scholarly journals Pathways of human development threaten biomes’ protection and their remaining natural vegetation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel M.D. Rosa ◽  
Carlos A. Guerra
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Mediterranean Forests ◽  
Ecological Value ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Projected Change ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Average Proportion

AbstractProtected areas have been one of the most commonly applied conservation tools to prevent ecosystem degradation. International conservation targets have been created to incentivize widespread expansion of protected area networks, but this call might clash with expected future land use change. Here we investigated how future land use trajectories (2015-2090), representing a wide range of plausible future scenarios would impact the remaining areas of primary vegetation under different protection levels across the world’s biomes. We then highlight areas under greater risk of conflict between conservation (highly protected) and land use expansion (high projected change), and areas where these two can better co-exist (lower protection with high projected change and/or high protection with low projected change).While the most positive pathway of development led to the least loss of primary vegetation globally, this was not observed in all biomes. Further, we found no significant correlation between existing extent of protection and average proportion of vegetation loss. Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub had the largest projected loss occurring in the highest protected areas. Tropical Forests in Central Africa and the Boreal Forests of North Euro-Asia and Canada emerge as the areas where most projected change occurs, and existing protection is still low. Areas in India and Southeast Asia emerge as potential areas for intervention as they have significant projected loss of primary vegetation, and considerably low protection.Our results can help inform policy and decision-makers to prevent such conflicts and support the development of management actions. These policy and management actions should target conservation in areas under expected great pressure of change with high ecological value (e.g., composed mainly by primary vegetation), but still not protected. This study also opens the discussion to the future of current protected areas and to the potential to expand the existing network of protected areas.

scholarly journals Land use and cover change scenarios in the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor-Chiapas, México

2017 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Ramírez-Mejía ◽  
Gabriela Cuevas ◽  
Paula Meli ◽  
Eduardo Mendoza
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Temperate Forests ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Southern Mexico ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Biological Corridor ◽  
Mesoamerican Biological Corridor ◽  
Land Use And Cover

<p><strong>Background</strong>. Human impact over natural ecosystems located in Southern Mexico is increasingly evident. We generated a spatially explicit land use and cover change (LUCC) model to assess current and potential impact of human activities and to identify the influence of variables such as:  distance to paved and unpaved roads, human settlements, rivers, slope and protected areas.</p><p><strong>Study site.</strong> Mesoamerican Biological Corridor located in the state of Chiapas (MBC-Ch), Mexico.</p><p><strong>Methods.</strong> We calibrated a model for the period 1993-2002 and ran a simulation for 2007 which we compared against the real 2007 land use and cover map to evaluate model’s performance. We then projected LUCC to 2030 under three different scenarios: 1) Agriculture and Livestock (AGL), 2) Business As Usual (BAU) and, 3) Conservation (CON).</p><p><strong>Results.</strong> Proximity to roads and settlements increased deforestation probabilities whereas the presence of natural protected areas had the opposite effect. The AGL scenario predicted a reduction of 43 % and 41 % in the extent of closed tropical and temperate forests, respectively. In comparison, the BAU scenario predicted a reduction of 19.5 % in the area covered by closed tropical forest and of 30.1 % in temperate forests. The extent of land destined to farming and forestry increased by 22 % and 15 % in the AGL and BAU scenarios, respectively. In contrast, the CON scenario predicted slight changes in the landscape.</p><p><strong>Conclusions. </strong>Our simulations indicate that it is highly probable to see a marked decay in the extent (and likely integrity) of natural habitats in the MBC-Ch region if a comprehensive series of management actions are not urgently implemented.</p>

SOME TRENDS IN GRASSLAND FARMING IN EUROPE

1977 ◽  
pp. 5-19
Author(s):  
R.W. Brougham
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Crude Protein ◽  
Energy Usage ◽  
Hill Country ◽  
Wide Range

IN an assessment such as this, one could cover a wide range of topics fairly shallowly or a lesser number in a bit more depth. I have opted for the latter. The topics discussed will embrace some trends in dairying, beef farming, sheep farming, hill country farming, and land use generally, species and variety usage in grassland farming, use of crude protein produced from pasture, and some implications of energy usage.

Key directions and methodological features of modern studies of land use changes

2019 ◽  
pp. 62-68
Author(s):  
Pavlo Kazmir ◽  
Lyubomyr Kazmir
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Land Change Science ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Land Relations ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Planning Methodology

Interest in land-use changes (LUC) research has been growing rapidly in recent years. This topic has already become the subject of a separate scientific discipline – land use science (or land change science). In order to formulate relevant future policy and develop appropriate land-use management tools, it is crucial to know how the LUC шьзфсе the environment and society condition. For Ukraine, where the structure of land use and the system of land resources management have significantly changed during the years of post-socialist transformation of land relations, the study of the LUC on a modern methodological basis is especially actual. The paper, based on a critical analysis of publications in leading international journals over the last thirty years, identifies key directions of LUC studies and analyzes their methodological features. There is a significant increase of the number of works based on the results of meta-studies and the use of a wide range of methods for modeling the LUC processes, their causes and possible consequences. The great "synergistic potential" of integration of the selected directions is noted, which makes it possible to accelerate the development of the general theory of land use and increase its use efficiency in substantiation of management decisions in the sphere of land use and modernization of the mechanisms of state land, spatial and ecological policies with consideration of existing and potential globalizing challenges. In this context, the key role of the land use integrated planning methodology at regional and local levels is emphasized. This methodology would require close cooperation between government, business and the public in developing a common vision for the implementation of specific land use plans and projects based on the principles of subsidiarity, participativity and shared responsibility.

Analysis of Land Use Land Cover in Annapurna Conservation Area in Gandaki Province, Nepal using Vegetation Index and Land Use Land Cover Datasets

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-99
Author(s):  
Shiva Pokhrel ◽  
Chungla Sherpa
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
National Level ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Conservation Area ◽  
Barren Land ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Annapurna Conservation Area

Conservation areas are originally well-known for protecting landscape features and wildlife. They are playing key role in conserving and providing a wide range of ecosystem services, social, economic and cultural benefits as well as vital places for climate mitigation and adaptation. We have analyzed decadal changes in land cover and status of vegetation cover in the conservation area using both national level available data on land use land cover (LULC) changes (1990-2010) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (2010-2018) in Annapurna conservation area. LULC showed the barren land as the most dominant land cover types in all three different time series 1990, 2000 and 2010 with followed by snow cover, grassland, forest, agriculture and water body. The highest NDVI values were observed at Southern, Southwestern and Southeastern part of conservation area consisting of forest area, shrub land and grassland while toward low to negative in the upper middle to the Northern part of the conservation area.

scholarly journals Current Wildland Fire Patterns and Challenges in Europe: A Synthesis of National Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 117862212110281
Author(s):  
Nieves Fernandez-Anez ◽  
Andrey Krasovskiy ◽  
Mortimer Müller ◽  
Harald Vacik ◽  
Jan Baetens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Local Analysis ◽  
Wildland Fires ◽  
Fire Statistics ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Fire Patterns

Changes in climate, land use, and land management impact the occurrence and severity of wildland fires in many parts of the world. This is particularly evident in Europe, where ongoing changes in land use have strongly modified fire patterns over the last decades. Although satellite data by the European Forest Fire Information System provide large-scale wildland fire statistics across European countries, there is still a crucial need to collect and summarize in-depth local analysis and understanding of the wildland fire condition and associated challenges across Europe. This article aims to provide a general overview of the current wildland fire patterns and challenges as perceived by national representatives, supplemented by national fire statistics (2009–2018) across Europe. For each of the 31 countries included, we present a perspective authored by scientists or practitioners from each respective country, representing a wide range of disciplines and cultural backgrounds. The authors were selected from members of the COST Action “Fire and the Earth System: Science & Society” funded by the European Commission with the aim to share knowledge and improve communication about wildland fire. Where relevant, a brief overview of key studies, particular wildland fire challenges a country is facing, and an overview of notable recent fire events are also presented. Key perceived challenges included (1) the lack of consistent and detailed records for wildland fire events, within and across countries, (2) an increase in wildland fires that pose a risk to properties and human life due to high population densities and sprawl into forested regions, and (3) the view that, irrespective of changes in management, climate change is likely to increase the frequency and impact of wildland fires in the coming decades. Addressing challenge (1) will not only be valuable in advancing national and pan-European wildland fire management strategies, but also in evaluating perceptions (2) and (3) against more robust quantitative evidence.

scholarly journals Spatial distribution of the Barbary Partridge (Alectoris barbara) in Sardinia explained by land use and climate

2021 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianpasquale Chiatante ◽  
Marta Giordano ◽  
Anna Vidus Rosin ◽  
Oreste Sacchi ◽  
Alberto Meriggi
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Distance Sampling ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
European Population ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Brood Rearing ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Study Sites

AbstractMore than half of the European population of the Barbary Partridge is in Sardinia; nonetheless, the researches concerning this species are very scarce, and its conservation status is not defined because of a deficiency of data. This research aimed to analyse the habitat selection and the factors affecting the abundance and the density of the Barbary Partridge in Sardinia. We used the data collected over 8 years (between 2004 and 2013) by spring call counts in 67 study sites spread on the whole island. We used GLMM to define the relationships between the environment (topography, land use, climate) both the occurrence and the abundance of the species. Moreover, we estimated population densities by distance sampling. The Barbary Partridge occurred in areas at low altitude with garrigue and pastures, avoiding woodlands and sparsely vegetated areas. We found a strong relationship between the occurrence probability and the climate, in particular, a positive relation with temperature and a negative effect of precipitation, especially in April–May, during brood rearing. Furthermore, dry crops positively affected the abundance of the species. We estimated a density of 14.1 partridges per km2, similar to other known estimates. Our findings are important both because they increase the knowledge concerning this species, which is considered data deficient in Italy, and because they are useful to plan management actions aimed to maintain viable populations if necessary.

scholarly journals Within-Season Changes in Land-Use Impact Pest Abundance in Smallholder African Cassava Production Systems

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Kalyebi ◽  
Sarina Macfadyen ◽  
Andrew Hulthen ◽  
Patrick Ocitti ◽  
Frances Jacomb ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Bemisia Tabaci ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Smallholder Farming ◽  
Manihot Esculenta Crantz

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), an important commercial and food security crop in East and Central Africa, continues to be adversely affected by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. In Uganda, changes in smallholder farming landscapes due to crop rotations can impact pest populations but how these changes affect pest outbreak risk is unknown. We investigated how seasonal changes in land-use have affected B. tabaci population dynamics and its parasitoids. We used a large-scale field experiment to standardize the focal field in terms of cassava age and cultivar, then measured how Bemisia populations responded to surrounding land-use change. Bemisia tabaci Sub-Saharan Africa 1 (SSA1) was identified using molecular diagnostics as the most prevalent species and the same species was also found on surrounding soybean, groundnut, and sesame crops. We found that an increase in the area of cassava in the 3–7-month age range in the landscape resulted in an increase in the abundance of the B. tabaci SSA1 on cassava. There was a negative relationship between the extent of non-crop vegetation in the landscape and parasitism of nymphs suggesting that these parasitoids do not rely on resources in the non-crop patches. The highest abundance of B. tabaci SSA1 nymphs in cassava fields occurred at times when landscapes had large areas of weeds, low to moderate areas of maize, and low areas of banana. Our results can guide the development of land-use strategies that smallholder farmers can employ to manage these pests.

scholarly journals Recovering Forecast Distributions of Crop Composition: Method and Application to Kentucky Agriculture

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2917
Author(s):  
GwanSeon Kim ◽  
Mehdi Nemati ◽  
Steven Buck ◽  
Nicholas Pates ◽  
Tyler Mark
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Transition Probabilities ◽  
New Crops ◽  
Run Off ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Data Layer ◽  
Mnl Model ◽  
Total Acreage ◽  
Specific Capital

This paper proposes a novel application of the multinomial logit (MNL) model using Cropland Data Layer and field-level boundaries to estimate crop transition probabilities, which are used to generate forecast distributions of total acreage for five major crops produced in the state of Kentucky. These forecasts distributions have a wide range of applications that, besides providing interim acreage estimates ahead of the June Acreage Survey, can inform the ability of producers to incorporate new crops in the land-use rotation, investments in location-specific capital and input distribution as well informing the likelihood of adverse water quality events from nutrient run-off.

scholarly journals Are Wildfires a Threat to Fungi in European Pinus Forests? A Case Study of Boreal and Mediterranean Forests

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Franco-Manchón ◽  
Kauko Salo ◽  
Juan Oria-de-Rueda ◽  
José Bonet ◽  
Pablo Martín-Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Fungal Diversity ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Fungal Communities ◽  
Mediterranean Forests ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
Edible Fungi ◽  
Pinus Species

Natural forests and plantations of Pinus are ecologically and economically important worldwide, producing an array of goods and services, including the provision of non-wood forest products. Pinus species play an important role in Mediterranean and boreal forests. Although Pinus species seem to show an ecological adaptation to recurrent wildfires, a new era of mega fires is predicted, owing to climate changes associated with global warming. As a consequence, fungal communities, which are key players in forest ecosystems, could be strongly affected by these wildfires. The aim of this study was to observe the fungal community dynamics, and particularly the edible fungi, in maritime (Pinus pinaster Ait.), austrian pine (Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold), and scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests growing under wet Mediterranean, dry Mediterranean, and boreal climatic conditions, respectively, by comparing the mushrooms produced in severely burned Pinus forests in each area. Sporocarps were collected during the main sampling campaigns in non-burned plots, and in burned plots one year and five years after fire. A total of 182 taxa, belonging to 81 genera, were collected from the sampled plots, indicating a high level of fungal diversity in these pine forests, independent of the climatic conditions. The composition of the fungal communities was strongly affected by wildfire. Mycorrhizal taxa were impacted more severely by wildfire than the saprotrophic taxa, particularly in boreal forests—no mycorrhizal taxa were observed in the year following fire in boreal forests. Based on our observations, it seems that fungal communities of boreal P. sylvestris forests are not as adapted to high-intensity fires as the Mediterranean fungal communities of P. nigra and P. pinaster forests. This will have an impact on reducing fungal diversity and potential incomes in rural economically depressed areas that depend on income from foraged edible fungi, one of the most important non-wood forest products.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document