Abstract
<p>The magnitude effect of human activities on the environment is of great concern. In this study investigation on the pattern of land use land cover change in the Ikogosi Ekiti, South Western and Nigeria was carried out. A 30 meter Landsat image of TM 1991, ETM+ 2002 and OLI 2015 were used for the study. The satellite images were digitally processed using Arcgis10.3 and Idrisi Selva 17.0 while Markov Chain Modeler was employed for prediction. Supervised Classification was performed through Maximum Likelihood Classification resulting into identification of five LULC classes which were built-up, rock outcrop, dense vegetation, light vegetation and water body; fragmentation analysis was done using Fragstat 4.0.</p><p>The results showed that anthropogenic activities resulted in 25.93% increase in built-up between the periods of 1991 and 2015 with a substantial loss (29.97%) of dense vegetation within the study area were detected. Fragmentation metric showed that the Number of Patches (NP) increased by 257, 268 and 281 while Shannon Diversity Index (SHIDI) correspondingly showed a decreased of 0.54, 0.47 and 0.21 for species diversity in year 1991, 2002 and 2015 respectively; indigenous respondents (70.1%) affirmed the extinction of biodiversity. Furthermore, the Markov Chain Modeler revealed that built-up was expected to increase by 36.7, 39.1 and 69.6% while dense vegetation will correspondingly decrease by 25.4, 22.9 and 18.7% in year 2030, 2050 and 2065 respectively. The result revealed that anthropogenic activities in the study area had contributed to massive removal of vegetation and this pattern had negatively affected the biomass condition of the study area indicting the region to experience an ecosystem imbalance and incidence of global warming. The changing spatial pattern was attributed to the tourism developmental phases in-around Ikogosi community which had increased deforestation, exotic plants and poaching by Ikogosi inhabitants and tourist visits to the study area.</p><p>The study concluded that various tourism development activities had adversely affected the nature of biodiversity, threatened land-use management and vegetation in the study area.</p>
Highlights
Land cover change is one of the most important aspects of environmental change and represents the largest threat to ecological systems over the past several decades (Salami and Mengistu, 2008)
The process of habitat fragmentation results in changes on the pattern of the remaining forest leading to the loss of ecosystem community and these spatial changes affect the biological population and communities as well as ecological process that may modify the overall functioning of the ecosystem
The land use land cover was classified into five categories namely: built-up, rock outcrop, dense vegetation, light vegetation and waterbody
Summary
Land cover change is one of the most important aspects of environmental change and represents the largest threat to ecological systems over the past several decades (Salami and Mengistu, 2008). Many shifts in land use patterns are driven by a variety of social causes, result in land cover changes that affects biodiversity, water and radiation budgets, trace gas emissions and other processes that come together to affect climate and biosphere (Riebsame et al, 1994). Changes in land use land cover have important consequences for natural resources through their impacts on soil and water quality, biodiversity and global climatic systems (Adepoju et al, 2006). The magnitude effect of human activities on biodiversity loss is a worldwide concern (Thomas et al, 2004); a primary cause of species loss is habitat destruction and fragmentation (Tilman et al, 2001). Rate of extinctions might be accelerated due to other causes such as invasion by alien species, overexploitation, climate change, habitat deterioration and extinction cascades (Tilman et al, 2001; Thomas et al, 2004; Brook et al, 2008)
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