scholarly journals Abandonment of cultural landscapes: butterfly communities track the advance of forest over grasslands

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amparo Mora ◽  
Andrew Wilby ◽  
Rosa Menéndez
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Intensification ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Landscape Heterogeneity ◽  
Species Turnover ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Landscape Variables ◽  
Rural Landscapes ◽  
Butterfly Communities

Abstract Rural landscapes in Europe have suffered considerable land-use change in the last 50 years, with agricultural intensification in western regions and land abandonment in eastern and southern regions. The negative impacts of agricultural intensification on butterflies and other insects in western Europe have been well studied. However, less is known about the impacts of abandonment on mountain and humid areas of eastern and southern Europe, where landscapes have remained more natural. We sampled butterfly communities in the Picos de Europa National Park (Spain), a region which is undergoing a process of rural abandonment. 19 hay meadows with different periods of abandonment were studied (long-term 18 years or mid-term abandoned, 3–7 years) and compared to meadows continuously managed in a traditional way. We examined how local meadow characteristics and landscape variables affected butterfly community response to abandonment. Butterfly communities were affected by abandonment, with an overall increase in the density of individuals in the long term. Community composition appears to undergo major change over time, with a species turnover of around 50% in the first few years of abandonment, rising to around 70% after 18 years of abandonment. There was a tendency for species with higher preference for closed habitats to increase their densities as time since abandonment proceeded. Landscape variables had a major impact on butterfly communities, stronger than the effect of meadow management. Community preference for closed habitats was associated with higher forest cover in the surroundings of the meadows, but heterogeneous landscapes (in their composition or configuration) mitigated this effect. Implications for insect conservation Our findings suggest that we should ensure that communities have time to react to the diverse stressors imposed by global change. Facilitating survival to all kinds of functional and taxonomic groups implies promoting landscape heterogeneity and connectivity.

Archaeology, Historical Sciences, and Environmental Conservation

2015 ◽  
pp. 71-90
Author(s):  
Anneli Ekblom
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Landscape Heterogeneity ◽  
Species Conservation ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Traditional Practices ◽  
Sound Management ◽  
Ecological Thinking ◽  
Different Parts

Environmental conservation has long been orientated towards reconstructing or conserving ‘naturalness’. The historical sciences in combination with new ecological thinking have taught us that landscapes are constantly in flux. We now know that many landscapes that previously were regarded as natural in fact have been shaped and reshaped by people over millennia, and that human disturbance of different kinds may enhance landscape heterogeneity and biodiversity. This chapter presents cases from different parts of Africa that demonstrate how archaeology, palaeoecology, and historical analysis have contributed to reform the traditional outlook of environmental conservation and revise misconstrued landscape histories. It shows that historical studies can offer insights that contribute a better understanding of species conservation, ecosystem function, prediction of ecosystem behaviour, and sound management of cultural landscapes. The long-term historical continuities in the landscape raise awareness of the importance of traditional practices and their benefits for environmental conservation.

scholarly journals Shedding New Light on Mountainous Forest Growth: A Cross-Scale Evaluation of the Effects of Topographic Illumination Correction on 25 Years of Forest Cover Change across Nepal

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2131
Author(s):  
Jamon Van Den Hoek ◽  
Alexander C. Smith ◽  
Kaspar Hurni ◽  
Sumeet Saksena ◽  
Jefferson Fox
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Geographic Distribution ◽  
Classification Accuracy ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Forest Cover Change ◽  
Scale Evaluation ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Affect Detection

Accurate remote sensing of mountainous forest cover change is important for myriad social and ecological reasons, but is challenged by topographic and illumination conditions that can affect detection of forests. Several topographic illumination correction (TIC) approaches have been developed to mitigate these effects, but existing research has focused mostly on whether TIC improves forest cover classification accuracy and has usually found only marginal gains. However, the beneficial effects of TIC may go well beyond accuracy since TIC promises to improve detection of low illuminated forest cover and thereby normalize measurements of the amount, geographic distribution, and rate of forest cover change regardless of illumination. To assess the effects of TIC on the extent and geographic distribution of forest cover change, in addition to classification accuracy, we mapped forest cover across mountainous Nepal using a 25-year (1992–2016) gap-filled Landsat time series in two ways—with and without TIC (i.e., nonTIC)—and classified annual forest cover using a Random Forest classifier. We found that TIC modestly increased classifier accuracy and produced more conservative estimates of net forest cover change across Nepal (−5.2% from 1992–2016) TIC. TIC also resulted in a more even distribution of forest cover gain across Nepal with 3–5% more net gain and 4–6% more regenerated forest in the least illuminated regions. These results show that TIC helped to normalize forest cover change across varying illumination conditions with particular benefits for detecting mountainous forest cover gain. We encourage the use of TIC for satellite remote sensing detection of long-term mountainous forest cover change.

scholarly journals Does Tropical Forest Fragmentation Increase Long-Term Variability of Butterfly Communities?

PLoS ONE ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. e9534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison K. Leidner ◽  
Nick M. Haddad ◽  
Thomas E. Lovejoy
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Forest Fragmentation ◽  
Butterfly Communities

Forest cover and landscape heterogeneity shape ant–plant co-occurrence networks in human-dominated tropical rainforests

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick J. Corro ◽  
Diana A. Ahuatzin ◽  
Armando Aguirre Jaimes ◽  
Mario E. Favila ◽  
Milton Cezar Ribeiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Cover ◽  
Landscape Heterogeneity ◽  
Tropical Rainforests

scholarly journals Does afforestation deteriorate haze pollution in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), China?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Long ◽  
Naifang Bei ◽  
Jiarui Wu ◽  
Xia Li ◽  
Tian Feng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Cover ◽  
Fine Particles ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Forecast Model ◽  
Surface Wind Speed ◽  
Satellite Measurements ◽  
Haze Pollution ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Although aggressive emission control strategies have been implemented recently in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei area (BTH), China, pervasive and persistent haze still frequently engulfs the region during wintertime. Afforestation in BTH, primarily concentrated in the Taihang and Yanshan Mountains, has constituted one of the controversial factors exacerbating the haze pollution due to its slowdown of the surface wind speed. We report here an increasing trend of forest cover in BTH during 2001–2013 based on long-term satellite measurements and the impact of the afforestation on the fine particles (PM2.5) level. Simulations using the Weather Research and Forecast model with chemistry reveal that the afforestation in BTH since 2001 generally deteriorates the haze pollution in BTH to some degree, enhancing PM2.5 concentrations by up to 6 % on average. Complete afforestation or deforestation in the Taihang and Yanshan Mountains would increase or decrease the PM2.5 level within 15 % in BTH. Our model results also suggest that implementing a large ventilation corridor system would not be effective or beneficial to mitigate the haze pollution in Beijing.

scholarly journals Long-Term Trends in Small Mammals on a Right-of-Way in Pennsylvania, U.S.

2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-152
Author(s):  
Richard Yahner ◽  
Richard Yahner ◽  
Russell Hutnik
Keyword(s):  
Small Mammals ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Common Species ◽  
The State ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Right Of Way ◽  
Live Trapping ◽  
Long Term Trends

The State Game Lands 33 Research and Demonstration Area, Centre County, Pennsylvania, U.S., has been studied since 1953 with the objective of comparing the effectiveness of commonly used mechanical and herbicidal maintenance treatments on vegetation and wildlife on a right-of-way (ROW). Small mammals are important wildlife species on a ROW by consuming tree seeds, thereby reducing invasion of undesirable tree species, and these mammals are important components of a healthy ecosystem. As a follow up to a 2-year study of small mammals conducted 15 years earlier (1989 to 1990) on the State Game Lands 33 ROW, we initiated a 2-year live-trapping study in 2004 on small mammal populations on this ROW. The objectives of our study were to determine relative abundance and species richness (number of species) in six major cover types and in the adjacent forest. One hundred twenty-one individuals of eight species were observed in 2004 and 2005 combined; the most common species was the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus). One of the most important cover types to small mammals on the ROW was forb-grass, whereas the forest cover type tended to be less diverse in terms of number of mammal species than in cover types on the ROW.

scholarly journals Social Capital during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Outbreak: The Case of the Island of Menorca

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (23) ◽  
pp. 12720
Author(s):  
Ester Villalonga-Olives ◽  
Ichiro Kawachi ◽  
Ildefonso Hernández-Aguado
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Sociodemographic Differences ◽  
The World ◽  
Permanent Residents

The rapidly evolving coronavirus pandemic has drastically altered the economic and social lives of people throughout the world. Our overall goal is to understand the mechanisms through which social capital shaped the community response to the pandemic on the island of Menorca, Spain, which was under a strict lockdown in 2020. Between April and June 2020, we performed qualitative interviews (n = 25) of permanent residents of the island. From the findings, it is evident that social capital is an important resource with the capacity to organize help and support. However, the dark sides of social capital, with lack of social cohesion and lack of trust, also emerged as an important negative issue. We identified sources of tension that were not resolved, as well as important sociodemographic differences that are primary drivers for health inequalities. The investment in social networks and social capital is a long-term need that should consider sociodemographic vulnerability.

scholarly journals MODELING PRECIPITATION DEPENDENT FOREST RESILIENCE IN INDIA

2018 ◽  
Vol XLII-3 ◽  
pp. 263-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Das ◽  
M. D. Behera ◽  
P. S. Roy
Keyword(s):  
Forest Cover ◽  
Vegetation Type ◽  
Annual Precipitation ◽  
Mean Annual Precipitation ◽  
High Tendency ◽  
North East India ◽  
North East ◽  
Forest Resilience ◽  
The Impact

The impact of long term climate change that imparts stress on forest could be perceived by studying the regime shift of forest ecosystem. With the change of significant precipitation, forest may go through density change around globe at different spatial and temporal scale. The 100 class high resolution (60 meter spatial resolution) Indian vegetation type map was used in this study recoded into four broad categories depending on phrenology as (i) forest, (ii) scrubland, (iii) grassland and (iv) treeless area. The percentage occupancy of forest, scrub, grass and treeless were observed as 19.9&amp;thinsp;%, 5.05&amp;thinsp;%, 1.89&amp;thinsp;% and 7.79&amp;thinsp;% respectively. Rest of the 65.37&amp;thinsp;% land area was occupied by the cropland, built-up, water body and snow covers. The majority forest cover were appended into a 5&amp;thinsp;km&amp;thinsp;&amp;times;&amp;thinsp;5&amp;thinsp;km grid, along with the mean annual precipitation taken from Bioclim data. The binary presence and absence of different vegetation categories in relates to the annual precipitation was analyzed to calculate their resilience expressed in probability values ranging from 0 to 1. Forest cover observed having resilience probability (Pr) &amp;lt;&amp;thinsp;0.3 in only 0.3&amp;thinsp;% (200&amp;thinsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of total forest cover in India, which was 4.3&amp;thinsp;% &amp;lt;&amp;thinsp;0.5&amp;thinsp;Pr. Majority of the scrubs and grass (64.92&amp;thinsp;% Pr&amp;thinsp;&amp;lt;&amp;thinsp;0.5) from North East India which were the shifting cultivation lands showing low resilience, having their high tendency to be transform to forest. These results have spatial explicitness to highlight the resilient and non-resilient distribution of forest, scrub and grass, and treeless areas in India.

Australian Indigenous Ochres

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jillian Huntley
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Novel Studies ◽  
Trade And Exchange ◽  
Key Terms

Aboriginal Australians use ochre in varied cultural practices. It is found in the earliest to most recent archaeological sites and geographically across the wide-ranging geological and climatic contexts of the continent. Ochre’s importance in Aboriginal societies, coupled with its availability across Australia and its long-term durability, has led to a ubiquitous archaeological presence with considerable potential to study past cultural landscapes and intergroup interactions, including long-distance trade and exchange. Concentrating on scientific sourcing analyses, this article highlights the benefits of archaeopigment research, defining key terms (ochre, provenience, and provenance) and the technicalities of sourcing studies before discussing theoretical frameworks used in interpretations of ochre distribution patterns. The article argues that as we move away from novel studies on ethnographically well-known source locations into applied research, exceptional Australian records are well placed to investigate territoriality, mobility, intergroup and human–landscape interactions, and to explore the catalysts driving cultural diversity.

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