensive set of repeated ecological measurements at a national scale, covering a time span of 29 years. CS was first undertaken in 1978 to provide a baseline for ecological and land use change monitoring in the rural environment of GB, following a stratified random design, based on 1 km squares. Originally, eight random 1 km squares were drawn from each of 32 environmental classes, thus comprising 256 sample squares in the 1978 survey. The number of these sites increased to 382 in 1984, 506 in 1990, 569 in 1998 and 591 in 2007. Detailed information regarding vegetation types and land use was mapped in all five surveys, allowing reporting by defined standard habitat classifications. Additionally, point and linear landscape features (such as trees and hedgerows) are available from all surveys after 1978. From these stratified, randomly located sample squares, information can be converted into national estimates, with associated error terms. Other data, relating to soils, freshwater and vegetation, were also sampled on analogous dates. However, the present paper describes only the surveys of landscape features and habitats. The resulting datasets provide a unique, comprehensive, quantitative ecological coverage of extent and change in these features in GB. Basic results are presented and their implications discussed. However, much opportunity for further analyses remains. Data from each of the survey years are available via the following DOIs: Landscape area data 1978: https://doi.org/10.5285/86c017ba-dc62-46f0-ad13-c862bf31740e" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.5285/86c017ba-dc62-46f0-ad13-c862bf31740e, 1984: https://doi.org/10.5285/b656bb43-448d-4b2c-aade-7993aa243ea3" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.5285/b656bb43-448d-4b2c-aade-7993aa243ea3, 1990: https://doi.org/10.5285/94f664e5-10f2-4655-bfe6-44d745f5dca7" target

Circumpolar distribution and carbon storage of thermokarst landscapes

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Olefeldt, David; Goswami, S.; Grosse, G.; Hayes, D.; Hugelius, G.; Kuhry, P.; McGuire, A. David; Romanovsky, V.E.; Sannel, A.B.K.; Schuur, E.A.G.; Turetsky, M.R.

2016-01-01

Thermokarst is the process whereby the thawing of ice-rich permafrost ground causes land subsidence, resulting in development of distinctive landforms. Accelerated thermokarst due to climate change will damage infrastructure, but also impact hydrology, ecology and biogeochemistry. Here, we present a circumpolar assessment of the distribution of thermokarst landscapes, defined as landscapes comprised of current thermokarst landforms and areas susceptible to future thermokarst development. At 3.6 × 106 km2, thermokarst landscapes are estimated to cover ∼20% of the northern permafrost region, with approximately equal contributions from three landscape types where characteristic wetland, lake and hillslope thermokarst landforms occur. We estimate that approximately half of the below-ground organic carbon within the study region is stored in thermokarst landscapes. Our results highlight the importance of explicitly considering thermokarst when assessing impacts of climate change, including future landscape greenhouse gas emissions, and provide a means for assessing such impacts at the circumpolar scale.

Hyporheic Interfaces Serve as Ecological Control Points for Mountainous Landscape Biological Productivity

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Newcomer, M. E.; Dwivedi, D.; Raberg, J.; Fox, P. M.; Nico, P. S.; Wainwright, H. M.; Conrad, M. E.; Bill, M.; Bouskill, N.; Williams, K. H.; Hubbard, S.; Steefel, C. I.

2017-12-01

lengthened vernal window motivates a better understanding of the role each ecological control point plays in processing landscape biological productivity and for understanding biogeochemical cycling in riverine systems.

Landscape integration of freeways: how does it affect road kill rates?

OpenAIRE

Sanz, Luis

2001-01-01

Some ecological processes are affected by the transportation infrastructure development. The barrier effect caused by roads, which alters the movement patterns of terrestrial wildlife and increases its road kill risk, is just an example. Road kills must be considered both from environmental and highway safety perspectives, and are related to road permeability and to the surrounding environment. This paper compares the landscape fragmentation caused by two freeways in Navarra (north of Spain) ...

The relative importance of physical and biological energy in landscape evolution

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Turowski, J. M.; Schwanghart, W.

2017-12-01

Landscapes are formed by the interplay of uplift and geomorphic processes, including interacting and competing physical and biological processes. For example, roots re-inforce soil and thereby stabilize hillslopes and the canopy cover of the forest may mediate the impact of precipitation. Furthermore, plants and animals act as geomorphic agents, directly altering landscape response and dynamics by their actions: tree roots may crack rocks, thus changing subsurface water flows and exposing fresh material for denudation; fungi excrete acids that accelerate rates of chemical weathering, and burrowing animals displace soil and rocks while digging holes for shelter or in search of food. Energetically, landscapes can be viewed as open systems in which topography stores potential energy above a base level. Tectonic processes add energy to the system by uplift and mechanically altering rock properties. Especially in unvegetated regions, erosion and transport by wind can be an important geomorphic process. Advection of atmospheric moisture in high altitudes provides potential energy that is converted by water fluxes through catchments. At the same time, the conversion of solar energy through atmospheric and biological processes drives primary production of living organisms. If we accept that biota influence geomorphic processes, then what is their energetic contribution to landscape evolution relative to physical processes? Using two case studies, we demonstrate that all components of energy input are negligible apart from biological production, quantified by net primary productivity (NPP) and potential energy conversion by water that is placed high up in the landscape as rainfall and leaves it as runoff. Assuming that the former is representative for biological energy and the latter for physical energy, we propose that the ratio of these two values can be used as a proxy for the relative importance of biological and physical processes in landscape evolution. All necessary

[Assessment on the ecological suitability in Zhuhai City, Guangdong, China, based on minimum cumulative resistance model].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jian-fei; Li, Lin; Guo, Luo; Du, Shi-hong

2016-01-01

Urban landscape has the characteristics of spatial heterogeneity. Because the expansion process of urban constructive or ecological land has different resistance values, the land unit stimulates and promotes the expansion of ecological land with different intensity. To compare the effect of promoting and hindering functions in the same land unit, we firstly compared the minimum cumulative resistance value of promoting and hindering functions, and then looked for the balance of two landscape processes under the same standard. According to the ecology principle of minimum limit factor, taking the minimum cumulative resistance analysis method under two expansion processes as the evaluation method of urban land ecological suitability, this research took Zhuhai City as the study area to estimate urban ecological suitability by relative evaluation method with remote sensing image, field survey, and statistics data. With the support of ArcGIS, five types of indicators on landscape types, ecological value, soil erosion sensitivity, sensitivity of geological disasters, and ecological function were selected as input parameters in the minimum cumulative resistance model to compute urban ecological suitability. The results showed that the ecological suitability of the whole Zhuhai City was divided into five levels: constructive expansion prohibited zone (10.1%), constructive expansion restricted zone (32.9%), key construction zone (36.3%), priority development zone (2.3%), and basic cropland (18.4%). Ecological suitability of the central area of Zhuhai City was divided into four levels: constructive expansion prohibited zone (11.6%), constructive expansion restricted zone (25.6%), key construction zone (52.4%), priority development zone (10.4%). Finally, we put forward the sustainable development framework of Zhuhai City according to the research conclusion. On one hand, the government should strictly control the development of the urban center area. On the other hand, the

Using expert knowledge in landscape ecology [Book review

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Eric J. Gustafson

2013-01-01

This volume perfectly illustrates the truism—"we don't know what it is that we don't know." I have been a landscape ecologist for over 20 years, and have even used expert knowledge many times in my own research. Yet I learned something profoundly new in almost every chapter of this collection of primers and case studies focused on the use...

Metrics to describe the effects of landscape pattern on hydrology in a lotic peatland

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Yuan, J.; Cohen, M. J.; Kaplan, D. A.; Acharya, S.; Larsen, L.; Nungesser, M.

2013-12-01

Strong reciprocal interactions exist between landscape patterns and ecological processes. Hydrology is the dominant abiotic driver of ecological processes in wetlands, particularly flowing wetlands, but is both the control on and controlled by the geometry of vegetation patterning. Landscape metrics are widely used to quantitatively link pattern and process. Our goal here was to use several candidate spatial pattern metrics to predict the effects of wetland vegetation pattern on hydrologic regime, specifically hydroperiod, in the ridge-slough patterned landscape of the Everglades. The metrics focus on the capacity for longitudinally connected flow, and thus the ability of this low-gradient patterned landscape to route water from upstream. We first explored flow friction cost (FFC), a weighted spatial distance procedure wherein ridges have a high flow cost than sloughs by virtue of their elevation and vegetation structure, to evaluate water movement through different landscape configurations. We also investigated existing published flow metrics, specifically the Directional Connectivity Index (DCI) and Landscape Discharge Competence (LDC), that seek to quantify connectivity, one of the sentinel targets of ecological restoration. Hydroperiod was estimated using a numerical hydrologic model (SWIFT 2D) in real and synthetic landscapes with varying vegetation properties ( patch anisotropy, ridge density). Synthetic landscapes were constrained by the geostatistical properties of the best conserved patterned, and contained five anisotropy levels and seven ridge density levels. These were used to construct the relationship between landscape metrics and hydroperiod. Then, using historical images from 1940 to 2004, we applied the metrics toback-cast hydroperiod. Current vegetation maps were used to test scale dependency for each metric. Our results suggest that both FFC and DCI are good predictors of hydroperiod under free flowing conditions, and that they can be used

Comparing the Ecological Impacts of Wind and Oil & Gas Development: A Landscape Scale Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Nathan F.; Pejchar, Liba

2013-01-01

Energy production in the United States is in transition as the demand for clean and domestic power increases. Wind energy offers the benefit of reduced emissions, yet, like oil and natural gas, it also contributes to energy sprawl. We used a diverse set of indicators to quantify the ecological impacts of oil, natural gas, and wind energy development in Colorado and Wyoming. Aerial imagery was supplemented with empirical data to estimate habitat loss, fragmentation, potential for wildlife mortality, susceptibility to invasion, biomass carbon lost, and water resources. To quantify these impacts we digitized the land-use footprint within 375 plots, stratified by energy type. We quantified the change in impacts per unit area and per unit energy produced, compared wind energy to oil and gas, and compared landscapes with and without energy development. We found substantial differences in impacts between energy types for most indicators, although the magnitude and direction of the differences varied. Oil and gas generally resulted in greater impacts per unit area but fewer impacts per unit energy compared with wind. Biologically important and policy-relevant outcomes of this study include: 1) regardless of energy type, underlying land-use matters and development in already disturbed areas resulted in fewer total impacts; 2) the number and source of potential mortality varied between energy types, however, the lack of robust mortality data limits our ability to use this information to estimate and mitigate impacts; and 3) per unit energy produced, oil and gas extraction was less impactful on an annual basis but is likely to have a much larger cumulative footprint than wind energy over time. This rapid evaluation of landscape-scale energy development impacts could be replicated in other regions, and our specific findings can help meet the challenge of balancing land conservation with society’s demand for energy. PMID:24312296

Comparing the ecological impacts of wind and oil & gas development: a landscape scale assessment.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nathan F Jones

Full Text Available Energy production in the United States is in transition as the demand for clean and domestic power increases. Wind energy offers the benefit of reduced emissions, yet, like oil and natural gas, it also contributes to energy sprawl. We used a diverse set of indicators to quantify the ecological impacts of oil, natural gas, and wind energy development in Colorado and Wyoming. Aerial imagery was supplemented with empirical data to estimate habitat loss, fragmentation, potential for wildlife mortality, susceptibility to invasion, biomass carbon lost, and water resources. To quantify these impacts we digitized the land-use footprint within 375 plots, stratified by energy type. We quantified the change in impacts per unit area and per unit energy produced, compared wind energy to oil and gas, and compared landscapes with and without energy development. We found substantial differences in impacts between energy types for most indicators, although the magnitude and direction of the differences varied. Oil and gas generally resulted in greater impacts per unit area but fewer impacts per unit energy compared with wind. Biologically important and policy-relevant outcomes of this study include: 1 regardless of energy type, underlying land-use matters and development in already disturbed areas resulted in fewer total impacts; 2 the number and source of potential mortality varied between energy types, however, the lack of robust mortality data limits our ability to use this information to estimate and mitigate impacts; and 3 per unit energy produced, oil and gas extraction was less impactful on an annual basis but is likely to have a much larger cumulative footprint than wind energy over time. This rapid evaluation of landscape-scale energy development impacts could be replicated in other regions, and our specific findings can help meet the challenge of balancing land conservation with society's demand for energy.

Global change and landscape structure in Ukraine: Ecological and socio-economic implications

Science.gov (United States)

Shvidenko, Anatoly; Lakyda, Petro; Schepaschenko, Dmitry; Vasylyshyn, Roman; Marchuk, Yuiry

2013-04-01

The current land cover of Ukraine is very heterogeneous. While on average forest covers 15.9% of its land, substantial part of the country is basically forestless. The agricultural potential of Ukraine is high. However, in spite of the fact that 68% of the arable land in Ukraine consists of the famous Ukrainian black soils (chernozems), the quality of the country's arable land (69.5% of the total land) is not satisfactory. The country has the highest over the globe share of the tilled land (~80% of the agricultural land in the country) and processes of soil erosion impact about one third of arable land. Air pollution, soil and water contamination are widespread. Substantial problems are generated by the Chernobyl disaster. Overall, about half of the country is in the critical and pre-critical ecological situation. Climatic predictions suppose that the country will live in much warmer and drier climate by end of this century. Taking into account that major pat of Ukraine lies in the xeric belt, the expected climatic change generates divers risks for both environment and vegetation ecosystems of the country, particularly for forests and agriculture. The presentation considers the role of forests and trees outside of forests in transition to integrated ecosystem management and sustainable structure of landscapes within two scenarios of socio-economic development for the next 20 yeas. The "business-as-usual" scenario prolongs tendencies of dynamics of the land-use and forest sectors during the last 20 years. This scenario leads to further deterioration of quality of land and environment in Ukraine. The "progressive" scenario is considered as a crucial initial step of adaptation to climatic change and includes a system of pressing measures which are needed to decrease destructive processes that are observed at the landscape level. It is shown that it would require development of 1.62 M ha of protective forests including 0.62 M ha on unstable elements of landscapes

Re-wilding Europe's traditional agricultural landscapes: Values and the link between science and practice

Science.gov (United States)

Paul H. Gobster

2014-01-01

Landscape and Urban Planning encourages multiple perspectives and approaches to help understand landscapes as social-ecological systems, with the goal that by building a robust science of landscape we can provide sustainable solutions for guiding its change. But the link between science and practice, or more simply put, between knowledge and action, is not always clear...

Are we meeting the challenges of landscape-scale riverine research? A review

Science.gov (United States)

E. Ashley Steel; Robert M. Hughes; Aimee H. Fullerton; Stefan Schmutz; John A. Young; Michio Fukushima; Susanne Muhar; Michaela Poppe; Blake E. Feist; Clemens. Trautwein

2010-01-01

Identifying and quantifying relationships among landscape patterns, anthropogenic disturbances, and aquatic ecosystems is a new and rapidly developing approach to riverine ecology. In this review, we begin by describing the policy and management drivers for landscape-scale riverine research and we synthesize the technological advances that have enabled dramatic...

The alpha activity of soils in relation to landscape development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pepper, R G; Quirk, J P [Western Australia Univ., Nedlands. Dept. of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

1976-02-01

The alpha activity of soils and the degree of the equilibrium of the thorium series has been related to the age of soils developed on a truncated laterite landscape in southwestern Australia. The uplift of the old lateritic plateau has formed a sequence of erosional and depositional surfaces which form the parent materials of the present-day soils. These surfaces because of their different relative ages have been subjected to different degrees of weathering and leaching. The alpha activity of the soils formed on these different landscape surfaces is influenced firstly by the amount of weathering that the surface has undergone, and secondly by the degree of leaching that the soil has undergone as evidenced by profile development. It has been found that the younger soils have higher alpha activities with the thorium series tending more towards equilibrium when compared with older soils, where the alpha activity is lower due to the leaching of the daughter nuclides from the profile.

Landscape and Health: Connecting Psychology, Aesthetics, and Philosophy through the Concept of Affordance.

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Menatti, Laura; Casado da Rocha, Antonio

2016-01-01

In this paper we address a frontier topic in the humanities, namely how the cultural and natural construction that we call landscape affects well-being and health. Following an updated review of evidence-based literature in the fields of medicine, psychology, and architecture, we propose a new theoretical framework called "processual landscape," which is able to explain both the health-landscape and the medical agency-structure binomial pairs. We provide a twofold analysis of landscape, from both the cultural and naturalist points of view: in order to take into account its relationship with health, the definition of landscape as a cultural product needs to be broadened through naturalization, grounding it in the scientific domain. Landscape cannot be distinguished from the ecological environment. For this reason, we naturalize the idea of landscape through the notion of affordance and Gibson's ecological psychology. In doing so, we stress the role of agency in the theory of perception and the health-landscape relationship. Since it is the result of continuous and co-creational interaction between the cultural agent, the biological agent and the affordances offered to the landscape perceiver, the processual landscape is, in our opinion, the most comprehensive framework for explaining the health-landscape relationship. The consequences of our framework are not only theoretical, but ethical also: insofar as health is greatly affected by landscape, this construction represents something more than just part of our heritage or a place to be preserved for the aesthetic pleasure it provides. Rather, we can talk about the right to landscape as something intrinsically linked to the well-being of present and future generations.

Landscape and Health: Connecting Psychology, Aesthetics, and Philosophy through the Concept of Affordance

Science.gov (United States)

Menatti, Laura; Casado da Rocha, Antonio

2016-01-01

In this paper we address a frontier topic in the humanities, namely how the cultural and natural construction that we call landscape affects well-being and health. Following an updated review of evidence-based literature in the fields of medicine, psychology, and architecture, we propose a new theoretical framework called “processual landscape,” which is able to explain both the health-landscape and the medical agency-structure binomial pairs. We provide a twofold analysis of landscape, from both the cultural and naturalist points of view: in order to take into account its relationship with health, the definition of landscape as a cultural product needs to be broadened through naturalization, grounding it in the scientific domain. Landscape cannot be distinguished from the ecological environment. For this reason, we naturalize the idea of landscape through the notion of affordance and Gibson’s ecological psychology. In doing so, we stress the role of agency in the theory of perception and the health-landscape relationship. Since it is the result of continuous and co-creational interaction between the cultural agent, the biological agent and the affordances offered to the landscape perceiver, the processual landscape is, in our opinion, the most comprehensive framework for explaining the health-landscape relationship. The consequences of our framework are not only theoretical, but ethical also: insofar as health is greatly affected by landscape, this construction represents something more than just part of our heritage or a place to be preserved for the aesthetic pleasure it provides. Rather, we can talk about the right to landscape as something intrinsically linked to the well-being of present and future generations. PMID:27199808

ECOLOGY AND INNOVATION THE BASIS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COURSE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. S. Rozenberg

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Aim. We discuss some aspects of innovation activity in ecology (ecological rationing, new methods of bioindication and biomonitoring, waste disposal, environmental audits of territories etc.. Methods. The study was performed using the SF-36 Survey in accordance with the requirements of the International Quality of Life Assessment Project. Results. The problems of innovation in environmental management were discussed. We assessed the quality of life of the population in Dakhadayevsky district of Dagestan. New methods of bioindication and biomonitoring have been analyzed. We suggest methodological basis of environmental management, spatial and temporal variability and sustainability of ecosystems, optimal territorial units of environmental management, information support of environmental protection activities, modeling and forecasting of the natural environment, basin-landscape concept nature management. Conclusions. Anthropogenic changes in the environment to a large extent depend on the basin-landscape organization of natural processes. Local air pollution, erosion materials from agriculture, soil erosion, pollution of surface and groundwater related to the structural features of the watershed, landscape differentiation, climate, vegetation and soil cover. These population-based studies of quality of life make possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of various medical and social and economic programs aimed at improving the quality of life and well-being. They can serve as indicators of the environmental pillar of sustainable development, significantly adding to the overall picture of environmental research.

Landscape scale ecological monitoring as part of an EIA of major construction activities: experience at the Turkish section of the BTC crude oil pipeline project.

Science.gov (United States)

Sahin, Sükran; Kurum, Ekrem

2009-09-01

Ecological monitoring is a complementary component of the overall environmental management and monitoring program of any Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report. The monitoring method should be developed for each project phase and allow for periodic reporting and assessment of compliance with the environmental conditions and requirements of the EIA. Also, this method should incorporate a variance request program since site-specific conditions can affect construction on a daily basis and require time-critical application of alternative construction scenarios or environmental management methods integrated with alternative mitigation measures. Finally, taking full advantage of the latest information and communication technologies can enhance the quality of, and public involvement in, the environmental management program. In this paper, a landscape-scale ecological monitoring method for major construction projects is described using, as a basis, 20 months of experience on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Crude Oil Pipeline Project, covering Turkish Sections Lot B and Lot C. This analysis presents suggestions for improving ecological monitoring for major construction activities.

Integrating landscape system and meta-ecosystem frameworks to advance the understanding of ecosystem function in heterogeneous landscapes: An analysis on the carbon fluxes in the Northern Highlands Lake District (NHLD) of Wisconsin and Michigan.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Haile; Chen, Jiakuan

2018-01-01

The successful integration of ecosystem ecology with landscape ecology would be conducive to understanding how landscapes function. There have been several attempts at this, with two main approaches: (1) an ecosystem-based approach, such as the meta-ecosystem framework and (2) a landscape-based approach, such as the landscape system framework. These two frameworks are currently disconnected. To integrate these two frameworks, we introduce a protocol, and then demonstrate application of the protocol using a case study. The protocol includes four steps: 1) delineating landscape systems; 2) classifying landscape systems; 3) adjusting landscape systems to meta-ecosystems and 4) integrating landscape system and meta-ecosystem frameworks through meta-ecosystems. The case study is the analyzing of the carbon fluxes in the Northern Highlands Lake District (NHLD) of Wisconsin and Michigan using this protocol. The application of this protocol revealed that one could follow this protocol to construct a meta-ecosystem and analyze it using the integrative framework of landscape system and meta-ecosystem frameworks. That is, one could (1) appropriately describe and analyze the spatial heterogeneity of the meta-ecosystem; (2) understand the emergent properties arising from spatial coupling of local ecosystems in the meta-ecosystem. In conclusion, this protocol is a useful approach for integrating the meta-ecosystem framework and the landscape system framework, which advances the describing and analyzing of the spatial heterogeneity and ecosystem function of interconnected ecosystems.

The influence of landscape characteristics and home-range size on the quantification of landscape-genetics relationships

Science.gov (United States)

Tabitha A. Graves; Tzeidle N. Wasserman; Milton Cezar Ribeiro; Erin L. Landguth; Stephen F. Spear; Niko Balkenhol; Colleen B. Higgins; Marie-Josee Fortin; Samuel A. Cushman; Lisette P. Waits

2012-01-01

A common approach used to estimate landscape resistance involves comparing correlations of ecological and genetic distances calculated among individuals of a species. However, the location of sampled individuals may contain some degree of spatial uncertainty due to the natural variation of animals moving through their home range ormeasurement error in plant or animal...

Pest control of aphids depends on landscape complexity and natural enemy interactions.

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Martin, Emily A; Reineking, Björn; Seo, Bumsuk; Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf

2015-01-01

Aphids are a major concern in agricultural crops worldwide, and control by natural enemies is an essential component of the ecological intensification of agriculture. Although the complexity of agricultural landscapes is known to influence natural enemies of pests, few studies have measured the degree of pest control by different enemy guilds across gradients in landscape complexity. Here, we use multiple natural-enemy exclosures replicated in 18 fields across a gradient in landscape complexity to investigate (1) the strength of natural pest control across landscapes, measured as the difference between pest pressure in the presence and in the absence of natural enemies; (2) the differential contributions of natural enemy guilds to pest control, and the nature of their interactions across landscapes. We show that natural pest control of aphids increased up to six-fold from simple to complex landscapes. In the absence of pest control, aphid population growth was higher in complex than simple landscapes, but was reduced by natural enemies to similar growth rates across all landscapes. The effects of enemy guilds were landscape-dependent. Particularly in complex landscapes, total pest control was supplied by the combined contribution of flying insects and ground-dwellers. Birds had little overall impact on aphid control. Despite evidence for intraguild predation of flying insects by ground-dwellers and birds, the overall effect of enemy guilds on aphid control was complementary. Understanding pest control services at large spatial scales is critical to increase the success of ecological intensification schemes. Our results suggest that, where aphids are the main pest of concern, interactions between natural enemies are largely complementary and lead to a strongly positive effect of landscape complexity on pest control. Increasing the availability of seminatural habitats in agricultural landscapes may thus benefit not only natural enemies, but also the effectiveness of

Prescribing habitat layouts: Analysis of optimal placement for landscape planning [Chapter 23

Science.gov (United States)

Curtis H. Flather; Michael Bevers; John Hof

2002-01-01

Physical restructuring of landscapes by humans is a prominent stress on ecological systems (Rapport et al. 1985). Landscape restructuring occurs primarily through land-use conversions or alteration of native habitats through natural resource management. A common faunal response to such land-use intensification is an increased dominance of opportunistic species leading...

Biocultural Refugia: Combating the Erosion of Diversity in Landscapes of Food Production

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Stephan Barthel

2013-12-01

Full Text Available There is urgent need to both reduce the rate of biodiversity loss caused by industrialized agriculture and feed more people. The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of places that harbor traditional ecological knowledge, artifacts, and methods when preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services in landscapes of food production. We use three examples in Europe of biocultural refugia, defined as the physical places that not only shelter farm biodiversity, but also carry knowledge and experiences about practical management of how to produce food while stewarding biodiversity and ecosystem services. Memory carriers include genotypes, landscape features, oral, and artistic traditions and self-organized systems of rules, and as such reflect a diverse portfolio of practices on how to deal with unpredictable change. We find that the rich biodiversity of many regionally distinct cultural landscapes has been maintained through different smallholder practices developed in relation to local environmental fluctuations and carried within biocultural refugia for as long as millennia. Places that transmit traditional ecological knowledge and practices hold important lessons for policy makers since they may provide genetic and cultural reservoirs - refugia - for the wide array of species that have co-evolved with humans in Europe for more than 6000 thousand yrs. Biodiversity restoration projects in domesticated landscapes can employ the biophysical elements and cultural practices embedded in biocultural refugia to create locally adapted small-scale mosaics of habitats that allow species to flourish and adapt to change. We conclude that such insights must be included in discussions of land-sparing vs. land-sharing when producing more food while combating loss of biodiversity. We found the latter strategy rational in domesticated landscapes with a long history of agriculture.

LANDSCAPE CHANGES IN A LOWLAND IN BENIN: ECOLOGICAL IMPACT ON PESTS AND NATURAL ENEMIES.

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Boucher, A; Silvie, P; Menozzi, P; Adda, C; Auzoux, S; Jean, J; Huat, J

2015-01-01

impact on stem borers was hard to determine, even during the rainy season, due to their low abundance and the difficulty of identification. Predators (Reduviidae, Odonata) were found mainly in humid fallows and rice fields. Regarding our observations, we suggest the presence of alternate host crops such as okra during the dry season for rainy season crop pests. Moreover, fallows also had a real ecological role as a habitat resource for many guilds of insects (pollinators, pests, predators). The management of these landscape components should be the focus of a long-term study with the aim of enhancing pest management of rainy season crop pests.

Spatial modelling and monitoring of natural landscapes with cases in the Amsterdam Waterworks Dunes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Droesen, W.

1999-01-01

The utilisation of geographic information systems and digital image processing techniques for the construction of digital landscape models necessitate for a reconsideration of the classical concepts for landscape ecological mapping. In this thesis, some methods are presented for the spatial

Coupled analysis on landscape pattern and hydrological processes in Yanhe watershed of China.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, J; Zhou, Z X

2015-02-01

As a typical experimental Soil and Water Conservation District, Yanhe watershed has long been plagued by soil erosion due to severe human disturbances. Exerting remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) technology, this paper firstly analyzed and simulated ecological hydrological process in Yanhe watershed based on SWAT model, constructed a comprehensive landscape indices which was closely related to soil erosion, and reflected the coupling relationship between regional landscape pattern change and soil erosion. The results are as follows: (1) Areas of different land use types remained relatively stable from 1990 to 2000 and then changed drastically from 2000 to 2010, which was characterized by lawn expansion and cultivated land shrinkage. (2) In terms of the spatial heterogeneity of hydrological response unit (HRUs), the correlation coefficient of seven selected landscape indices and runoff was very small, and cannot pass all significant testing. But correlation between the indices and sediment yield except for Total Core Area (TCA) and Interspersion and Juxtaposition Index (IJI) was remarkable. (3) According to 'the source-sink' theory of soil erosion, new landscape index-slope-HRU landscape index (SHLI) was built, and reflected the relationship between landscape pattern and soil erosion processes to a certain extent. (4) Coupling relationship between SHLI in 2010 and annual sediment was very prominent. In the sub-basin scale, SHLI has obvious regional differentiation from annual sediment. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Baseline ecological risk assessment and remediation alternatives for a hydrocarbon-contaminated estuarine wetland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vedagiri, U.

1993-01-01

Prior to a property transaction, the groundwater at an industrial refinery site in New Jersey was found to be contaminated with a variety of petroleum-based organic compounds. The highly built-up site included an on-site estuarine wetland and was located in a developed, industrialized area near ecologically important estuarine marshes. A preliminary ecological risk assessment was developed on the basis of available data on site contamination and ecological resources. The onsite wetland and its user fauna were identified as the sensitive receptors of concern and the primary contaminant pathways wee identified. The ecological significance of the contamination was assessed with regard to the onsite wetland and in the context of its position within the landscape and surrounding land uses. The wetland exhibited a combination of impact and vitality, i.e., there were clearly visible signs of contaminant impact as well as a relatively complex and abundant food web. Because of its position within the developed landscape, the onsite wetland appeared to function as a refugium for wildlife despite the level of disturbance. The feasibility of achieving regulatory compliance through natural remediation was also examined with respect to the findings of the risk assessment and the resultant conclusions are discussed

INSECT AS BIOLOGICAL INDICATOR FROM PROTECTED TO THE DISTURB LANDSCAPE IN CENTRAL JAVA INDONESIA

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Karuniawan Puji Wicaksono

2011-02-01

Full Text Available In the biological science, invertebrate (especially insect diversity is relatively well known. Yet, little study about their interaction with specific land use or specific system function. With the rapid changes of landscape, biodiversity is also changes in response to human impact; due to each organism have the specific interaction with certain environment. In this research, the assessment of insect order in the different landscape types was conducted using several method of trapping to understand the specific pattern of insect which are inhabited the landscape. The objectives of this research were monitored the Insect diversity, its ecological importance to agro-forestry ecosystem, and compare it with other forest type in this area. Another objective was determined the insect characteristic as the indicator of environmental quality on each land-use system (forest, agro-forestry, plantation and monoculture. Monoculture agriculture has the largest number of Lepidoptera and Hemiptera order (herbivore insect dominated while in agro-forest system has the largest number of Diptera and coleoptera order. Protected forest, plantation forest and agro-forestry showed the similar index number which shows the similar ecological services for the insect as their habitat. However, in the monoculture agriculture, there was an unbalance insect composition and high dominance.