To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Landscape scale structure.
Journal articles on the topic 'Landscape scale structure'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 journal articles for your research on the topic 'Landscape scale structure.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse journal articles on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Barrell, Jeffrey, and Jon Grant. "High-resolution, low-altitude aerial photography in physical geography." Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment 39, no. 4 (May 5, 2015): 440–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0309133315578943.
Full textAbstract:
Intertidal landscapes are highly complex and dynamic habitats that exhibit variability over a range of spatial and temporal scales. The spatial arrangement of structure-forming biogenic features such as seagrasses and bivalves influences ecosystem function and the provision of important ecosystem services, though quantification and monitoring of intertidal landscape structure has been hindered by challenges collecting spatial data in the coastal zone. In this study, an intertidal landscape mosaic of eelgrass ( Zostera marina) and blue mussels ( Mytilus edulis) was observed using low-altitude aerial photography from a balloon-mounted digital camera platform. Imagery representing seagrass-bivalve landscape structure was classified and analysed using multiple metrics of landscape composition and configuration at the patch scale and the landscape scale. Patch-scale imagery was compared to a previously collected dataset in order to track temporal changes in seagrass patch metrics over a 26-month period. Seagrass and bivalve patches exhibited distinct spatial patterning at different spatial scales. At the patch scale, the change in seagrass metrics was consistent with patch border expansion at the expense of patch density and integrity. These methods demonstrate a novel approach for collecting high-resolution spatial data that could also be valuable to physical geographers dealing with similar fine-scale landscapes. The application of spatial metrics at multiple spatial scales quantified elements of the configuration and composition of a seagrass-bivalve habitat mosaic and allowed for the tracking of patch metrics through time to depict landscape change. Continued development of landscape metrics within intertidal habitats will increase understanding of the ecological function of these areas with benefits to management and monitoring of ecosystem health.
2
Dickinson, Yvette, Eric K. Zenner, and Douglas Miller. "Examining the effect of diverse management strategies on landscape scale patterns of forest structure in Pennsylvania using novel remote sensing techniques." Canadian Journal of Forest Research 44, no. 4 (April 2014): 301–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2013-0315.
Full textAbstract:
We used novel remote sensing techniques to compare the landscape-scale patterns of forest structure in Pennsylvania, USA under the management of four different agencies with varying primary objectives, including production forestry, wildlife habitat, recreation, and private ownership. We (i) developed a forest structure classification scheme using publicly available LiDAR and orthographic aerial imagery data, (ii) mapped the forest structure across twenty forested landscapes, and (iii) compared the landscape-scale forest structure patterns among the four forest management types. Our results indicate that different management philosophies and their associated forest management approaches have resulted in contrasting landscape-scale patterns of forest structure. Privately managed forests had shorter forests, higher densities of distinct patches, higher interspersion of patch types, and higher forest structure diversity at fine-scales (1.5 ha grain size) compared to forests lightly managed for recreation. Production forests under ecosystem management and forests managed for wildlife habitat exhibited intermediate patterns of forest structure. This variation in forest structure patterns among the forest managers is likely to have implications for wildlife habitat and other ecosystem services. Furthermore, greater emphasis is needed on encouraging private landowners to manage across property boundaries and providing the resources and tools to manage forests at the landscape scale.
3
Ojala, E., M. Mönkkönen, and J. Inkeröinen. "Epiphytic bryophytes on European aspen Populus tremula in old-growth forests in northeastern Finland and in adjacent sites in Russia." Canadian Journal of Botany 78, no. 4 (April 21, 2000): 529–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/b00-023.
Full textAbstract:
We studied the occurrence and cover of epiphytic bryophytes and one lichen species (Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm.) growing on Populus tremula L. trunks. Our aim was to explore the spatial scales where epiphyte species respond to their environment. At the landscape scale, fragmented Finnish old-growth forests close to the Russian border and farther west in a heavily fragmented landscape were compared with Russian sites with more continuous old-growth forest landscapes to assess the effect of landscape structure on epiphyte assemblages. We studied factors affecting populations at the level of individual sites and local habitat patches within the forests. Twelve sites were surveyed for epiphytes. We estimated epiphyte occurrence from 353 Populus tremula trunks. There seemed to be only minor differences in the structure of epiphyte assemblages between the three landscapes surveyed. Species richness varied also independently of the landscape structure but was positively related to regional Populus tremula abundance (alpha diversity) and the size of the substrate trunk (point diversity). At the regional scale, the most important factor affecting the occurrence of epiphytes was the abundance of Populus tremula. At the local scale, the size of the Populus tremula surveyed and tree density around the trunk surveyed correlated positively with the occurrence of some species. The size and abundance of Populus tremula as well as tree density are the most important factors for maintaining viable populations of the studied species.Key words: biodiversity, boreal forest, Bryophyte, forest management, landscape structure, Lobaria pulmonaria.
4
Benda, L., D. Miller, and J. Barquín. "Creating a catchment scale perspective for river restoration." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 15, no. 9 (September 27, 2011): 2995–3015. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-2995-2011.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract. One of the major challenges in river restoration is to identify the natural fluvial landscape in catchments with a long history of river control. Intensive land use on valley floors often predates the earliest remote sensing: levees, dikes, dams, and other structures alter valley-floor morphology, river channels and flow regimes. Consequently, morphological patterns indicative of the fluvial landscape including multiple channels, extensive floodplains, wetlands, and fluvial-riparian and tributary-confluence dynamics can be obscured, and information to develop appropriate and cost effective river restoration strategies can be unavailable. This is the case in the Pas River catchment in northern Spain (650 km2), in which land use and development have obscured the natural fluvial landscape in many parts of the basin. To address this issue we used computer tools to examine the spatial patterns of fluvial landscapes that are associated with five domains of hydro-geomorphic processes and landforms. Using a 5-m digital elevation model, valley-floor surfaces were mapped according to elevation above the channel and proximity to key geomorphic processes. The predicted fluvial landscape is patchily distributed according to hillslope and valley topography, river network structure, and channel elevation profiles. The vast majority of the fluvial landscape in the main segments of the Pas River catchment is presently masked by human infrastructure, with only 15% not impacted by river control structures and development. The reconstructed fluvial landscape provides a catchment scale context to support restoration planning, in which areas of potential ecological productivity and diversity could be targeted for in-channel, floodplain and riparian restoration projects.
5
Xu, Ming, Ye Qi, Jiquan Chen, and Bo Song. "Scale-dependent relationships between landscape structure and microclimate." Plant Ecology (formerly Vegetatio) 173, no. 1 (July 2004): 39–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/b:vege.0000026322.18998.cc.
Full text
6
Egerer, Monika, and Elsa Anderson. "Social-Ecological Connectivity to Understand Ecosystem Service Provision across Networks in Urban Landscapes." Land 9, no. 12 (December 18, 2020): 530. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land9120530.
Full textAbstract:
Landscape connectivity is a critical component of dynamic processes that link the structure and function of networks at the landscape scale. In the Anthropocene, connectivity across a landscape-scale network is influenced not only by biophysical land use features, but also by characteristics and patterns of the social landscape. This is particularly apparent in urban landscapes, which are highly dynamic in land use and often in social composition. Thus, landscape connectivity, especially in cities, must be thought of in a social-ecological framework. This is relevant when considering ecosystem services—the benefits that people derive from ecological processes and properties. As relevant actors move through a connected landscape-scale network, particular services may “flow” better across space and time. For this special issue on dynamic landscape connectivity, we discuss the concept of social-ecological networks using urban landscapes as a focal system to highlight the importance of social-ecological connectivity to understand dynamic urban landscapes, particularly in regards to the provision of urban ecosystem services.
7
Mai, Thien T., and Kevin A. Hovel. "Influence of local-scale and landscape-scale habitat characteristics on California spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus) abundance and survival." Marine and Freshwater Research 58, no. 5 (2007): 419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf06141.
Full textAbstract:
For many marine systems, little is known about the effects of habitat structure on ecological processes that dictate population dynamics. This study focused on the effects of habitat structure on behaviour, abundance, and survival of California spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus Randall) in the Point Loma kelp forest, San Diego, California. Habitat characteristics were quantified in 400-m2 landscapes to determine the role of shelter and understorey kelp characteristics at local (shelter) scales and landscape scales on lobster habitat use. A tethering experiment determined the effects of the presence of understorey kelp on lobster survival. At the shelter scale, lobsters preferred permanent shelters to ephemeral shelters, but did not respond to shelter size. At the landscape scale, lobster density increased with Pterygophora californica (stipitate kelp) density and decreased with Laminaria farlowii (prostrate kelp) density, but lobster density did not vary with shelter density or dispersion. Lobster size increased with P. californica density in two of three surveys, while lobster size did not vary with L. farlowii density. Lobster relative survival was higher in the presence of understorey kelp than when kelp was absent. We conclude that lobsters respond to habitat characteristics at local and landscape scales, and that understorey kelp has strong effects on lobster habitat use and survival.
8
Grieve, Stuart W. D., Simon M. Mudd, Martin D. Hurst, and David T. Milodowski. "A nondimensional framework for exploring the relief structure of landscapes." Earth Surface Dynamics 4, no. 2 (April 8, 2016): 309–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/esurf-4-309-2016.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract. Considering the relationship between erosion rate and the relief structure of a landscape within a nondimensional framework facilitates the comparison of landscapes undergoing forcing at a range of scales, and allows broad-scale patterns of landscape evolution to be observed. We present software which automates the extraction and processing of relevant topographic parameters to rapidly generate nondimensional erosion rate and relief data for any landscape where high-resolution topographic data are available. Individual hillslopes are identified using a connected-components technique which allows spatial averaging to be performed over geomorphologically meaningful spatial units, without the need for manual identification of hillslopes. The software is evaluated on four landscapes across the continental United States, three of which have been studied previously using this technique. We show that it is possible to identify whether landscapes are in topographic steady state. In locations such as Cascade Ridge, CA, a clear signal of an erosional gradient can be observed. In the southern Appalachians, nondimensional erosion rate and relief data are interpreted as evidence for a landscape decaying following uplift during the Miocene. An analysis of the sensitivity of this method to free parameters used in the data smoothing routines is presented which allows users to make an informed choice of parameters when interrogating new topographic data using this method. A method to constrain the critical gradient of the nonlinear sediment flux law is also presented which provides an independent constraint on this parameter for three of the four study landscapes.
9
O. Festus, Olusola, Wei Ji, and Opeyemi Zubair. "Characterizing the Landscape Structure of Urban Wetlands Using Terrain and Landscape Indices." Land 9, no. 1 (January 19, 2020): 29. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land9010029.
Full textAbstract:
Several studies have shown human impacts on urban wetlands. These impacts are mostly studied at broad scales, which may generalize and aggregate important information needed for landscape quantification or terrain analysis. This situation can weakly or inappropriately address the structure of wetland landscapes, thus affecting the assessment of the quantities and qualities of terrestrial wetland habitats. To address these issues for urban wetland dynamics, this study proposes the use of landscape and terrain indices to characterize the landscape structure of urban wetlands at a fine scale in order to assess its usefulness in contributing to wildlife sustainability. To achieve this goal, secondary terrain attribute data are integrated with an object-based satellite image classification at the wetland and watershed level. The result reveals a general swell in wetland coverage at the watershed level. Further analysis shows the size and shape complexities, and edge irregularities are increased significantly at the patch level but slightly at the watershed level. Terrain analysis further reveals a potential increase in wetness and decrease in stream power vulnerability for most of the major wetlands under study. These results suggest that terrain and landscape indices are effective in characterizing the structure of urban wetlands that supports socio-ecological sustainability.
10
Brusak, Vitaliy, and Kateryna Moskalyuk. "The landscape structure of the nature reserve “Medobory”." Visnyk of the Lviv University. Series Geography, no. 50 (December 28, 2016): 67–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.30970/vgg.2016.50.8678.
Full textAbstract:
Tovtry is a complex of fossil reef Miocene buildings that creates one of the most picturesque scenery of the surrounding plains of Podillya region. Tovtry zone consists of main ridge (the late Baden barrier reef), isolated Tovtry hills (the late Baden bioherms, located east of the ridge), isolated tovtry (the early Sarmat bioherms, located west of the main ridge), the territories of the former channels, lagoons and passes between certain reef masses, the part of which is occupied with the modern rivers. These geological and geomorphological elements are the basis of the definition of Podillian Tovtry landscapes areas, and their combination is the basis of the individual landscapes. The great contribution to the study of Tovtry landscapes was made by K. Herenchuk (1949, 1979, 1980), who identified the main types of localities and individual landscapes. In addition to his distinguished achievements, the researches done by M. Chyzhov (1963), T. Kovalyshyn and I. Kaplun (1998), P. Shtoyko (2000), K. Moskalyuk (2011) and others could be mentioned. In Tovtry there are four landscapes: Mylno, Zbarazh, Medobory (Krasna) and Tovtry (Kamianets-Podilskyi). Natural Reserve “Medobory” (9 516.7 hectares) is located in the central part of Tovtry, mainly in Medobory landscape. The landscape map of nature reserve, covering the surrounding area, at a scale of 1: 25,000 has been done. Six landscaped areas and more than 70 kinds of tracts have been identified. The largest area is the area of elongated summit plains of main Tovtry ridge rocky hills, covered by beech hornbeam-oak forests on humus-carbonate soils. The territory with the buried reef formations, overlained by loess-like loams, with hornbeam-oak forests on humus-carbonate soils in combination with grey forest soils occupies large area. The area of grouped and isolated side tovtry, covered by rock and meadow-steppe vegetation, shrubs on humus-carbonate soils are fragmentary represented in the natural reserve. Outside the territory of natural reserve, there are areas of the extensive plains with chernozems. They were covered by meadow vegetation in the past and now they are the agricultural lands. Some areas of the reserve are covered by wavy interfluves of Husiatyn and Lanivtsi landscape, which are typical for stratal-tiered landscapes of Podillya. Wavy watersheds, composed of thick strata of loess loam, are mainly covered by hornbeam forests in place of oak on grey forest soils and podzolic chernozem. Along Zbruch and Gnyla the area of narrow river valleys with wide floodplains and low terraces fragments are very common. Floodplain is covered by grass-forb meadows, with alder and osier bed centres on meadow and meadow soils. The regional and local features of the landscape structure of the reserve have been defined. Enough representation of the main types of Tovtry areas, their altitude differentiation (landscape layering) and monolithic areas of Tovtry main ridge are the most important. Key words: Podillian Tovtry, main ridge, side tovtry hills, nature reserve “Medobory”, area of landscape.
11
Graham, Cameron A., Martine Maron, and Clive A. McAlpine. "Influence of landscape structure on invasive predators: feral cats and red foxes in the brigalow landscapes, Queensland, Australia." Wildlife Research 39, no. 8 (2012): 661. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/wr12008.
Full textAbstract:
Context Invasive mammalian predators are often associated with fragmented landscapes, and can compound the impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation on native fauna. Knowledge of how invasive predators are influenced by different landscape structures can assist in the mitigation of their impacts. Aims The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of landscape structure and site-scale habitat attributes on the frequency of feral-cat and red-fox detections in fragmented agricultural landscapes. Methods Field surveys of the frequency of red-fox and feral-cat visitation at a site scale were stratified for six different habitat types in six study subregions. The habitat types were large remnant patch interior, large remnant patch edge, small remnant patch, roadside verge, regrowth patch and open agricultural land adjacent to a remnant patch. Sites were centred in a 1-km buffer area from which landscape composition and configuration were calculated. We applied a generalised linear model and an information-theoretic approach to determine the effect size and importance and rank of the explanatory variables on red-fox, feral-cat and pooled cat and fox detection rates. Key results The most important factors influencing detection rates had a positive effect and included: the dominance of cropping in the landscape (cat, fox, pooled cat and fox); and the density of vegetation at a site scale (fox, pooled cat and fox). The number of native habitat patches was also an important factor in the models of red foxes and pooled invasive predators. Conclusion Spatially heterogeneous cropping landscapes incur higher rates of invasive-predator detections than do intact native-woodland and pasture landscapes at the 1-km scale. At a site scale, elevated invasive-predator detections occurred at sites with dense vegetation, characteristic of narrow woodland and the edges of large woodland patches. Implications The research findings highlight that vertebrate pest management needs to target highly fragmented agricultural landscapes that are more likely to have elevated levels of invasive-predator activity. Landscape restoration efforts need to consider the redesign of landscapes to make them less suitable for predators and more hospitable for native wildlife.
12
Ricotta, Carlo, and Maria Carranza. "Measuring Scale-Dependent Landscape Structure with Rao’s Quadratic Diversity." ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 2, no. 2 (May 14, 2013): 405–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijgi2020405.
Full text
13
Machar, Ivo. "Sustainable Landscape Management and Planning." Sustainability 12, no. 6 (March 18, 2020): 2354. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12062354.
Full textAbstract:
Dynamic changes of landscape structure affect the abundance and distribution of organisms. Currently, changing land-use is one of the major forces altering ecosystem services in landscapes globally. Human activities are transforming land at a faster rate and greater extent than at any time in history. This is a perspective challenge for research in the field of emerging sustainability science. The human conversion of natural habitats and land use change is not only a local/regional phenomenon but can be considered as one of important global change drivers. Some of the impacts of global change on biodiversity can be studied only at the landscape scale, such as the climate change-induced shift of vegetation zones. A landscape perspective fosters a multi-scale approach to sustainable landscape management and landscape planning. Additionally, a landscape scale is very useful for the innovative application of the common management paradigm to multiple uses in agriculture, forestry and water resource management. The need for sustainable landscape management and planning is now obvious. Landscape conservation seems to be a new paradigm for the conservation of biodiversity. This Special Issue (SI) of the Sustainability journal is focused on building a bridge between scientific theory and the practice of landscape management and planning based on the application of sustainability as a key conceptual framework. Papers dealing with various theoretical studies and case studies of the best practice for sustainable landscape management and planning across diverse landscapes around the world are included.
14
Nicasio-Arzeta, Sergio, Isela E. Zermeño-Hernández, Susana Maza-Villalobos, and Julieta Benítez-Malvido. "Landscape structure shapes the diversity of tree seedlings at multiple spatial scales in a fragmented tropical rainforest." PLOS ONE 16, no. 7 (July 16, 2021): e0253284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253284.
Full textAbstract:
The maintenance of seedling diversity of animal-dispersed tree species is fundamental for the structure and function of forest patches in fragmented tropical rainforests. Nonetheless, the effects of landscape structure at different spatial scales on α- and β-diversity of tree seedling communities are recently explored. Using a multi-scale approach, we assessed the relative effect of landscape composition and configuration on α- and β-diversity of animal-dispersed seedlings within 16 forest patches in the Lacandona rainforest, Mexico. We assessed these effects at 13 spatial scales (from 300 to 1500 m radius, at 100 m intervals) for three metrics of effective number of species considering α- and β-diversity. We found that α-diversity was largely affected by landscape composition and β-diversity by landscape configuration. On the one hand, the amount of secondary forest influenced α-diversity. Additionally, species richness increased in landscapes with highly aggregated forest patches. On the other hand, β-diversity was affected positively by forest fragmentation and negatively by the edge contrast of forest patches with the surrounding matrix. Our findings indicate that landscape configuration is a strong driver of seedling diversity in highly deforested rainforests. Promoting forest patches and secondary forests through payment for ecosystem services’ programs, favoring matrix quality within land-sharing schemes of smallholder agriculture and secondary forest management, and identifying restoration opportunities for assisted or unassisted natural regeneration are urgently needed for conservation of seedling diversity in human-modified tropical landscapes.
15
Hou, Wei, and Ulrich Walz. "Enhanced analysis of landscape structure: Inclusion of transition zones and small-scale landscape elements." Ecological Indicators 31 (August 2013): 15–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2012.11.014.
Full text
16
Egerer, Monika H., Benjamin Wagner, Brenda B. Lin, Dave Kendal, and Kai Zhu. "New methods of spatial analysis in urban gardens inform future vegetation surveying." Landscape Ecology 35, no. 3 (February 10, 2020): 761–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-00974-1.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract Context Land use change requires measuring shifting patterns in biodiversity at various spatial scales to inform landscape management. Assessing vegetation change at different scales is challenging in urban ecosystems managed by many individuals. Thus, we do not know much about the structure and function of green spaces that support biodiversity. Objective We aim to understand how vegetation structure and function indicators in urban community gardens vary with spatial scale, applying new and traditional methods in landscape ecology to inform future research and application. Methods We performed two methods to assess garden vegetation structure (height) and function (species diversity, cover) at the garden- and garden plot scale. First, we used traditional field sampling to estimate garden vegetation at the garden scale (1 m2 quadrats along transects) and at the plot scale (estimated within entire plot) to measure height, diversity and cover. Second, we used UAV aerial imagery to derive measures of garden and plot vegetation using canopy height models (CHMs). We evaluated differences in CHMs at each scale across the gardens, and compared field and UAV-derived measures. Results Garden vegetation characteristics vary with spatial scale. Plant species richness and vegetation cover, but not height, related to UAV-derived imagery. Conclusions New technologies paired with traditional field methods can together inform how vegetation structure and function vary with spatial scale in urban landscapes. Spatial scale is key to accurate and meaningful urban vegetation analyses. New and traditional methods in urban ecology research should develop together to improve and streamline their future application.
17
Deng, Yi, Ling Cai, and Zhao Xian Gong. "Research on the Urban Landscape System Planning and Layout Based on the Perspective of Ecological Infrastructure." Advanced Materials Research 450-451 (January 2012): 1274–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.450-451.1274.
Full textAbstract:
As the ecological infrastructure, the development of the ecological function of urban landscapes is determined not only by the reasonable design on its own scale, but also by the interaction of the urban-scaled landscape system. Virtually, the planning and layout of the urban landscape system represent the reasonable position of various projects in the overall landscape structure. The current paper, combined with the landscape ecology theory, put forward the idea primarily determining the distribution of single landscape projects through the priority of single project location, as well as the selection of ecological strategic points. In considering the distribution mode and landscape index, the overall layout of urban landscape system can be adjusted and optimized by consulting the landscape connectivity index, PX, and the nearest neighbor index, NNI. This planning idea is in favor of sustaining and strengthening the continuity of the whole landscape pattern, and maintaining the general ecological security of urban system.
18
de Almeida Vieira, Fábio, Cristiane Gouvêa Fajardo, Anderson Marcos de Souza, and Dulcinéia de Carvalho. "Landscape-Level and Fine-Scale Genetic Structure of the Neotropical TreeProtium spruceanum(Burseraceae)." International Journal of Forestry Research 2010 (2010): 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2010/120979.
Full textAbstract:
Knowledge of genetic structure at different scales and correlation with the current landscape is fundamental for evaluating the importance of evolutionary processes and identifying conservation units. Here, we used allozyme loci to examine the spatial genetic structure (SGS) of 230 individuals ofProtium spruceanum, a native canopy-emergent in five fragments of Brazilian Atlantic forest (1 to 11.8 ha), and four ecological corridors (460 to 1 000 m length). Wright's statistic and Mantel tests revealed little evidence of significant genetic structure at the landscape-scale (; , ). At fine-scale SGS, low levels of relatedness within fragments and corridors (, ) were observed. Differences in the levels and distribution of the SGS at both spatial scales are discussed in relation to biological and conservation strategies of corridors and forest fragments.
19
Deneu, Benjamin, Maximilien Servajean, Pierre Bonnet, Christophe Botella, François Munoz, and Alexis Joly. "Convolutional neural networks improve species distribution modelling by capturing the spatial structure of the environment." PLOS Computational Biology 17, no. 4 (April 19, 2021): e1008856. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008856.
Full textAbstract:
Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are statistical models suited for learning complex visual patterns. In the context of Species Distribution Models (SDM) and in line with predictions of landscape ecology and island biogeography, CNN could grasp how local landscape structure affects prediction of species occurrence in SDMs. The prediction can thus reflect the signatures of entangled ecological processes. Although previous machine-learning based SDMs can learn complex influences of environmental predictors, they cannot acknowledge the influence of environmental structure in local landscapes (hence denoted “punctual models”). In this study, we applied CNNs to a large dataset of plant occurrences in France (GBIF), on a large taxonomical scale, to predict ranked relative probability of species (by joint learning) to any geographical position. We examined the way local environmental landscapes improve prediction by performing alternative CNN models deprived of information on landscape heterogeneity and structure (“ablation experiments”). We found that the landscape structure around location crucially contributed to improve predictive performance of CNN-SDMs. CNN models can classify the predicted distributions of many species, as other joint modelling approaches, but they further prove efficient in identifying the influence of local environmental landscapes. CNN can then represent signatures of spatially structured environmental drivers. The prediction gain is noticeable for rare species, which open promising perspectives for biodiversity monitoring and conservation strategies. Therefore, the approach is of both theoretical and practical interest. We discuss the way to test hypotheses on the patterns learnt by CNN, which should be essential for further interpretation of the ecological processes at play.
20
Růžičková, Jana, Ferenc Kádár, Ottó Szalkovszki, Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki, András Báldi, and Zoltán Elek. "Scale-dependent environmental filtering of ground-dwelling predators in winter wheat and adjacent set-aside areas in Hungary." Journal of Insect Conservation 24, no. 5 (June 14, 2020): 751–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10841-020-00249-9.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract Agricultural intensification may act as an environmental filter shaping invertebrate assemblages at multiple spatial scales. However, it is not fully understood which scale is the most influential. Therefore, we utilized a hierarchical approach to examine the effect of local management (inorganic fertilization and soil properties; within-field scale), habitat type (winter wheat field and set-aside field; between-field scale) and landscape complexity (landscape scale) on assemblage structure and functional diversity of two important groups of natural enemies, carabids and spiders, in a cultivated lowland landscape in Hungary. Environmental filtering affected natural enemies at different spatial scales; likely as a result of enemies’ different dispersal ability and sensitivity to fertilizer use. Carabids were strongly affected at the within-field scale: positively by soil pH, negatively by soil organic matter and fertilization. At the between-field scale, carabids had higher activity density in the set-aside fields than in the winter wheat fields and simple landscapes enhanced carabids diversity, species richness and activity density at the landscape scale. Spiders were more abundant and species-rich in the set-aside fields than in the winter wheat fields. Although highly mobile (macropterous) carabids might disperse to arable crops from greater distances, while spiders possibly depended more on the proximity of set-aside fields, the winter wheat fields (where pest control should be delivered) were utilized mostly by common agrobiont species. Increasing crop heterogeneity within arable fields could be a potential option to increase the diversity of carabids and spiders in the studied region.
21
Burianyk, Olesya, and Anatoliy Melnyk. "Landscape zoning of Skole`s Beskydy." Visnyk of the Lviv University. Series Geography, no. 49 (December 30, 2015): 36–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.30970/vgg.2015.49.8604.
Full textAbstract:
Historical overview of the development of physical-geographical regionalization of Ukrainian Carpathians and the evolution of ideas about the place and borders of Skole’s Beskydy are shown. According to zoning schemes of Ukrainian Carpathians (Herenchuk, Koynov, Tsys, 1964; Tsys, 1968; Miller, Fedirko, 1990; Miller, 1999; Marinich et al., 2009; Hiletskyy, 2012) Skole’s Beskydy are treated as separate landscape area that consists of landscapes. Based on comparative analysis of physical and geographic (landscape) zoning schemes of Skole’s Beskydy, the results of own landscape mapping of the area in the scale of 1:50 000, modern specific maps (topographic, tectonic, geological etc.) and satellite images, Southwestern border of landscape area is specified. A new more detailed scheme of division of the territory on landscapes is proposed. The basis of the proposed landscape zoning of Skole’s Beskydy is zoning by A. Melnyk (1999). The criteria for landscapes defining were: the unity of the geological foundation, connectedness with their morphological structure of the lowest order, restriction to certain relief macroforms (of entire mountain ranges) and the nature of their internal morphological structure (a combination of highaltitude areas and arrays). The scheme of landscape zoning of the area under investigation includes 32 landscapes. Key words: landscape, landscape zoning, Skole’s Beskydy, Ukrainian Carpathians.Tsaryk, L. P., & Tsaryk, P. L. (2008). Zakhidnopodilski Tovtry – unikalnyi pryrodnyi obiekt v umovakh neratsionalnoho pryrodokorystuvannia. Okhorona i menedzhment obiektiv nezhyvoi pryrody na zapovidnykh terytoriiakh: materialy mizhnarodnoi naukovopraktychnoi konferentsii. Hrymailiv–Ternopil: Dzhura, 310–317 (in Ukrainian).
22
Lacoeuilhe, Aurélie, Nathalie Machon, Jean-François Julien, and Christian Kerbiriou. "The Relative Effects of Local and Landscape Characteristics of Hedgerows on Bats." Diversity 10, no. 3 (July 23, 2018): 72. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d10030072.
Full textAbstract:
The role of hedgerows in maintaining biodiversity in areas of intensive agriculture is well known, particularly for bats. However, few studies have addressed the importance of the intrinsic characteristics of hedgerows for bats and disentangled the relative effects of local and landscape characteristics of hedgerows on bat activity. In an acoustic survey, we assessed bat activity by recording bat calls using detectors and manually verified all calls using spectrogram analysis. The parameters used to determine local hedgerow structures were the length of the line of trees, of shrub hedgerows, of wooded hedgerows without shrubs and of hedgerows including the three strata (tree, shrub and herb) at a local scale. We assessed the influence of hedgerow structure and on bat activity with an approach considering both species and community, comparing two different scales, the local and the landscape. We highlighted the importance of hedgerow characteristics for bats on both the local and landscape scales even though responses differ between species and spatial scales. We found that the presence of trees in hedgerows exerts a generally positive influence on bat activity and that hedgerows with the three strata had lower bat activity than hedgerows with trees. In our study, some bats seemed to prefer agricultural landscapes dominated by wooded hedgerows and, on the local scale, hedgerows that include trees with little diversified among strata, except for gleaning species. Our study shows that in terms of hedgerow management, conservation efforts must be designed and undertaken on both the local and landscape scales.
23
Orth, Patricia B., and Patricia L. Kennedy. "Do land-use patterns influence nest-site selection by burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) in northeastern Colorado?" Canadian Journal of Zoology 79, no. 6 (June 1, 2001): 1038–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z01-071.
Full textAbstract:
Populations of western burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) are declining. In the Great Plains this decline maybe related to a decline in black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns that the owls use for nest sites. One potential cause of prairie dog decline is conversion of native prairie to agriculture. We predicted that owl-occupied prairie dog towns would be in less fragmented landscapes that contain more prairie then owl-unoccupied prairie dog towns. To test this prediction, we used a geographic information system and spatial analysis metrics to examine the landscape within 1000 and 2500 m radius circles surrounding prairie dog towns in the shortgrass prairie in northeastern Colorado. We compared landscape features of irrigated cropland, non-irrigated cropland, and shortgrass patches around owl-unoccupied (N = 7) and owl-occupied (N = 15) prairie dog towns at these two spatial scales. Contrary to our predictions, at the 2500-m scale burrowing owls prefer to nest in towns surrounded by a landscape in which shortgrass patches were a smaller percentage of the total landscape, relatively far apart from other shortgrass patches, and more numerous then crop patches. At the 1000-m scale owls nested in towns in which shortgrass patches were a smaller percentage of the total surrounding landscape. In Logan County owls may select nest sites in prairie dog towns in more fragmented landscapes because prey availability maybe higher than in less fragmented landscapes and (or) prairie dog control programs may be more active on shortgrass rangelands than in croplands. In addition, the level of fragmentation in our study area (62% of the study area is occupied by native grassland) may not be high enough to have negative consequences on nest occupancy of burrowing owls. However, it is difficult to generalize about the effects of landscape fragmentation on burrowing owls because any effects are probably a complex function of local habitat structure, landscape structure, and local prey and predator availability.
24
Nonaka, Etsuko, Thomas A. Spies, Michael C. Wimberly, and Janet L. Ohmann. "Historical range of variability in live and dead wood biomass: a regional-scale simulation study." Canadian Journal of Forest Research 37, no. 11 (November 2007): 2349–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/x07-064.
Full textAbstract:
The historical range of variability (HRV) in landscape structure and composition created by natural disturbance can serve as a general guide for evaluating ecological conditions of managed landscapes. HRV approaches to evaluating landscapes have been based on age-classes or developmental stages, which may obscure variation in live and dead stand structure. Developing the HRV of stand structural characteristics would improve the ecological resolution of this coarse-filter approach to ecosystem assessment. We investigated HRV in live and dead wood biomass in the regional landscape of the Oregon Coast Range by integrating stand-level biomass models and a spatially explicit fire simulation model. We simulated historical landscapes of the region for 1000 years under pre-Euro-American settlement fire regimes and calculated biomass as a function of disturbance history. The simulation showed that live and dead wood biomass historically varied widely in time and space. The majority of the forests historically contained 500–700 Mg·ha–1 (50–70 kg·m–2) of live wood and 50–200 Mg·ha–1 (5–20 kg·m–2) of dead wood. The current distributions are more concentrated in much smaller amounts for both biomass types. Although restoring the HRV of forest structure is not necessarily a management goal for most landowners and managing agencies, departure from the reference condition can provide relative measure to evaluate habitat conditions for managers seeking to use forest structure as a means to maintain or restore ecosystem and species diversity.
25
Plantegenest, Manuel, Christophe Le May, and Frédéric Fabre. "Landscape epidemiology of plant diseases." Journal of The Royal Society Interface 4, no. 16 (July 24, 2007): 963–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2007.1114.
Full textAbstract:
Many agricultural landscapes are characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity and fragmentation. Landscape ecology focuses on the influence of habitat heterogeneity in space and time on ecological processes. Landscape epidemiology aims at applying concepts and approaches originating from landscape ecology to the study of pathogen dynamics at the landscape scale. However, despite the strong influence that the landscape properties may have on the spread of plant diseases, landscape epidemiology has still received little attention from plant pathologists. Some recent methodological and technological progress provides new and powerful tools to describe and analyse the spatial patterns of host–pathogen interactions. Here, we review some important topics in plant pathology that may benefit from a landscape perspective. These include the influence of: landscape composition on the global inoculum pressure; landscape heterogeneity on pathogen dynamics; landscape structure on pathogen dispersal; and landscape properties on the emergence of pathogens and on their evolution.
26
Frelich, Lee. "Forest dynamics." F1000Research 5 (February 17, 2016): 183. http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.7412.1.
Full textAbstract:
Forest dynamics encompass changes in stand structure, species composition, and species interactions with disturbance and environment over a range of spatial and temporal scales. For convenience, spatial scale is defined as individual tree, neighborhood, stand, and landscape. Whether a given canopy-leveling disturbance will initiate a sequence of development in structure with little change in composition or initiate an episode of succession depends on a match or mismatch, respectively, with traits of the dominant tree species that allow the species to survive disturbance. When these match, certain species-disturbance type combinations lock in a pattern of stand and landscape dynamics that can persist for several generations of trees; thus, dominant tree species regulate, as well as respond to, disturbance. A complex interaction among tree species, neighborhood effects, disturbance type and severity, landform, and soils determines how stands of differing composition form and the mosaic of stands that compose the landscape. Neighborhood effects (e.g., serotinous seed rain, sprouting, shading, leaf-litter chemistry, and leaf-litter physical properties) operate at small spatial extents of the individual tree and its neighbors but play a central role in forest dynamics by contributing to patch formation at stand scales and dynamics of the entire landscape. Dominance by tree species with neutral to negative neighborhood effects leads to unstable landscape dynamics in disturbance-prone regions, wherein most stands are undergoing succession; stability can only occur under very low-severity disturbance regimes. Dominance by species with positive effects leads to stable landscape dynamics wherein only a small proportion of stands undergo succession at any one time. Positive neighborhood effects are common in temperate and boreal zones, whereas negative effects are more common in tropical climates. Landscapes with positive dynamics have alternate categories of dynamics stabilized by high-severity and low-severity disturbance regimes. Contrary to prevailing ecological theory, systems with positive neighborhood effects can have similar levels of compositional stability across tree, stand, and landscape scales. Neighborhood effect theory can help explain responses of landscapes to large-scale land clearing and novel effects brought on by factors such as invasive species and deer overabundance.
27
Papaik, Michael J., Andrew Fall, Brian Sturtevant, Daniel Kneeshaw, Christian Messier, Marie-Josée Fortin, and Neal Simon. "Forest processes from stands to landscapes: exploring model forecast uncertainties using cross-scale model comparison." Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40, no. 12 (December 2010): 2345–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/x10-186.
Full textAbstract:
Forest management practices conducted primarily at the stand scale result in simplified forests with regeneration problems and low structural and biological diversity. Landscape models have been used to help design management strategies to address these problems. However, there remains a great deal of uncertainty that the actual management practices result in the desired sustainable landscape structure. To investigate our ability to meet sustainable forest management goals across scales, we assessed how two models of forest dynamics, a scaled-up individual-tree model and a landscape model, simulate forest dynamics under three types of harvesting regimes: clearcut, gap, and uniform thinning. Althougth 50–100 year forecasts predicted average successional patterns that differed by less than 20% between models, understory dynamics of the landscape model were simplified relative to the scaled-up tree model, whereas successional patterns of the scaled-up tree model deviated from empirical studies on the driest and wettest landtypes. The scale dependencies of both models revealed important weaknesses when the models were used alone; however, when used together, they could provide a heuristic method that could improve our ability to design sustainable forest management practices.
28
Sorokina, Liudmila, Alexander Golubtsov, Ivan Baydikov, and Raisa Zarudna. "Information support to gismapping of the landscapes of Ukraine." Visnyk of the Lviv University. Series Geography, no. 48 (December 23, 2014): 56–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.30970/vgg.2014.48.1294.
Full textAbstract:
The results of the middle-scale geoinformation mapping of landscapes of Ukraine is considered. The structure and methodology of creation of geoinformation system “Landscapes of Ukraine” and its Database is presented. The attention is paid to content of complex and component information about landscapes of Ukraine. The principles of systematization and unification data to filling the Database is observed. It is given the example of presentation with GIS facilities the information on landscape complexes. Key words: geoinformation mapping of landscapes, structure of GIS “Landscapes of Ukraine”, information support, Database.
29
Gorresen, P. Marcos, Michael R. Willig, and Richard E. Strauss. "MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF SCALE-DEPENDENT ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN BATS AND LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE." Ecological Applications 15, no. 6 (December 2005): 2126–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/04-0532.
Full text
30
Latch, Emily K., William I. Boarman, Andrew Walde, and Robert C. Fleischer. "Fine-Scale Analysis Reveals Cryptic Landscape Genetic Structure in Desert Tortoises." PLoS ONE 6, no. 11 (November 21, 2011): e27794. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0027794.
Full text
31
Crawford, Joanne C., Amy Dechen Quinn, David M. Williams, Brent A. Rudolph, Kim T. Scribner, and William F. Porter. "Fine-scale spatial genetic structure of deer in a suburban landscape." Journal of Wildlife Management 82, no. 3 (January 14, 2018): 596–607. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21417.
Full text
32
Norman, Anita J., Astrid V. Stronen, Geir-Arne Fuglstad, Aritz Ruiz-Gonzalez, Jonas Kindberg, Nathaniel R. Street, and Göran Spong. "Landscape relatedness: detecting contemporary fine-scale spatial structure in wild populations." Landscape Ecology 32, no. 1 (August 18, 2016): 181–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0434-2.
Full text
33
Saenz-Romero, Cuauhtemoc, Raymond P. Guries, and Andrew I. Monk. "Landscape genetic structure of Pinus banksiana: allozyme variation." Canadian Journal of Botany 79, no. 8 (August 1, 2001): 871–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/b01-062.
Full textAbstract:
Many of Wisconsin's jack pine forests originated following fire or agricultural abandonment creating a forest mosaic fragmented by a history of disturbance and past land use. The extent and patterning of genetic diversity at a landscape scale (30 × 30 km) was investigated in 82 natural Pinus banksiana Lamb. (jack pine) stands in Wisconsin using 14 polymorphic allozymes. Most measures of genetic diversity and overall allelic frequencies varied little among these stands, and Reynolds' (coancestry) genetic distances were small (mean = 0.026). Genetic differentiation among stands was limited but significant ([Formula: see text]ST = 0.022). Gene flow (Nm) is extensive, estimated to be slightly more than 11 migrants per generation. Autocorrelation analysis provided evidence for a weak pattern of genetic structure at a few loci with a spatial scale of 815 km. However, when all loci were examined together the populations did not present a clear spatial pattern across the landscape, probably because of extensive gene flow among stands.Key words: jack pine, allozymes, genetic diversity, population differentiation, spatial autocorrelation, gene flow.
34
Worthen, Wade B., R. Kile Fravel, and Connor P. Horne. "Downstream Changes in Odonate (Insecta: Odonata) Communities along a Suburban to Urban Gradient: Untangling Natural and Anthropogenic Effects." Insects 12, no. 3 (February 27, 2021): 201. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12030201.
Full textAbstract:
The community structure of lotic odonates (Insecta: Odonata) changes downstream, but it is difficult to untangle natural and anthropogenic causes. We surveyed larvae and adults at 15 sites along the Reedy River in Greenville Co., SC, USA, from sites in forested suburban landscapes through the urban core of the city of Greenville. We used principal component analyses and Akaike information criteria models to describe the relationships between larval and adult community descriptors (abundance, richness, and diversity) and habitat characteristics at several spatial scales, including water chemistry, sediment and detritus, aquatic and streamside vegetation, and the percent cover of landforms in the surrounding landscape. At all scales, larval abundance, richness, and diversity correlated with the amount of detritus. At a small scale, adult indices correlated with the amount of sunlight and streamside vegetation. Zygopteran community composition was nested at a large scale; richness and diversity did not correlate with changes in the landscape but increased downstream. Anisopteran composition was also nested, but richness correlated with the percent cover of field, wetland, and open water in the habitat and was unrelated to downstream site position. Landscape transformation affected anisopterans more than zygopterans by opening habitats that facilitate these generalist heliotherms.
35
Griffey, Vivian, Bryce Kellogg, Ryan Haugo, and Van Kane. "Ownership Patterns Drive Multi-Scale Forest Structure Patterns across a Forested Region in Southern Coastal Oregon, USA." Forests 12, no. 1 (December 31, 2020): 47. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/f12010047.
Full textAbstract:
Research Highlights: We used airborne lidar to assess the multi-scalar patterns of forest structure across a large (471,000 hectare), multi-owner landscape of the Oregon Coast Range, USA. The results of this study can be used in the development and evaluation of conservation strategies focused on forest management. Background and Objectives: Human management practices reflect policy and economic decisions and shape forest structure through direct management and modification of disturbance regimes. Previous studies have found that land ownership affects forest cover, patch dynamics, structure, and ecosystem function and services. However, prior assessments of forest structure across landscapes and ownerships have been limited by a lack of high-fidelity forest structure measurements across a large spatial extent. We addressed three research questions: (1) What distinct classes of forest structure exist across our study area? (2) How does the distribution and pattern of forest structure vary among types of owners at scales of patches, ownership types, and subregion, and is this independent of property size? and (3) What implications do the fine and sub-regional scale patterns have for landscape configuration goals under recent updates to the Northwest Forest Plan? Materials and Methods: We examined forest structure patterns by identifying six statistically distinct classes of forest structure and then examining their distribution across and within ownership types. We used these structure classes to examine their area within each ownership class, mean patch size, and intermixing at multiple scales. Results and Conclusion: We found that the six different forest structure classes in the study area can be interpreted as two assemblages: production-style forests, principally on private lands, and structurally complex forests, principally on public lands. We found that land ownership objectives resulted in distinct landscape patterns of forest structure as measured by mean structure class patch size and intermixing of different structure class patches. Finally, we found that forest structure differed between public and private lands but differed comparatively little among ownership types within those two broad categories.
36
Gonçalves, Leila J. B., Edgar E. Santo-Silva, Maria Fabíola Barros, Kátia F. Rito, Inara R. Leal, and Marcelo Tabarelli. "The palm Syagrus coronata proliferates and structures vascular epiphyte assemblages in a human-modified landscape of the Caatinga dry forest." Journal of Tropical Ecology 36, no. 3 (May 2020): 123–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266467420000073.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractThe proliferation of disturbance-adapted species in human-modified landscapes may change the structure of plant communities, but the response of biodiversity to human disturbances remains poorly understood. We examine the proliferation of the palm, Syagrus coronata, in disturbed forest stands and its impacts on the structure of vascular epiphyte assemblages in a human-modified landscape of Brazilian Caatinga dry forest. First, we compared S. coronata density between old-growth and regenerating forest stands. We then surveyed vascular epiphytes on 680 phorophytes (S. coronata and non-palm/control species) across five habitat types with different disturbance levels. There was an eight-fold increase in S. coronata density in regenerating areas compared with in old-growth forest. Syagrus coronota supported richer epiphyte assemblages at local (i.e. per palm) and landscape (i.e. pooling all palms) scale than control phorophytes, supporting more than 11 times the number of species of control phorophytes at both scales. Epiphyte assemblages were more abundant, species-rich and dominated by abiotically dispersed species in forest sites with intermediate disturbance levels (regenerating forest stands). More than simply operating as an exclusive phorophyte for more than 90% of the epiphyte species we recorded here, S. coronata favours epiphyte persistence and structures their assemblages across human-modified landscapes of the Caatinga forest.
37
Fu, Bo-jie, and Yi-he Lu. "The progress and perspectives of landscape ecology in China." Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment 30, no. 2 (April 2006): 232–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/0309133306pp479ra.
Full textAbstract:
After 20 years of research and application, landscape ecology in China has gained many achievements and established a concrete foundation for further development. The major progress of landscape ecology in China was in the fields of land-use structure and ecological processes, landscape pattern and dynamics analysis, theoretical and methodological development, and landscape ecological applications. Past researches emphasized particularly the theories and applications, while the methodological study accounted for a comparatively small part; urban and suburban landscapes, regional and catchment scale landscapes, cold and arid zone landscapes, forest landscapes, agricultural landscapes and wetland landscapes were the main research subjects. Major problems with past researches include the following. 1) There was unbalanced attention on conceptual/theoretical analysis, monitoring, methodological development and applications. 2) Landscape metrics were widely used, whereas the ecological implications were not fully addressed. 3) The researches on the relationship between landscape pattern and ecological processes and scaling were largely preliminary. 4) The risk, uncertainty and accuracy of the data processing were seldom mentioned. 5) The original methodological innovation was scant. To solve these problems effectively and promote landscape ecology in China to full development at a whole new stage of the twenty-first century, the following four closely interrelated and complementary tasks should be addressed: 1) establishing appropriate strategies for the development of landscape ecology; 2) enhancing experiment-based and long-term research; 3) improving landscape planning, design, conservation and management; 4) initiating and advancing the development of unified landscape ecology with Chinese characteristics.
38
Frolov, A. A. "GIS mapping analysis of the geosystems’ changeability in south-western Transbaikalia." Geodesy and Cartography 956, no. 2 (March 20, 2020): 7–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.22389/0016-7126-2020-956-2-7-17.
Full textAbstract:
A GIS mapping analysis of the geosystems’ changeability in the Minor Khamar-Daban range site (south-western Transbaikalia) was carried out. At the same time, the landscape structure of the territory was analyzed in the view of dynamic, i.e. the structure of the indigenous and variable states of geosystems reflecting the spatial-and-temporal changeability of landscapes. The source of the actual data is the field research of the territory, in which special attention was paid to the dynamic characteristics of geosystems (relief characteristics, species and age structure of the phytocenosis, anthropogenic transformations, etc.). The analysis of the landscape structure was carried out with the methods of visual interpretation and automatic processing spatial information using GIS technologies based on remote sensing data, field expeditionary studies of the landscapes, maps of various contents, as well as literature sources. As a result, a large-scale landscape map was made, as well as a series of analytical maps reflecting the different sides of the geosystems’ changeability. The analysis revealed the presence of a complex spatial-and temporal structure of various dynamic states of geosystems, which is caused both by the influence of various anthropogenic factors and the local conditions of biogeocenoses.
39
Miklín, Jan, and Jan Hradecký. "Landscape structure changes at the confluence of the Morava and Dyje Rivers." Geografie 121, no. 3 (2016): 368–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.37040/geografie2016121030368.
Full textAbstract:
The area at the confluence of the Morava and Dyje Rivers is one of the biologically most diverse landscapes of Czechia. This paper focuses on its land use/land cover changes, obtained from aerial photographs from 1938, 1953, 1976 and 2009, analyzed by a use of landscape metrics. The most important landscape changes in this period were as follows: (i) an all but complete disappearance of open and structured woodlands; (ii) a transformation of the mosaic of very small agricultural fields into large-scale fields of mostly arable land; (iii) a significant decrease in grasslands; (iv) regulations of water courses; (v) an outstanding increase in logging intensity during the last twenty years. The preservation of the area’s biodiversity demands a start of active conservation management, focused on opening of woodlands, a decrease in forest logging and a suitable selection of logging localities.
40
Bakker, Elisabeth S., Jacquelyn L. Gill, Christopher N. Johnson, Frans W. M. Vera, Christopher J. Sandom, Gregory P. Asner, and Jens-Christian Svenning. "Combining paleo-data and modern exclosure experiments to assess the impact of megafauna extinctions on woody vegetation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, no. 4 (October 26, 2015): 847–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1502545112.
Full textAbstract:
Until recently in Earth history, very large herbivores (mammoths, ground sloths, diprotodons, and many others) occurred in most of the World’s terrestrial ecosystems, but the majority have gone extinct as part of the late-Quaternary extinctions. How has this large-scale removal of large herbivores affected landscape structure and ecosystem functioning? In this review, we combine paleo-data with information from modern exclosure experiments to assess the impact of large herbivores (and their disappearance) on woody species, landscape structure, and ecosystem functions. In modern landscapes characterized by intense herbivory, woody plants can persist by defending themselves or by association with defended species, can persist by growing in places that are physically inaccessible to herbivores, or can persist where high predator activity limits foraging by herbivores. At the landscape scale, different herbivore densities and assemblages may result in dynamic gradients in woody cover. The late-Quaternary extinctions were natural experiments in large-herbivore removal; the paleoecological record shows evidence of widespread changes in community composition and ecosystem structure and function, consistent with modern exclosure experiments. We propose a conceptual framework that describes the impact of large herbivores on woody plant abundance mediated by herbivore diversity and density, predicting that herbivore suppression of woody plants is strongest where herbivore diversity is high. We conclude that the decline of large herbivores induces major alterations in landscape structure and ecosystem functions.
41
Tsafack, Noelline, Simone Fattorini, Camila Benavides Frias, Yingzhong Xie, Xinpu Wang, and François Rebaudo. "Competing Vegetation Structure Indices for Estimating Spatial Constrains in Carabid Abundance Patterns in Chinese Grasslands Reveal Complex Scale and Habitat Patterns." Insects 11, no. 4 (April 16, 2020): 249. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11040249.
Full textAbstract:
Carabid communities are influenced by landscape features. Chinese steppes are subject to increasing desertification processes that are changing land-cover characteristics with negative impacts on insect communities. Despite those warnings, how land-cover characteristics influence carabid communities in steppe ecosystems remains unknown. The aim of this study is to investigate how landscape characteristics drive carabid abundance in different steppes (desert, typical, and meadow steppes) at different spatial scales. Carabid abundances were estimated using pitfall traps. Various landscape indices were derived from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images. Indices expressing moisture and productivity were, in general, those with the highest correlations. Different indices capture landscape aspects that influence carabid abundance at different scales, in which the patchiness of desert vegetation plays a major role. Carabid abundance correlations with landscape characteristics rely on the type of grassland, on the vegetation index, and on the scale considered. Proper scales and indices are steppe type-specific, highlighting the need of considering various scales and indices to explain species abundances from remotely sensed data.
42
DECKERS, B., E. KERSELAERS, H. GULINCK, B. MUYS, and M. HERMY. "Long-term spatio-temporal dynamics of a hedgerow network landscape in Flanders, Belgium." Environmental Conservation 32, no. 1 (March 2005): 20–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0376892905001840.
Full textAbstract:
Although the importance of hedgerows for sustainable agriculture and conservation of rural biodiversity is increasingly being recognized, obtaining insight into the spatial and temporal dynamics of hedgerow networks remains an important challenge for landscape ecologists, with the key factors driving changes in rural landscape structure especially deserving further attention. The present study analyses the long-term history of a hedgerow network landscape in Flanders, Belgium. A detailed reconstruction of the hedgerow network is made at five points in time, starting at the end of the 18th century until present, for 367 distinct 400 m×400 m samples. Whilst hedgerows were mainly concentrated around historical village centres and within valleys at the end of 18th century, the network expanded progressively during the 19th century. In the 20th century, the hedgerow network degraded strongly, with hedgerow density and connectivity declining and mesh-size heterogeneity and network fragmentation increasing, although the network recovered slightly during the 1990s. Different trajectories of change in hedgerow network structure were observed depending on landscape position, with both topography and village proximity significantly affecting hedgerow network dynamics. The present network structure was mainly governed by land use, with highly developed networks being predominantly associated with pasture. Three main conclusions arise from the results of this study. First, the role of land use and landscape position as basic factors steering hedgerow network dynamics at the landscape scale is demonstrated. Second, the long-term perspective of the study enabled insight into the poorly known expansion phase of hedgerow networks, linked mainly with the development of small-scale labour-intensive agriculture. Finally, the findings confirm the large-scale degradation of linear semi-natural habitats in European agricultural landscapes during most of the 20th century, and indicate that a pro-active rural policy can halt and even reverse this process.
43
Pierson, Jennifer C., Fred W. Allendorf, Pierre Drapeau, and Michael K. Schwartz. "Breed Locally, Disperse Globally: Fine-Scale Genetic Structure Despite Landscape-Scale Panmixia in a Fire-Specialist." PLoS ONE 8, no. 6 (June 25, 2013): e67248. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067248.
Full text
44
Teh, Mohd Zulhaili, Marina Abdullah, Noorsazwan Ahmad Pugi, and Norhafizah Abdul Rahman. "Visual Landscape Assessment : A method for analysing and planning for landscape structure." Asian Journal of Quality of Life 3, no. 14 (November 19, 2018): 33–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajqol.v3i14.181.
Full textAbstract:
The landscape is an important national resource an outstanding natural and cultural inheritance which is widely appreciated. This study attempts to evaluate visual landscape of Taiping District in relations to the larger landscape scale in Peninsular Malaysia. A Landscape Character Assessment was conducted on the visual landscape taken for several points in Taiping, Perak and surrounding area to see changes in the landscape. The aim of this study is to provide a visual structure for landscape classification of the Taiping District area that will contribute to the decision making in development and management in Malaysia. It is important to ensure the opportunity was taken during district planning processes.Keywords: Landscape character assessment, visual landscape, landscape structure.eISSN 2398-4279 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
45
Teh, Mohd Zulhaili, Noorsazwan Ahmad Pugi, and Norhafizah Abdul Rahman. "Visual Landscape Assessment for Development Landscape Structure: Case study at Taiping, Perak." Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal 2, no. 5 (March 19, 2017): 231. http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v2i5.698.
Full textAbstract:
The landscape is an important national resource outstanding natural and cultural inheritance which is widely appreciated. This study attempts to evaluate visual landscape of Taiping District in relations to the larger landscape scale in Peninsular Malaysia. A Landscape Character Assessment was conducted on the visual landscape taken for several points in Taiping, Perak and surrounding area to see changes in the landscape. The aim of this study is to provide a visual structure for landscape classification of the Taiping District area that will contribute to the decision making in development and management in Malaysia. Ensuring the opportunity taken during district planning processes is important.Keywords: Landscape character assessment, visual landscape, landscape structure.ISSN: 2398-4287© 2017. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
46
Hoechstetter, Sebastian, Ulrich Walz, Le Hai Dang, and Nguyen Xuan Thinh. "Effects of topography and surface roughness in analyses of landscape structure - A proposal to modify the existing set of landscape metrics." Landscape Online 3 (February 19, 2008): 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.3097/lo.200803.
Full textAbstract:
Topography and relief variability play a key role in ecosystem functioning and structuring. However, the most commonly used concept to relate pattern to process in landscape ecology, the so-called patch-corridor-matrix model, perceives the landscape as a planimetric surface. As a consequence, landscape metrics, used as numerical descriptors of the spatial arrangement of landscape mosaics, generally do not allow for the examination of terrain characteristics and may even produce erroneous results, especially in mountainous areas. This brief methodological study provides basic approaches to include relief properties into large-scale landscape analyses, including the calculation of standard landscape metrics on the basis of "true" surface geometries and the application of roughness parameters derived from surface metrology. The methods are tested for their explanatory power using neutral landscapes and simulated elevation models. The results reveal that area and distance metrics possess a high sensitivity to terrain complexity, while the values of shape metrics change only slightly when surface geometries are considered for their calculation. In summary, the proposed methods prove to be a valuable extension of the existing set of metrics mainly in "rough" landscape sections, allowing for a more realistic assessment of the spatial structure.
47
Saatchi, S., Y. Malhi, B. Zutta, W. Buermann, L. O. Anderson, A. M. Araujo, O. L. Phillips, et al. "Mapping landscape scale variations of forest structure, biomass, and productivity in Amazonia." Biogeosciences Discussions 6, no. 3 (June 4, 2009): 5461–505. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bgd-6-5461-2009.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract. Landscape and environmental variables such as topography, geomorphology, soil types, and climate are important factors affecting forest composition, structure, productivity, and biomass. Here, we combine a network of forest inventories with recently developed global data products from satellite observations in modeling the potential distributions of forest structure and productivity in Amazonia and examine how geomorphology, soil, and precipitation control these distributions. We use the RAINFOR network of forest plots distributed in lowland forests across Amazonia, and satellite observations of tree cover, leaf area index, phenology, moisture, and topographical variations. A maximum entropy estimation (Maxent) model is employed to predict the spatial distribution of several key forest structure parameters: basal area, fraction of large trees, fraction of palms, wood density, productivity, and above-ground biomass at 5 km spatial resolution. A series of statistical tests at selected thresholds as well as across all thresholds and jackknife analysis are used to examine the accuracy of distribution maps and the relative contributions of environmental variables. The final maps were interpreted using soil, precipitation, and geomorphological features of Amazonia and it was found that the length of dry season played a key role in impacting the distribution of all forest variables except the wood density. Soil type had a significant impact on the wood productivity. Most high productivity forests were distributed either on less infertile soils of western Amazonia and Andean foothills, on crystalline shields, and younger alluvial deposits. Areas of low elevation and high density of small rivers of Central Amazonia showed distinct features, hosting mainly forests with low productivity and smaller trees.
48
Benson, L. V., E. R. Griffin, J. R. Stein, R. A. Friedman, and S. W. Andrae. "Mummy Lake: an unroofed ceremonial structure within a large-scale ritual landscape." Journal of Archaeological Science 44 (April 2014): 164–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2014.01.021.
Full text
49
POTTER, K., F. CUBBAGE, and R. SCHABERG. "Multiple-scale landscape predictors of benthic macroinvertebrate community structure in North Carolina." Landscape and Urban Planning 71, no. 2-4 (March 28, 2005): 77–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0169-2046(04)00028-3.
Full text
50
Qasem, M., and Adam Prügel-Bennett. "Learning the Large-Scale Structure of the MAX-SAT Landscape Using Populations." IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation 14, no. 4 (August 2010): 518–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/tevc.2009.2033579.
Full text