Abstract
ABSTRACT In the last 50–60 years, agricultural intensification and later urban development have threatened the rare and valuable gully landscape formed on marine clay. We studied landscape changes in eastern Akershus county in south-east Norway, which has one of the world’s largest concentrations of marine gullies. Interpretation of aerial photos showed that about 25% of the gully area has been lost. Only 39.5% of the remaining area is original gullies, and 60.5% of the area has been affected by landscape change. The largest loss of gully area was between 1955 and 1991, mainly through land levelling and transformation to intensively managed agricultural landscape. The most densely populated areas also lost gullies to residential areas and industry. Gullies support high plant and animal diversity, and future management should be based on landscape ecological principles. Gully fragments should also be preserved to maintain connectivity between the many different habitats belonging to the gullies.
Highlights
Since time immemorial, human societies have been altering landscapes (Ellis, 2015), and today these changes are more rapid than ever (Plieninger et al, 2016)
The most important land cover change was from gully to agricultural land, and 20.2% of the gully area in period Time period 1 (T1) was transformed to agriculture in period Time period 3 (T3), while 2.3% became industry, 2.2% residential, and 0.7% infrastructure
Our results show that about 25% of the area of gully landscape has been lost in the study area during the last 50–60 years, and that only 39.5% is left of what we classified as original gullies
Summary
Human societies have been altering landscapes (Ellis, 2015), and today these changes are more rapid than ever (Plieninger et al, 2016). Apart from urbanisation, the main drivers of landscape change do not usually lead to irreversible change, there are some functions of natural ecosystems that are not feasible to restore as a result of climate change or for ecological or economic reasons (Hobbs et al, 2009). This applies for example, to the vulnerable gullies in marine clay that form entire gully landscapes in some regions.
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