scholarly journals Present and historical landscape structure shapes current species richness in Central European grasslands

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Scherreiks ◽  
Martin M. Gossner ◽  
Didem Ambarlı ◽  
Manfred Ayasse ◽  
Nico Blüthgen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Functional Groups ◽  
Landscape Structure ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Buffer Zones ◽  
Historical Landscape ◽  
Total Species Richness ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Current Species

Abstract Context Current diversity and species composition of ecological communities can often not exclusively be explained by present land use and landscape structure. Historical land use may have considerably influenced ecosystems and their properties for decades and centuries. Objectives We analysed the effects of present and historical landscape structure on plant and arthropod species richness in temperate grasslands, using data from comprehensive plant and arthropod assessments across three regions in Germany and maps of current and historical land cover from three time periods between 1820 and 2016. Methods We calculated local, grassland class and landscape scale metrics for 150 grassland plots. Class and landscape scale metrics were calculated in buffer zones of 100 to 2000 m around the plots. We considered effects on total species richness as well as on the richness of species subsets determined by taxonomy and functional traits related to habitat use, dispersal and feeding. Results Overall, models containing a combination of present and historical landscape metrics showed the best fit for several functional groups. Comparing three historical time periods, data from the 1820/50s was among the most frequent significant time periods in our models (29.7% of all significant variables). Conclusions Our results suggest that the historical landscape structure is an important predictor of current species richness across different taxa and functional groups. This needs to be considered to better identify priority sites for conservation and to design biodiversity-friendly land use practices that will affect landscape structure in the future.

scholarly journals Landscape-scale drivers of mammalian species richness and functional diversity in forest patches within a mixed land-use mosaic

2020 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 106176
Author(s):  
Yvette C. Ehlers Smith ◽  
David A. Ehlers Smith ◽  
Tharmalingam Ramesh ◽  
Colleen T. Downs
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Mammalian Species ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Forest Patches ◽  
Mixed Land Use

scholarly journals The Loss of Landscape Ecological Functionality in the Barcelona Province (1956–2009): Could Land-Use History Involve a Legacy for Current Biodiversity?

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enric Tello ◽  
Joan Marull ◽  
Roc Padró ◽  
Claudio Cattaneo ◽  
Francesc Coll
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Landscape Patterns ◽  
Total Species Richness

Could past land uses, and the land cover changes carried out, affect the current landscape capacity to maintain biodiversity? If so, knowledge of historical landscapes and their socio-ecological transitions would be useful for sustainable land use planning. We constructed a GIS dataset in 10 × 10 km UTM cells of the province of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) for 1956 and 2009 with the changing levels of farming disturbance exerted through the human appropriation of photosynthetic net primary production (HANPP), and a set of landscape ecology metrics to assess the impacts of the corresponding land-use changes. Then, we correlated them with the spatial distribution of total species richness (including vascular plants, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals). The results allow us to characterize the main trends in changing landscape patterns and processes, and explore whether a land-use legacy of many complex agroforest mosaics maintained by the intermediate farming disturbance managed in 1956 could still exist, despite the decrease or disappearance of those mosaics before 2009 due to the combined impacts of agroindustrial intensification (meaning higher HANPP levels), forest transition (meaning lower HANPP levels) and urban sprawl. Statistical analysis reveals a positive impact of the number of larger, less disturbed forest patches, where many protected natural sites have been created in 1956–2009. However, it also confirms that this result has not only been driven by conservation policies and that the distribution of species richness is currently correlated with the maintenance of intermediate levels of HANPP. This suggests that both land-sharing and land-sparing approaches to biodiversity conservation may have played a synergistic role owing to the legacy of complex land cover mosaics of former agricultural landscapes that are now under a serious threat.

scholarly journals Complex Small-Holder Agriculture in Rainforest Buffer Zone, Sri Lanka, Supports Endemic Birds

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Hanle ◽  
Balangoda M. P. Singhakumara ◽  
Mark S. Ashton
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Buffer Zone ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Forest Fragments ◽  
Buffer Zones ◽  
Bird Abundance ◽  
Point Counts ◽  
Zone Management

The Sinharaja rainforest in southwestern Sri Lanka is a protected forest in a largely agriculture-dominated landscape. In keeping with global UNESCO global biosphere reserves planning, the Sinharaja is surrounded by a buffer zone of regenerating forest and villages with small tea plots and multi-strata tree gardens (homegardens). Globally, however, conservation planning lacks standards on buffer zone management. We ask what relationships exist between village land use and bird assemblages, which are effective ecosystem indicators. Birds have been little studied across land use and vegetation structure in actively managed, large, protected forest buffer zones. To that end, we ran spatially- and temporally-replicated bird point counts across tree gardens, forest fragments, and tea plots within a Sinharaja village. Tree gardens held a greater abundance of birds across habitat association, conservation concern, diet, and endemic species than forest fragments or tea plots. Forest fragments and tree gardens hosted statistically similar numbers of birds in some subsets, but their species assemblages differed. In tea plots, greater shade tree species richness correlated with greater bird abundance and species richness. Our results support the argument for programs to support complex small-scale tree-based agroforestry embedded in buffer zone regenerating forest.

Management legacies and forest structure shape the root rot risk of coniferous forests in Finland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juha Honkaniemi ◽  
Juha Heikkinen ◽  
Helena Henttonen ◽  
Mikko Peltoniemi
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Norway Spruce ◽  
Landscape Structure ◽  
Root Rot ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Growth Media ◽  
Site Conditions ◽  
Boosted Regression Tree ◽  
Temperature Sum

<p>Forest management and land use can strongly alter the forest ecosystem with long-lasting legacy effects by shaping e.g. species composition and age structure in stand and landscape scales. These changes may lead to changes in the local disturbance regime. In addition, forest management may directly affect the dynamics of disturbance agents. Heterobasidion root rot is one of the most important diseases of conifers in the Northern hemisphere. The epidemiology of the fungus relies heavily on the availability of fresh wood material which the spores need to cause an infection. In managed forests, fresh stump surfaces provide massive amounts of perfect growth media.  Once the fungus has infected a stand, the disease remains in there over tree generations slowly deteriorating the timber quality, killing trees and predisposing trees to subsequent disturbance agents such as wind. Thus, host availability in landscape scale, stand conditions and the management history all are assumed to play an important role in the epidemiology. The aim of this study was to analyze the drivers of current distribution of Heterobasidion root rot in Finland in order to understand the disease dynamics better and to manage the disease in the future. Specifically, we asked how important the legacies of different past management and land-use methods are. The National Forest Inventory (NFI) in Finland has recorded root rot observations since 1995 covering in total over 348 000 sample plots over four inventories. We combined that database with 20 different explanatory variables with a hypothetical relation to the biology and epidemiology of the fungus. The variables were categorized to three categories; (i) management legacies, (ii) landscape structure, and (iii) site conditions. Management legacies included for example the historical locations of sawmills and the share of forest pastures. Landscape structure combined structural characteristics, such as Norway spruce and old forest (120+ years) shares from different time periods. Site conditions were described with e.g. temperature sum and Shannon index for tree species richness. By using Boosted Regression Tree and Generalized Liner Models, we found that variables from all the three categories contributed to the presence of Heterobasidion root rot. The distance from an NFI plot to the nearest sawmill operating in 1910 (historical intensity of logging) and the distance to a waterway (timber rafting as main transportation methods) were shown to be one of the most important variables together with temperature sum and current Norway spruce share in landscape scale. This indicates that the management legacies, especially the past management intensity, has a significant effect on the epidemiology of Heterobasidion root rot.</p>

Scale-dependent importance of environment, land use and landscape structure for species richness and composition of SE Norwegian modern agricultural landscapes

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 969-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rune H. Økland ◽  
Harald Bratli ◽  
Wenche E. Dramstad ◽  
Anette Edvardsen ◽  
Gunnar Engan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Landscape Structure ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes

scholarly journals Extending vegetation site data and ensemble models to predict patterns of foliage cover and species richness for plant functional groups

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 1391-1407
Author(s):  
Megan J. McNellie ◽  
Ian Oliver ◽  
Simon Ferrier ◽  
Graeme Newell ◽  
Glenn Manion ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Functional Groups ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Plant Functional Groups ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Environmental Predictors ◽  
Neural Network Models ◽  
Model Residuals

Abstract Context Ensembles of artificial neural network models can be trained to predict the continuous characteristics of vegetation such as the foliage cover and species richness of different plant functional groups. Objectives Our first objective was to synthesise existing site-based observations of native plant species to quantify summed percentage foliage cover and species richness within four functional groups and in totality. Secondly, we generated spatially-explicit, continuous, landscape-scale models of these functional groups, accompanied by maps of the model residuals to show uncertainty. Methods Using a case study from New South Wales, Australia, we aggregated floristic observations from 6806 sites into four common plant growth forms (trees, shrubs, grasses and forbs) representing four different functional groups. We coupled these response data with spatially-complete surfaces describing environmental predictors and predictors that reflect landscape-scale disturbance. We predicted the distribution of foliage cover and species richness of these four plant functional groups over 1.5 million hectares. Importantly, we display spatially explicit model residuals so that end-users have a tangible and transparent means of assessing model uncertainty. Results Models of richness generally performed well (R2 0.43–0.63), whereas models of cover were more variable (R2 0.12–0.69). RMSD ranged from 1.42 (tree richness) to 29.86 (total native cover). MAE ranged from 1.0 (tree richness) to 20.73 (total native foliage cover). Conclusions Continuous maps of vegetation attributes can add considerable value to existing maps and models of discrete vegetation classes and provide ecologically informative data to support better decisions across multiple spatial scales.

scholarly journals Local versus landscape-scale effects of anthropogenic land-use on forest species richness

2018 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 49-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Buffa ◽  
S. Del Vecchio ◽  
E. Fantinato ◽  
V. Milano
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Forest Species ◽  
Anthropogenic Land Use

scholarly journals effects of extensive grazing on the vegetation of a landscape-scale restoration site

2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Stroh ◽  
John Bragg ◽  
Peter Carey ◽  
Carol Laidlaw ◽  
Martin Lester ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
Habitat Restoration ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
N Fertility

The Wicken Fen Vision (Cambridgeshire, UK) is a landscape-scale habitat restoration project that uses process-driven, open-ended approaches to develop habitats on highly degraded and drained peat soils of former intensive arable land. The project land is extensively grazed with herds of free-roaming, minimally managed herds of Highland cattle and Konik horses. In one 119 ha area, seven 25m x 25 m grazing exclosures were erected and vascular plant species were recorded from 2007 to 2017. Plant species data were analysed to (1) compare changes in plant species composition and diversity in grazed and ungrazed areas; (2) use plant species traits and plant-environment associations to explore the nature of changes in plant composition; (3) use remote sensing to explore changes in vegetation structure; (4) examine the influence of land use histories on grazing outcomes in different parts of the site.There was a clear divergence through time between grazed and ungrazed areas, attributed to significantly greater canopy height, Ellenberg L (Light) and Ellenberg N (fertility) values within the exclosures. Species richness was significantly higher in grazed compared with ungrazed areas and species assemblages separated through the study period. After ten years, extensive free-roaming grazing has had significant impacts on vegetation structure and species richness but effects varied across the study site because of differing historical land use.

scholarly journals Rural–urban gradient and land use in a millenary metropolis: how urbanization affects avian functional groups and the role of old villas in bird assemblage patterning

Web Ecology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Vignoli ◽  
S. Scirè ◽  
M. A. Bologna
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Functional Groups ◽  
Bird Communities ◽  
Urban Gradient ◽  
Natural Areas ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Bird Assemblages ◽  
Species Groups

Abstract. Urbanization generally leads to a complex environmental gradient, ranging from almost undisturbed natural areas to highly modified urban landscapes. Here we analyse the effects of a rural–urban gradient on breeding bird communities and functional species groups in remnant natural and semi-natural areas of Rome. A total of 69 breeding bird species were found in the study area. Species richness decreased with increasing urbanization at two spatial scales: the point count station and the landscape scales. Evenness showed a negative trend from periphery to city centre, whereas for dominant species the opposite was true. Functional species groups responded to the urbanization gradient with functional group-specific patterns. Those groups linked to open habitats (nesting and habitat functional groups) decreased in abundance along the rural–urban gradient, whereas those associated with forests exhibited a mixed trend. Generalist species' occurrence increased with urbanization. As for predators and granivorous species, we found a negative relationship with urbanization whereas for omnivorous species the opposite trend was true. The distribution of old villas (large-sized remnant green areas) in the inner city areas influenced species composition along the studied gradient, usually showing higher species richness than surrounding fragments. Agricultural areas hosted richer and better balanced bird assemblages in respect to those found in urban and forested areas. Our findings proved that an urban gradient plays a major role in structuring bird communities, although the extent and distribution of land use categories was another factor that influenced avian assemblages. The presence of historical villas also influenced bird assemblages, making it possible to preserve high bird diversity even in inner city-areas.

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