Measuring the impacts of climate change on the spatial structure of grasslands in urban landscapes of North America

Abstract

Although the importance of biodiversity conservation has been acknowledged in urban landscapes of many forest, desert, and coastal biomes, urbanization in grasslands and its negative/positive impacts on biodiversity is understudied. We designed a pilot, spatio-temporal study to envision the impacts of land-use and vegetation change on the composition and configuration of grasslands in urban landscapes of the Upper Missouri River Basin under four climate-change scenarios (A1B, A2, B1, and B2) from 2020 to 2070 with respect to the IPCC’s high-level and mid-level Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP 8.5 w/m2 and RCP 4.5 w/m2). We show that under the most climate-change scenarios, the rate of grassland conversion into other land cover classes from 2020 to 2070 was greater in urban landscapes than the whole region but this trend was not correlated with urban expansion. Conversely, habitat proximity was negatively correlated with urban expansion. The capacity of habitat patches to function as wildlife refugia in urban landscapes was substantially greater under the B2 scenario, where social equality and environmental conservation are highly prioritized. On the basis of the results of this study, we demonstrate that measuring the changes in the composition and configuration of habitat patches, combined with an understanding of the rate of grassland conversion can provide more detailed information about opportunities and limitations for biodiversity conservation in this region and beyond. If managed strategically, urban landscapes can play a positive role in conserving biodiversity and preserving ecosystems in regions predominantly used for agricultural lands.