Quantifying landscape characteristics and linking them to ecological processes is one of the central goals of landscape ecology. Landscape metrics are a widely used tool for the analysis of ...patch‐based, discrete land‐cover classes. Existing software to calculate landscape metrics has several constraints, such as being limited to a single platform, not being open‐source or involving a complicated integration into large workflows. We present landscapemetrics, an open‐source R package that overcomes many constraints of existing landscape metric software. The package includes an extensive collection of commonly used landscape metrics in a tidy workflow. To facilitate the integration into large workflows, landscapemetrics is based on a well‐established spatial framework in R. This allows pre‐processing of land‐cover maps or further statistical analysis without importing and exporting the data from and to different software environments. Additionally, the package provides many utility functions to visualize, extract, and sample landscape metrics. Lastly, we provide building‐blocks to motivate the development and integration of new metrics in the future. We demonstrate the usage and advantages of landscapemetrics by analysing the influence of different sampling schemes on the estimation of landscape metrics. In so doing, we demonstrate the many advantages of the package, especially its easy integration into large workflows. These new developments should help with the integration of landscape analysis in ecological research, given that ecologists are increasingly using R for the statistical analysis, modelling and visualization of spatial data.
Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are
special places known for their distinctive flora, including
pine-oak forests, sandplain grasslands, and sand dunes peppered
with ...bearberry shrubs. Unfortunately, this unique sense of place is
under threat. In recent decades, contemporary landscape practices
have come to depend on environmentally stressful fertilizers and
irrigation systems, replacing this sensitive ecoregion's native
flora with generic turfgrasses and popular commercial nursery trees
and shrubs that could exist anywhere.
Design with Nature on Cape Cod and the Islands seeks to
reverse this damaging trend by offering landscape professionals,
local officials, and homeowners a sustainable approach to landscape
design based on the ecoregion's native plants and plant
communities. Presenting detailed discussions of Cape Cod's natural
history, Jack Ahern focuses on the principal plant communities that
define its landscape character and that are well adapted to local
soils and growing conditions, including climate change. The book
also includes strategies for ecological planting design and a
portfolio of photographs of active ecologically designed
landscapes.
•Multi-landscape study of effects of farmland pattern on biodiversity in crop fields.•Seven taxa studied – birds, plants, butterflies, bees, syrphids, carabids and spiders.•Diversity and abundance of ...all taxa decline with increasing mean field size.•Field size effect is stronger than effect of area under cultivation.
Simple rules for landscape management seem elusive because different species and species groups are associated with different land cover types; a change in landscape structure that increases diversity of one group may reduce diversity of another. On the other hand, if simple landscape–biodiversity relationships do exist despite this complexity, they would have great practical benefit to conservation management. With these considerations in mind, we tested for consistent relationships between landscape heterogeneity and biodiversity in farmland (the cropped areas in agricultural landscapes), with a view to developing simple rules for landscape management that could increase biodiversity within farmland. Our measures of farmland heterogeneity were crop diversity and mean crop field size, where increases in crop diversity and/or decreases in mean field size represent increasing landscape heterogeneity. We sampled the abundance, and alpha, gamma and beta diversity of birds, plants, butterflies, syrphids, bees, carabids and spiders, in crop fields within each of 93 1km×1km agricultural landscapes. The landscapes were selected to represent three gradients in landscape composition and heterogeneity: proportion of the landscape in crop, mean crop field size and Shannon crop type diversity of the farmland. We found that mean crop field size had the strongest overall effect on biodiversity measures in crop fields, and this effect was consistently negative. Based on our results we suggest that, if biodiversity conservation in crop fields is a priority, policies and guidelines aimed at reducing crop field sizes should be considered.
Multifunctional Land Use Mander, Ülo; Helming, Katharina; Wiggering, Hubert
2007, 2007-03-12
eBook
This book is a major contribution to the debate on future land development strategies, as well as helping to supporting land use decision making at all levels. Scientists from across Europe installed ...the Landscape Tomorrow network to prepare for upcoming challenges in research on sustainable land development. The book's interdisciplinary perspective analyses, among other things, the general principles of land use multifunctionality and reports on a variety of success stories.
•We present a landscape characterization based on three dimensions of rural cultural landscapes.•Landscapes are categorized using maps of landscape structure, management intensity, and landscape ...value and meaning.•We map distinct spatial patterns of cultural landscapes across Europe.•Hotspots of cultural landscapes were mainly found in the Mediterranean.
Almost all rural areas in Europe have been shaped or altered by humans and can be considered cultural landscapes, many of which now are considered to entail valuable cultural heritage. Current dynamics in land management have put cultural landscapes under a huge pressure of agricultural intensification and land abandonment. To prevent the loss of cultural landscapes, knowledge on the location of different types of cultural landscapes is needed. In this paper, we present a characterization of European cultural landscapes based on the prevalence of three key dimensions of cultural landscapes: landscape structure, management intensity, and value and meaning. We mapped these dimensions across Europe at a 1-km resolution by combining proxies on management intensity and landscape structure with new indicators such as social media usage and registered traditional food products. We integrated the three dimensions into a continuous “cultural landscape index” that allows for a characterization of Europe’s rural landscapes. The characterization identifies hotspots of cultural landscapes, where all three dimensions are present, such as in the Mediterranean. On the other hand, Eastern and Northern European cultural landscapes are mostly characterized by only one of the dimensions. Our paper can help to identify pressures to cultural landscapes and thus to target measures for the conservation of these landscapes, to link similar landscapes in different regions, and to inform policy design on the most important characteristics of cultural landscapes at a regional scale.
Context
The karst region of southwestern China, one of the largest continuous karsts in the world, is known for its unique landscapes and rich biodiversity. This region has suffered severe ...environmental degradation (e.g., vegetation cover loss, soil erosion and biodiversity loss). In recent decades, Chinese governments at different levels have initiated several ecological programs (e.g., Green for Grain, Mountain Closure) to restore the degraded environment and to alleviate poverty.
Objectives
This study summarizes landscape studies of karst landscapes patterns, their dynamics and interactions among landscape pattern, hydrological processes and ecosystem services (ES).
Methods
We conducted a systematic literature review of science and land use policy to identify knowledge gaps and recommend future research and policy directions.
Results
Karst landscapes have experienced rapid turnover in recent decades due largely to the overlap of intense human activity on the fragile karst ecosystems. Many studies have comprehensively examined hydrology, soil processes and ecosystem services (ES) and their relationships with landscape pattern. Most of these studies have found that karst ecosystems recover with improved ES. However, the importance of epikarst in hydrological and soil processes, intense anthropogenic disturbance and landscape heterogeneity in landscape models remains elusive.
Conclusions
Future research should focus on in-depth examination and modelling of karst specific hydrological and soil processes, investigating relationships between climatic change, landscape change, ecological processes, and region-specific ES assessments. Results from such research should provide the necessary scientific support for a comprehensive, national karst rocky desertification treatment project (Stage II) and poverty alleviation initiatives.
Forest landscapes across western North America (wNA) have experienced extensive changes over the last two centuries, while climatic warming has become a global reality over the last four decades. ...Resulting interactions between historical increases in forested area and density and recent rapid warming, increasing insect mortality, and wildfire burned areas, are now leading to substantial abrupt landscape alterations. These outcomes are forcing forest planners and managers to identify strategies that can modify future outcomes that are ecologically and/or socially undesirable. Past forest management, including widespread harvest of fire- and climate-tolerant large old trees and old forests, fire exclusion (both Indigenous and lightning ignitions), and highly effective wildfire suppression have contributed to the current state of wNA forests. These practices were successful at meeting short-term demands, but they match poorly to modern realities. Hagmann et al. review a century of observations and multiscale, multi-proxy, research evidence that details widespread changes in forested landscapes and wildfire regimes since the influx of European colonists. Over the preceding 10 millennia, large areas of wNA were already settled and proactively managed with intentional burning by Indigenous tribes. Prichard et al. then review the research on management practices historically applied by Indigenous tribes and currently applied by some managers to intentionally manage forests for resilient conditions. They address 10 questions surrounding the application and relevance of these management practices. Here, we highlight the main findings of both papers and offer recommendations for management. We discuss progress paralysis that often occurs with strict adherence to the precautionary principle; offer insights for dealing with the common problem of irreducible uncertainty and suggestions for reframing management and policy direction; and identify key knowledge gaps and research needs.
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Citation: Matias MG, Coleman RA, Hochuli DF, Underwood AJ (2013) ...Correction: Macrofaunal Responses to Edges Are Independent of Habitat-Heterogeneity in Experimental Landscapes.
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