Long-Term Monitoring of Vegetation Dynamics in the Rhodopi Mountain Range National Park-Greece

Panteleimon Xofis,John A. Spiliotis,Stavros Chatzigiovanakis,Anastasia S. Chrysomalidou

doi:10.3390/f13030377

Panteleimon Xofis, John A. Spiliotis + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/f13030377

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Journal: Forests	Publication Date: Feb 25, 2022
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: International Hellenic University

Abstract

While deforestation is a major environmental issue in the tropics, with thousands of hectares converted to agricultural land every year, in Europe the opposite trend is observed, with land abandonment in mountainous and semi-mountainous areas allowing the afforestation of former agricultural and pastoral land. This trend allows semi-natural ecosystems to recover after a prolonged period of exploitation and often over-exploitation, but it may also lead to significant loss of landscape heterogeneity with potentially detrimental effects on biodiversity. The current study aims to monitor changes in the vegetation coverage across a period of 35 years (between 1984 and 2019) in the Rhodopi Mountains range National Park in northern Greece. A time series of LANDSAT TM (16 images), LANDSAT ETM + (1 image) and LANDSAT 8 OLI/TIRS (4 images) were employed. One data transformation method was applied (TCT), and five vegetation indices (NDVI, NDWI, SAVI, EVI2 and BSI) were calculated to capture the land cover transition during the study period. The obtained results and all used indices suggest that over the study period there was a continuous trend of vegetation cover increasing, with open areas decreasing. The observed trend was further confirmed using Object Oriented Image Analysis on two pairs of images sensed in 1984 and 2019, respectively. The results suggest that almost 22.000 ha of open habitats have been lost to broadleaved and conifer woodlands, while the former also appear to be advancing into conifer-covered areas. This trend has led to significant loss of landscape heterogeneity and to a broadleaf-dominated landscape. The results are discussed in relation to their driving forces, the potential implications on biodiversity and the risk of wildfires in the near future.

Highlights

Published: 25 February 2022The outbreak of the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 19th century signified the beginning of two very important changes in Western societies: the urbanization of the population and the intensification of production, whether it concerned the newly entered industrial production or agricultural and pastoral production [1]
Bare Soil Index (BSI) is an index that constitutes a combination between a vegetation index and a bare soil index and tends to obtain higher values in the least vegetated areas [37]. Both these results demonstrate that vegetation increased its density significantly during the study period as a result of several factors that will be discussed later
As the amplitude of the study period exceeded the duration of operation of one satellite, the retrieval of the images from the last three satellites of the Landsat program was self-evident

Summary

Introduction

The outbreak of the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 19th century signified the beginning of two very important changes in Western societies: the urbanization of the population and the intensification of production, whether it concerned the newly entered industrial production or agricultural and pastoral production [1]. The combination of these two factors gradually intensified in the early 20th century. The abandonment of marginal agricultural land in the Mediterranean region, followed by natural vegetation recovery, has been maximized in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s [5], it is still a major trend that requires attention and research [6–8]

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