Landscape features and caribou harvesting during three decades in Newfoundland

AbstractIn the intensively farmed, homogenous agricultural landscape of the North China Plain, family graveyards form distinct cultural landscape features. In addition to their cultural value, these graveyards represent semi-natural habitat islands whose potential roles in biodiversity conservation and ecological functioning has remained poorly understood. In this study, we investigated plant species richness on 199 family graveyards of different ages and sizes. In accordance with biogeography theory, both overall and insect-pollinated plant species richness increased with area and age of graveyards. Even small graveyards show a strong potential for conserving local plant richness, and a mosaic of both large and small family graveyards could play an important role in the conservation of farmland biodiversity and related ecosystem functions. The launch of agri-environmental measures that conserve and create semi-natural habitats, in turn benefitting agricultural biodiversity and ecological functioning, has proven difficult in China due to the shortage of dispensable arable land. Given the great value of family graveyards as semi-natural habitats reflected in our study, we propose to focus preliminary efforts on conserving these landscape features as existing, widespread and culturally important semi-natural habitat islands. This would represent an effective, complementary policy to a subsequent re-establishment of other semi-natural habitats for the conservation of biodiversity and ecological functioning in agricultural landscapes.

Download Full-text

Movement syndromes of a Neotropical frugivorous bat inhabiting heterogeneous landscapes in Brazil

Movement Ecology ◽

10.1186/s40462-021-00266-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Patricia Kerches-Rogeri ◽

Danielle Leal Ramos ◽

Jukka Siren ◽

Beatriz de Oliveira Teles ◽

Rafael Souza Cruz Alves ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Site Fidelity ◽

Animal Movement ◽

Radio Telemetry ◽

Food Resource ◽

Movement Behavior ◽

Movement Activity ◽

Landscape Features ◽

Heterogeneous Landscapes ◽

Movement Data ◽

High Site

Abstract Background There is growing evidence that individuals within populations can vary in both habitat use and movement behavior, but it is still not clear how these two relate to each other. The aim of this study was to test if and how individual bats in a Stunira lilium population differ in their movement activity and preferences for landscape features in a correlated manner. Methods We collected data on movements of 27 individuals using radio telemetry. We fitted a heterogeneous-space diffusion model to the movement data in order to evaluate signals of movement variation among individuals. Results S. lilium individuals generally preferred open habitat with Solanum fruits, regularly switched between forest and open areas, and showed high site fidelity. Movement variation among individuals could be summarized in four movement syndromes: (1) average individuals, (2) forest specialists, (3) explorers which prefer Piper, and (4) open area specialists which prefer Solanum and Cecropia. Conclusions Individual preferences for landscape features plus food resource and movement activity were correlated, resulting in different movement syndromes. Individual variation in preferences for landscape elements and food resources highlight the importance of incorporating explicitly the interaction between landscape structure and individual heterogeneity in descriptions of animal movement.

Download Full-text

Landscape features causing the local congregation of honeybee males ( Apis mellifera L.)

Ethology ◽

10.1111/eth.13165 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Shinya Hayashi ◽

Toshiyuki Satoh

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Local Congregation ◽

Landscape Features

Download Full-text

Colour and Directional Symbolism in Ancestral Pueblo Radial Offerings from Chaco Canyon

Cambridge Archaeological Journal ◽

10.1017/s0959774321000317 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-21

Author(s):

Hannah V. Mattson

Keyword(s):

American Southwest ◽

Raw Material ◽

Chaco Canyon ◽

Assemblage Theory ◽

Ancestral Pueblo ◽

Landscape Features ◽

Material Sources ◽

Regional System ◽

Roof Support

Dedicatory offerings of small colourful objects are often found in pre-Hispanic architectural contexts in the Ancestral Pueblo region of the American Southwest. These deposits are particularly numerous in the roof support pillars of circular ritual structures (kivas) at the site of Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, which served as the ceremonial hub of the Chacoan regional system between the tenth and twelfth centuries ce. Based on the importance of directionality and colour in traditional Pueblo worldviews, archaeologists speculate that the contents of these radial offerings may likewise reference significant Chacoan cosmographic elements. In this paper, I explore this idea by examining the distribution of colours and materials in kiva pilaster repositories in relation to directional quadrants, prominent landscape features, and raw material sources. I discuss the results in the context of Pueblo cosmology and assemblage theory, arguing that particular colours were polyvalent and relational, deriving their meanings from their positions within interacting and heterogenous assemblages.

Download Full-text

Mapping Cultural Ecosystem Services (CESs) and key urban landscape features: a pilot study for land use policy and planning review

International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development ◽

10.1080/19463138.2021.1941050 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Laura Bachi ◽

Diomira M. C. P. Faria ◽

Marise Barreiros Horta ◽

Sónia Carvalho-Ribeiro

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Urban Landscape ◽

Land Use Policy ◽

Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽

Landscape Features ◽

Policy And Planning

Download Full-text

Changes in Landscape Structure in the Municipalities of the Nitra District (Slovak Republic) Due to Expanding Suburbanization

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13031205 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 1205

Author(s):

Zuzana Pucherová ◽

Regina Mišovičová ◽

Gabriel Bugár ◽

Henrich Grežo

Keyword(s):

Landscape Structure ◽

Slovak Republic ◽

Satellite Image ◽

Analytical Data ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Rural Landscape ◽

Landscape Features ◽

Main Research ◽

Spatial Changes ◽

The Impact

Suburbanization, as a set of several factors, influences and changes the landscape structure of smaller municipalities in the hinterland of larger cities. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the built-up areas related to suburbanization within three time horizons—in 2002, 2005, and 2020—in 62 municipalities of the district (including two cities, Nitra and Vráble). This study examines the process of spatial changes in landscape features (residential, industrial, agricultural, transport) related to suburbanization between 2002 and 2005 and between 2002 and 2020. The input analytical data were digital orthophotomaps from 2002 and 2005 and the current orthophotomosaics of the Slovak Republic from 2017 (GKÚ, Bratislava), updated for the year 2020 using Sentinel 2 satellite image data (European Space Agency). The impact of suburbanization processes between 2002 and 2005 did not reach the dimensions of the changes that occurred due to suburbanization processes between 2002 and 2020 or 2005 and 2020. The main research objective of the article is the identification and assessment of these changes. We determined which landscape features related to suburbanization affected spatial changes in municipalities of the district Nitra. The total area affected by one of the suburbanization processes monitored by us reached 92.52 ha in the period between 2002 and 2005. Between the years 2002 and 2020, the area reached a total of 2272.82 ha, which is an increase of 2180.30 ha in 2020 compared to 2002. This included mainly the expansion of settlements or housing (60.15%), industrial areas (29.31%), transport facilities (4.35%), agricultural areas (0.73%), and other areas (5.46%). These results show expanding suburbanization for the period from 2002 to 2020 and that this process has been gaining momentum in the municipalities of the Nitra district, especially in recent years, which changes the look of rural municipalities and the character of a typical rural landscape.

Download Full-text