Abstract
Urban forests can provide the necessary ecosystem services for their residents and play an important part in improving the urban environment. Forest landscape connectivity is a vital indicator reflecting the quality of the ecological environment and ecological functions. Detecting changes in landscape connectivity is, therefore, an important step for providing sound scientific evidence for the better urban planning. Using remote sensing images of a study area in Zhuhai City in 1999, 2005, 2009 and 2013, the dynamic forest landscape connectivity of Zhuhai city can be evaluated based on a graph-theoretic approach. The aims of our study were to discover and interpret the effect of rapid urbanization on forest landscape connectivity. The construction of ecological corridors helps us specifically compare the landscape connectivity of three parts of urban forests. On the basis of functional landscape metrics, the correlation of these metrics and patch area was discussed in order to comprehensively identify the key patches. The analysis showed that the total areas of forestlands reduced from 1999 to 2009 and then increased from 2009 to 2013, and the same trend was found in overall forest landscape connectivity. To improve the overall landscape connectivity, construct urban ecological network and appropriately protect biodiversity in the future, the existing important patches with large areas or key positions should be well protected. This study revealed that urbanization reduced the area of key patches and consequently reduced the forest landscape connectivity, which increased while the patch areas increased due to the environmental protection policy. Functional connectivity indicators could provide more comprehensive information in the development of environmental protection strategies.
Highlights
The areas occupied by global cities quadrupled from 1970 to 2000 [1] and it is estimated that approximately 65% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2025 [2]
The corresponding results of this process can be reflected by landscape patterns [8], for example, the original natural landscape including forestland, grassland, lakes, rivers and soil can be changed to nature reserves, city forest parks, scenic tourist areas or manmade landscapes which are mainly composed of cement, asphalt, chemical materials, and metal
The ecosystem services provided by urban forest land would be influenced to a large extent natural ecosystems play a vital role in maintaining ecological balance and providing ecosystem services [9,10,11]
Summary
The areas occupied by global cities quadrupled from 1970 to 2000 [1] and it is estimated that approximately 65% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2025 [2]. The aims of this study are: (1) to detect the dynamics of forestlands based on land use maps and evaluate the changes in forest landscape connectivity from 1999 to 2013 in Zhuhai City; (2) to investigate the effects of rapid urbanization on forest landscape connectivity on the basis of landscape connectivity metrics; and (3) to rank the importance value of the total forest patches in order to develop better urban biodiversity conservation planning for the local study area and discuss the contributions of functional connectivity metrics in identifying important forest patches
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