Abstract
Fragmentation is a disruption in the connectivity of landscapes. The aims of this paper are (i) to quantitatively assess the fragmentation rates in three landscape units located in a hydrocarbon basin, and (ii) to model their behavior between 2001 and 2013 using landscape metrics at different scales of resolution. The following metrics were selected using principal component analysis (PCA): The Clumpiness Index (CLUMPY), patch density (PD), perimeter-area fractal dimension (PAFRAC) and effective mesh size (MESH). Results from our investigations pointed out that hydrocarbon activity increased the fragmentation at the sites. In particular, the CLUMPY index increased in all three landscape units, the average of PD decreased from 60 to 14 patches per 100 hectares, whereas the mean of MESH was quite constant, however, due to oil production, it decreased mainly in the coastal valleys. Finally, the PAFRAC also decreased at sites with oil production, being more evident in the plateau and coastal canyons. As a whole, outputs from our analyses clearly pointed out that the monitoring of landscape fragmentation trends in arid and semi-arid zones can be successfully achieved using metrics derived from satellite spectral information.
Highlights
Oil resources are geographically unevenly distributed throughout the world
The minimum package of metrics obtained in this study includes those that express form, like perimeter-area fractal dimension (PAFRAC), aggregation such as CLUMPY and patch density (PD), and contagion and interspersion such as mesh size (MESH)
In this paper, landscape fragmentation rates were quantitatively assessed in the hydrocarbon basin, located in the Chubut and Santa Cruz provinces of the arid and semi-arid zones of Patagonia (Argentina)
Summary
The concentration of reserves does not coincide with the main consumption areas, being that, in general, the concentration of reserves is in developing countries, whereas, most of the industrialized countries are importers of oil. The main oil consumers are as follows: The United States of America, Japan and Germany, while the main producers are Saudi Arabia, the United States of America and the countries of the North Sea (such as Norway and the United Kingdom). In Argentina, the oil exploitation started in 1907 in the San Jorge Gulf basin (Chubut and Santa Cruz provinces). This basin has a total area estimated at around 200,000 km and currently produces around 37,000 m3 of oil per day, obtained from more than 6000 oil wells (9000 are inactive) [2]
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