Abstract
Political ideologies, policies and economy affect land use which in turn may affect biodiversity patterns and future conservation targets. However, few studies have investigated biodiversity in landscapes with similar physical properties but governed by different political systems. Here we investigate land use and biodiversity patterns, and number and composition of birds and plants, in the borderland of Austria, Slovenia and Hungary. It is a physically uniform landscape but managed differently during the last 70 years as a consequence of the political “map” of Europe after World War I and II. We used a historical map from 1910 and satellite data to delineate land use within three 10-kilometre transects starting from the point where the three countries meet. There was a clear difference between countries detectable in current biodiversity patterns, which relates to land use history. Mobile species richness was associated with current land use whereas diversity of sessile species was more associated with past land use. Heterogeneous landscapes were positively and forest cover was negatively correlated to bird species richness. Our results provide insights into why landscape history is important to understand present and future biodiversity patterns, which is crucial for designing policies and conservation strategies across the world.
Highlights
It is increasingly recognized that conservation biology should have a ‘‘landscape perspective’’ [1,2,3,4]
Land use change In 1910, the landscape along each transect was dominated by open agricultural land with a forest cover between 30–39%; a landscape composition that today is inverted with forests covering between 57–74% of the landscapes (Fig 2)
Number of birds was clearly related to forest cover in each transect, with a significant difference between frequencies of birds found in transects depending on forest cover and land use history as bird diversity declined with an increase in forest cover (Fig. 2)
Summary
It is increasingly recognized that conservation biology should have a ‘‘landscape perspective’’ [1,2,3,4] This is generally understood in a spatial context when considering targets for conservation, but a temporal dimension of the landscape is necessary to understand effects of delayed species responses. Species’ richness, abundance and composition may respond directly to land use changes but a delayed response has been detected in several studies [13,14]. Such responses often differ depending on organism group, where many mobile organisms respond more quickly to landscape change compared to long-lived sessile organism [15,16]
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