Historical Land Use Patterns Research Articles

Multivariate Associations between Environmental Variables and the Invasion of Alien Plants in Floodplain Waterfront Parklands along the Nakdong River

Riparian zones are more susceptible to invasions of alien plant species than other ecosystems. Plant invasion is determined by multiple interacting factors, such as the characteristics of the invasive plants, the climate, disturbance patterns, and competition with native plants. To investigate the multiple interactions of environmental factors with regard to the invasion of an alien plant species, we considered a range of factors, including the topography, accessibility (or anthropogenic disturbances), competition with aquatic plants, and land-use history in 115 waterfront parklands along the Nakdong River. The waterfront parks were constricted after a river restoration project from 2009 to 2012. The most common alien plants were Oenothera odorata, Erigeron annuus, and Coreopsis lanceolate in our study areas. Alien plant areas were negatively associated with aquatic plant areas, which indicated that dominant alien plants mainly occur in drier uplands in the area under study. Accessibility (or anthropogenic disturbances) to waterfront parklands had a positive effect on the proportion of alien plant species. We assumed that frequent human visits and disturbances may increase the potential for invasions of diverse alien species. In addition, historic agricultural areas were positively associated with an invasion of an alien plants species. Our results suggest that invasions of alien species to waterfront parklands depend on multiple factors, including the characteristics of the alien species, the degree of accessibility, the topography, and historical land-use patterns.

Culturally Modified Red Pine, Birch-Bark Canoes, and the Strategic Geography of the Fur Trade on Lake Saganaga, Minnesota, U.S.A.

Culturally modified red pine (Pinus resinosa) can be added to the long list of natural and artificial features that comprise the cultural landscape of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Minnesota, U.S.A. This study provides historical context for the first cultural-modification dates derived from the dendrochronological evaluation of primary-growth, fire-killed red pine in the Border Lakes region. The tree-ring-based data are interpreted in the context of archaeological records, fur-trade era travel accounts, and ethnographic information to shed new light on the economy of the Border Lakes Ojibwe from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. Multiple lines of evidence from Lake Saganaga suggest that these culturally modified red pine were intentionally wounded in order to extract pitch, which was used to make the gum critical for constructing and repairing birch-bark canoes. Culturally modified red pine are a tangible artifact class that may serve to reframe modern perspectives on the critical role of the birch-bark canoe for transport in the historical Border Lakes landscape. These trees are living symbols of historical land-use patterns and are indicative of the strategic geography of the fur trade.

The weight of the past: land‐use legacies and recolonization of pine plantations by oak trees

Most of the world's plantations were established on previously disturbed sites with an intensive land-use history. Our general hypothesis was that native forest regeneration within forest plantations depends largely on in situ biological legacies as a source of propagules. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed native oak regeneration in 168 pine plantation plots in southern Spain in relation to land use in 1956, oak patch proximity, and pine tree density. Historical land-use patterns were determined from aerial photography from 1956, and these were compared with inventory data from 2004-2005 and additional orthophoto images. Our results indicate that oak forest regeneration in pine plantations depends largely on land-use legacies, although nearby, well-conserved areas can provide propagules for colonization from outside the plantation, and pine tree density also affected oak recruit density. More intense land uses in the past meant fewer biological legacies and, therefore, lower likelihood of regenerating native forest. That is, oak recruit density was lower when land use in 1956 was croplands (0.004 +/- 0.002 recruits/m2 [mean +/- SE]) or pasture (0.081 +/- 0.054 recruits/m2) instead of shrubland (0.098 +/- 0.031 recruits/m2) or oak formations (0.314 +/- 0.080 recruits/m2). Our study shows that land use in the past was more important than propagule source distance or pine tree density in explaining levels of native forest regeneration in plantations. Thus, strategies for restoring native oak forests in pine plantations may benefit from considering land-use legacies as well as distance to propagule sources and pine density.

Historical land-use patterns in relation to conservation strategies for the Riverstone area, the Knuckles massif, Sri Lanka: insights gained from the recovery of anuran communities

Official journal of the Taprobanica Private Limited, Homagama, Sri Lanka and Research Centre for Climate Change, University of Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia.Taprobanica is no longer accepting submissions on SLJOL. To submit your manuscript, please go to http://taprobanica.org/

Historical land-use patterns in relation to conservation strategies for the Riverstone area, the Knuckles massif, Sri Lanka: insights gained from the recovery of anuran communities

Agriculture on the Indian sub-continent dates back to the fourth and third millennia BC, but only in more recent times did its intensity escalate in a major way. During the colonial era, the British established that the hilly areas of Sri Lanka were suitable for the rearing of coffee (Coffea arabica), for which much of the arable land of the island was extensively cultivated. Later, however, resulting from the severe impact of “Coffee Rust,” caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix, the coffee industry of Sri Lanka declined dramatically. Former coffee plantations were abandoned, but are still distinguishable as damaged areas. The truncation of coffee growing on the island created vacant room for another cash-crop.

Object-oriented image analysis to extract landscape elements in urban fringes, Central Japan

A method enabling the object-oriented image analysis of landscape elements incorporating topographic data was designed and tested on a Japanese countryside target area. IKONOS data (four multispectral bands with a spatial resolution of 4 m and a panchromatic band with a spatial resolution of 1 m) acquired on 23 April 2001 were used. Definiens v.5 software (Definiens AG, Munchen, Germany) was employed for the classification. The initial segmentation was multiresolution and bottom-up, and each segment identified was considered to be one object. Two classifications employing the same landscape elements and ground truth data were implemented. One classification adopted an object-based image analysis classification method based on spectral characteristics; the other utilized an object-oriented image analysis (OOIA) that allows for a suitable scale parameter to be selected independently for each landscape element. In addition, topographic data derived from field surveys (walking surveys) and topographic maps were used to create a topographic database delineating the boundary between valley bottoms and the adjacent slopes (elevation: about 10 m). These data were then integrated into the OOIA analysis. The accuracies of the two classifications were assessed by comparing the results to a master landscape map produced directly from aerial photographs and on-site observations. The object-oriented method using the topographic data resulted in a higher overall kappa coefficients (0.63–0.47) than the object-based method. These results indicate that object-oriented image analysis of very high resolution data used in combination with topographic data can be an effective tool for landscape classification in Japan, where historical land-use patterns have resulted in finely dissected landscapes.

Mercury in litterfall and upper soil horizons in forested ecosystems in Vermont, USA

Mercury (Hg) is an atmospheric pollutant that, in forest ecosystems, accumulates in foliage and upper soil horizons. The authors measured soil and litterfall Hg at 15 forest sites (northern hardwood to mixed hardwood/conifer) throughout Vermont, USA, to examine variation among tree species, forest type, and soils. Differences were found among the 12 tree species sampled from at least two sites, with Acer pensylvanicum having significantly greater litterfall total Hg concentration. Senescent leaves had greater Hg concentrations if they originated lower in the canopy or had higher surface:weight ratios. Annual litterfall Hg flux had a wide range, 12.6 to 28.5 µg/m(2) (mean, 17.9 µg/m(2) ), not related to forest type. Soil and Hg pools in the Oi horizon (litter layer) were not related to the measured Hg deposition flux in litterfall or to total modeled Hg deposition. Despite having lower Hg concentrations, upper mineral soil (A horizons) had greater Hg pools than organic soil horizons (forest floor) due to greater bulk density. Significant differences were found in Hg concentration and Hg/C ratio among soil horizons but not among forest types. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of site history and the benefits of collecting litterfall and soils simultaneously. Observed differences in forest floor Hg pools were strongly correlated with carbon pools, which appeared to be a function of historic land-use patterns.

Impacts of Land-Use and Climate Changes on Hydrologic Processes in the Qingyi River Watershed, China

The impacts of human-induced land-use and climate changes on hydrologic processes have become a great challenge and attracted widespread attention of many researchers. Dramatic changes in land use and climate have occurred in the mountainous Qingyi River watershed in southwest China in the last three decades. Variable infiltration capacity (VIC), a large-scale hydrologic model, was used in this study to assess the impacts of land-use and climate changes on surface runoff, base flow, streamflow, and evapotranspiration (ET) of this watershed. The analysis for this study includes (1) investigation of change in historical land-use patterns, (2) detection of climate change (precipitation and mean temperature), and (3) simulation and assessment of hydrologic responses to these changes. The Mann-Kendall test was used to identify the long-term monotonic trends in precipitation and temperature for the period of 1980–2005. The results suggest no significant change in annual precipitation and a significant increase in annual temperature, particularly in February, April, July, and September. The analysis of three land-use maps reveals that the conversions between forest and shrubland/grassland were the predominant land-use change over the past three decades. Hydrologic simulations show that the influence of climate change on hydrologic processes was stronger than those of land-use change. Monthly variation of the river flow was mainly attributed to seasonal variation in precipitation. However, ET responded significantly to the land-use change in several subwatersheds where single land cover conversion occurred dominantly. The decrease in surface runoff and base flow caused by climate change was enhanced by changes in land use, whereas the reduction in ET was offset by reforestation over the study period. Furthermore, the impact of deforestation or reforestation on hydrologic processes was more significant in the dry season than other seasons. The results from this study can be a useful reference for decision making in land-use planning and water resource managements in this region.

Consequences of feasible future agricultural land-use change on soil organic carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions in Great Britain

The aim of this study was to assess the consequences of feasible land-use change in Great Britain on GHG emissions mainly through the gain or loss of soil organic carbon. We use estimates of per-area changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, coupled with Great Britain (GB) county-level scenarios of land-use change based on historical land-use patterns or feasible futures to estimate the impact of potential land-use change between agricultural land-uses. We consider transitions between cropland, temporary grassland ( 5 yr under grass) and forest. We show that reversion to historical land-use patterns as present in 1930 could result in GHG emission reductions of up to ca. 11 Mt CO 2 -eq./yr (relative to a 2004 baseline), because of an increased permanent grassland area. By contrast, cultivation of 20% of the current (2004) permanent grassland area for crop production could result in GHG emission increases of up to ca. 14 Mt CO 2 -eq./yr. We conclude that whilst change between agricultural land-uses (transitions between permanent and temporary grassland and cropland) in GB is likely to be a limited option for GHG mitigation, external factors such as agricultural product commodity markets could influence future land-use. Such agricultural land-use change in GB could have significant impacts on Land-use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) emissions, with relatively small changes in land-use (e.g. 5% plough out of grassland to cropland, or reversion of cropland to the grassland cover in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones of 1998) having an impact on GHG emissions of a similar order of magnitude as the current United Kingdom LULUCF sink. In terms of total UK GHG emissions, however, even the most extreme feasible land-use change scenarios account for ca. 2% of current national GHG emissions.

Reforestation amidst deforestation: Simultaneity and succession

The forest-transition theory of expanding forest cover after prolonged periods of deforestation has typically examined forest regeneration apart from historic land-use patterns. In the Bayano-Darién agricultural frontier of Panama, this paper observes forest-cover expansion that is simultaneous to and successive of a preceding pattern of land-use/cover change characterized by expanding ranchland and depopulation. Landsat TM satellite-imagery analysis for 1990–2000, household land-use histories since 2000 and forest plantation records for 1992–2007 illustrate reforestation occurring alongside deforestation. The findings describe a land-cover change dynamic by which a nascent pathway of reforestation assumes the characteristics of antecedent pathways of deforestation. Large-scale commercial interests dominated forestation via plantation expansion, succeeding and consolidating ranchers as ranchers previously succeeded small-scale agriculturalists. Contrary to the forest-transition theory, off-farm employment and emigration did not encourage reforestation amongst ranchers. The drivers, nature, likelihood and limitations of a nascent forest transition appear somewhat determinable by antecedent pathways of deforestation. Refocusing on regional-scale antecedent pathways of land-use/cover change promises to expose a typology of forest transitions of varied potency.

Monitoring and Predicting Land-use Changes and the Hydrology of the Urbanized Paochiao Watershed in Taiwan Using Remote Sensing Data, Urban Growth Models and a Hydrological Model.

Monitoring and simulating urban sprawl and its effects on land-use patterns andhydrological processes in urbanized watersheds are essential in land-use and waterresourceplanning and management. This study applies a novel framework to the urbangrowth model Slope, Land use, Excluded land, Urban extent, Transportation, andHillshading (SLEUTH) and land-use change with the Conversion of Land use and itsEffects (CLUE-s) model using historical SPOT images to predict urban sprawl in thePaochiao watershed in Taipei County, Taiwan. The historical and predicted land-use datawas input into Patch Analyst to obtain landscape metrics. This data was also input to theGeneralized Watershed Loading Function (GWLF) model to analyze the effects of futureurban sprawl on the land-use patterns and watershed hydrology. The landscape metrics ofthe historical SPOT images show that land-use patterns changed between 1990-2000. TheSLEUTH model accurately simulated historical land-use patterns and urban sprawl in thePaochiao watershed, and simulated future clustered land-use patterns (2001-2025). TheCLUE-s model also simulated land-use patterns for the same period and yielded historical trends in the metrics of land-use patterns. The land-use patterns predicted by the SLEUTHand CLUE-s models show the significant impact urban sprawl will have on land-usepatterns in the Paochiao watershed. The historical and predicted land-use patterns in thewatershed tended to fragment, had regular shapes and interspersion patterns, but wererelatively less isolated in 2001-2025 and less interspersed from 2005-2025 compared withland-use pattern in 1990. During the study, the variability and magnitude of hydrologicalcomponents based on the historical and predicted land-use patterns were cumulativelyaffected by urban sprawl in the watershed; specifically, surface runoff increasedsignificantly by 22.0% and baseflow decreased by 18.0% during 1990-2025. The proposedapproach is an effective means of enhancing land-use monitoring and management ofurbanized watersheds.

AMPHIBIAN OCCURRENCE IS INFLUENCED BY CURRENT AND HISTORIC LANDSCAPE CHARACTERISTICS

Human-induced habitat loss and degradation are major threats to wetland species as reflected in the fact that wetlands have declined by more than 50% in Europe and North America during the last century. Both current and historic land-use patterns are likely to be significant determinants of wetland species' distributions; however their relative importance is often unknown. We studied the importance of local (study pond) and landscape (current and 18th-century landscape) characteristics in explaining the occurrence and species richness of amphibians (Rana arvalis, Bufo bufo, and Triturus vulgaris) on the Swedish island of Gotland, where more than 40% of wetlands have been lost since the 18th century. Current local habitat characteristics were the strongest determinants of occurrence for all study species. Additionally, species occurrence was related to current and historic landscape characteristics, which generally explained equal amounts of the variation in species-occurrence data. The proportions of both current and historic arable land were negative determinants of amphibian occurrence and species richness, indicating that agricultural land use may have an overall negative impact on amphibians, and that amphibians may occur less frequently in areas with a long agricultural history. Likewise, historic forest area was positively related to B. bufo occurrence and species richness, whereas current forests had no significant effects, suggesting that there may be a lag in the response of amphibians to agriculture-mediated habitat loss. Our results suggest that historic land-use patterns may influence current amphibian populations and that inclusion of historic land-use information could be a valuable tool in future studies on amphibian-habitat relations.

Using place names to interpret former floodplain connectivity in the Morava River, Czech Republic

Toponyms, or place names have been used to reveal historical land-use patterns based on degree of wetness in the Morava River floodplain. Eleven patch types were plotted on three land cover types representing broad ecological niches with different moisture regimes for four time periods. The river’s simultaneous decrease in sinuosity, which underscores the loss of the landscape’s ecohydrological connectivity, was quanified. The results show that long-term human-dominated land use worked in concert with a naturally occuring seasonal flood regime. The findings strongly indicate that high human density and intensive exploitation can co-exist with a functioning floodplain. Landscape change was interpreted by using a new concept, that of the place-name patch, which can be universally applied to interpret historical land use changes in river basins. Our method is reproducible in river basins with a history of intensive human use.

Takhoma: Ethnography of Mount Rainier National Park by Allan H. Smith

movement. Partially,he credits this to thedif ferencebetween theirexperiences in an era of political deadlock and his development during a timeof extraordinary political consensus. "I was a product of times thatfewnow could even imagine,"he observes (p. 356). In theThick of it is a very chatty, informal book, which isboth a strengthand itsgreatest weakness. Although itcovers a fascinatingarray of events and personalities, thememories are mainly anecdotal. This isnot an introspective account, and overall it does not emphasize the broader historical context of personal experiences,with some valuable exceptions in thefinal chapters. The references in thebook cite almost exclusively works composed by the author himself. It is not the purpose of thisvolume to document thedevelopment of modern environmentalism? that isavailable fromother scholarly sources, including some earlier articles byMcCloskey ? but thebook does serve as a colorful complement to the study of political strategizing and historical eras within that movement. Kevin R. Marsh Idaho State University TAKHOMA:ETHNOGRAPHY OF MOUNT RAINIER NATIONALPARK by AllanH. Smith Washington State University Press, Pullman, 2006. Illustrations, maps, tables, notes, bibliography, index. 182pages, $22.95 paper. In 1963,Washington State University an thropologist Allan H. Smith (1913-1999) was commissioned to study and report on the aboriginal use of the area encompassed by theMount Rainier National Park (MRNP). In under amonth, Smithmanaged to review the relevant literatureand to interviewabout fifteeninformantsborn before 1963and living on the Yakama Reservation nearYakima, aswell as a handful ofNatives livingon theNisqually Reservation near Olympia. Takhoma: Ethnography of Mount Rainier National Park is an edited version of Smith's 1964 report, supplemented with commentar ies by cultural anthropologist Barbara Lane (UniversityofVictoria, Canada), archaeologist Richard Daugherty (emeritus professor of the University of Washington), andMRNP archae ologist Greg Burchard. After those interesting historical notes and updates, the bulk of the book iscomposed of seven chapters,which are well-organized but of very different lengths, reflecting the relative emphases of Smith's findings. Chapter 1, the introduction, is a twenty page review of the geography and ecology of the MRNP (including theuseful identification of twenty-seven important passes and alpine meadows), an overview of Smith's research design, and an introduction to place-names and tribalboundaries. Chapter 2,"NativeTopy nomy," is a five-page discussion of Native place names. That discussion clearlyshows that most local groups identifiedMt. Rainier as some varietyof thephonetic cta(k)-o-mah', meaning, roughly, 'mountain' or 'the mountain,' which Stevens determined was "used precisely aswe use the term 'mount'." (p. 25). Chapter 3, "Tribal Identity and Bound aries," is one of the book's two hearts, comprising nearly half its length, detailing in nearly seventy pages such esoteric (but necessary) issues as "Problems in Bound ary Definition," "The Concept of Boundary inMountain Areas," and "Tribal Boundary Changes Through Time." Each of these is sues is awell-known and fearsome hydra for ethnographic researchers and othersworking to project historic land-use patterns into the abyss of the pre-contact period. Having said this,Smithmakes convincing arguments that his informants provided useful information on aboriginal land use. The chapter is very technical and goes into great detail; it isnot forgeneral readers. Figure 3.4 isa useful visual summary of theregions of the MRNP claimed by thefive main historic-era groups concerned Reviews 147 ? the Muckleshoot, Yakama, Taidnapam, Nisqually, and Puyallup. Beginningwith Chapter 4, "Village Sites and Structure,"Smith revealswhat his informants knew about specificNative uses of the MRNP region. Because most use was related to limited termactivities such as hunting or vision quests, permanent villageswere essentially absent and substantial structures were also reportedlyfew (mostwere on the order of drying racks, or temporary sweat-lodges), the chapter is less than tenpages long. Chapter 5, "Economic and Other Uses," is the second heart of the book, a fifty-page treatment of the great variety of short-term activities thatwere historically carried out within today's MRNP's boundaries, domi nated by hunting (deer, elk,bear, some birds, and marmots), meat-smoking, and gathering all manner of seasonally-specific resources (mainly berries). But, importantly, other activities took people into themountain en vironment and even above treeline, including vision quests, trade voyages through various passes, and the collection of a wide variety of plants formedicines, basketry, and other purposes. A...

ON GRASSLAND BIRD CONSERVATION IN THE NORTHEAST

Populations of many grassland birds in North America have declined significantly during the last 30 years (Knopf 1994, Peterjohn and Sauer 1999). Although population trends of many groups of breeding birds vary across geographic regions (James et al. 1992, Herkert 1995, Sauer et al. 1997), the declining trend for grassland birds is consistent across much of North America, including the Northeast (Bollinger and Gavin 1992, Askins 1993, Peterjohn and Sauer 1999). Declining trends and relatively low population levels for many grassland birds in the Northeast (Shriver et al. 1997), defined here as New York and the six New England states, has led to concern for the status of many species. By the early 1990s, birds of grassland and open habitats were the species most frequently listed as endangered, threatened, or of special concern by states in the Northeast, with 12 species classified by three or more states (Vickery 1992). Reasons for grassland bird decline in the Northeast include farmland abandonment with subsequent succession to woodland habitat, decline of hayfield area, and increased haycropping during the nesting season (Andrle and Carroll 1988, Bollinger et al. 1990, Askins 1997, Vickery and Dunwiddie 1997). Because many grassland bird species are area-sensitive, those species are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation (Herkert 1994, Vickery et al. 1994). In New England and New York, grassland area has declined by 60% since the 1930s (Vickery et al. 1994). Concern for grassland birds in the Northeast has stimulated research, educational initiatives, conservation-oriented management, and habitat acquisition by federal, state, and nongovernmental organizations (Vickery et al. 1994, Jones and Vickery 1997, National Resources Conservation Service 1997, Shriver et al. 1997, Vickery and Dunwiddie 1997, Casey 1998). However worthwhile those activities may be, they have occurred without a comprehensive regional plan for managing grassland birds. Such a regional plan, preferably as part of a general plan for all native birds in the region, is crucial for several reasons. First, the plan would provide a rationale for conserving grassland birds in the Northeast in the context of current and historical land-use patterns.

Oak forest development as a result of historical land-use patterns and present nitrogen deposition

Historical sources of the use of the forests around the manor Hald during three centuries are used to outline a typical development for many areas on poor sandy soils in Denmark. The balance between forest, shrub, agricultural land, fallow and heathlands in the zone depended on the intensity of land-use for agriculture, grazing and wooden products. The forests at Hald were never totally deforested, and since the forest act of 1805 and first conservation in the early 20th century, the open and shrubby oak woods have developed into oak forest. In a preliminary analysis, data on under-storey vegetation and light conditions from 1916 are compared to data from 1995. Due to conservation of the forest, light penetration has been drastically reduced in the forest since early this century and the reduced light penetration in combination with increased nitrogen deposition has changed the under-storey vegetation significantly. Species diversity and abundance have declined and the typical raw humus species are relatively better adapted to the present conditions. The relative importance of management and air pollution is discussed in relation to succession and preservation of oak forests at a certain successive stage on oligotrophic sandy soils.