Intensity Of Human Impact Research Articles

WITHDRAWN: Reconstructing the environmental impact of mining on mountain lakes

Mountain lakes are particularly fragile ecosystems undergoing important transformations associated with ongoing global change. However, the history of anthropogenic impacts on mountain lakes and their catchments is much longer, in many cases featuring millennia of summer pastoral farming. More recently, the growing demand for raw materials and energy linked to industrialization, particularly accelerated since the 19th century CE, meant a further increase in human impact on mountain areas. The Cantabrian Range (northern Spain) constitutes a paradigmatic case of southern European mountain range experiencing intense human impact during the past few millennia and particularly the past two centuries. Here, we have reconstructed the environmental dynamics of this area during the last millennium, with a particular focus on the impact of mining, based on the multidisciplinary analysis (sedimentology, biogeochemistry, magnetic susceptibility, diatoms, pollen, charcoal and dung fungal spores) of sediment cores from Lago de La Cueva (43°03′N, 6°06′W, 1550 m a.s.l.). Changing land use and climate have driven lake dynamics during the last centuries. A major fire-caused deforestation event dated to the late 15th century CE increased erosion and the frequency of intense runoff episodes, in the context of the wetter and colder Little Ice Age. The onset of iron mining activities in the catchment ca. 200 years ago had a strong impact on the lake. Sedimentation rates notably raised and mining waste containing hematite and potentially toxic elements (e.g. Fe, Co, As) was washed into the lake. Additionally, diatom assemblages showed that lake regulation since the early 20th century CE severely altered the natural hydrological regime introducing rapid seasonal lake-level oscillations and increased lakeshore erosion, water turbidity and nutrient loads. The recent environmental restoration, finished in 2006, has involved the re-deposition of large volumes of mine tailing. Although some mining wastewater still arrives into the lake because mine drainage is still active, restoration works have succeeded in reducing erosion rates and nutrient loads. Lower land-use intensity has also contributed to natural vegetation recovery, further diminishing erosion. This study illustrates the complex interactions between human activities (grazing, mining, hydropower) and climate change in defining mountain landscape shifts through time. Moreover, our results highlight the usefulness of paleolimnological research to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of lake restoration programs.

Genetic diversity, gene flow, and landscape resistance in a pond-breeding amphibian in agricultural and natural forested landscapes in Norway.

Genetic diversity is a key part of biodiversity, threatened by human activities that lead to loss of gene flow and reduction of effective population sizes. Gene flow is a result of both landscape connectivity and demographic processes determining the number of dispersing individuals in space and time. Thus, the effect of human impact on processes determining the level of genetic diversity must be interpreted in the context of basic ecological conditions affecting survival and recruitment. When the intensity of human impact and habitat suitability correlate, the effect on genetic diversity and gene flow may be challenging to predict. We compared genetic diversity, gene flow and landscape resistance in two contrasting landscapes in Norway for the pond-breeding amphibian Triturus cristatus: a highly human-impacted, agricultural landscape with ecologically productive habitats, and a forested landscape with less productive habitats and lower levels of human impact. Our results show that genetic diversity was higher and gene flow lower within the forested landscape. Microclimatic moisture conditions and vegetation cover were important determinants of landscape resistance to gene flow within both landscapes. There were indications that landscape resistance was increased by minor roads in the forested landscape, which was not the case for the agricultural landscape, suggesting a higher vulnerability to human interference within the landscape matrix for the populations in less productive habitats. Our findings suggest that the effect of human impact on genetic diversity may not be straightforward but modulated by the ecological conditions underlying local demographic processes. Populations within both landscapes seem to be vulnerable to loss of genetic diversity, but due to different mechanisms. This has implications for the choice of relevant management actions, that is, increasing population stability may be more relevant within an agricultural landscape still permeable for dispersal, while conserving dispersal corridors may be more appropriate in the forested landscape, to avoid isolation and increased genetic drift.

Human disturbance increases coronavirus prevalence in bats

Human land modification is a known driver of animal-to-human transmission of infectious agents (zoonotic spillover). Infection prevalence in the reservoir is a key predictor of spillover, but landscape-level associations between the intensity of land modification and infection rates in wildlife remain largely untested. Bat-borne coronaviruses have caused three major disease outbreaks in humans: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We statistically link high-resolution land modification data with bat coronavirus surveillance records and show that coronavirus prevalence significantly increases with the intensity of human impact across all climates and levels of background biodiversity. The most significant contributors to the overall human impact are agriculture, deforestation, and mining. Regions of high predicted bat coronavirus prevalence coincide with global disease hotspots, suggesting that infection prevalence in wildlife may be an important factor underlying links between human land modification and zoonotic disease emergence.

Оценка эколого-хозяйственного баланса в водосборе залива Петра Великого (Японское море)

This work analyzes the indicators of ecological and economic balance within the basin of Peter the Great Gulf. The need for this study is due to the fact, that environmental conditions in the basin are greatly affected by the ongoing process of infrastructural and economic development. The aforementioned processes are characterized by unevenness in their spatial distribution. A map that demonstrates the spatial distribution of 10 land use classes (built-up areas, quarries, rice/paddy fields, agricultural lands, unutilized agricultural lands, unutilized rice/paddy fields, grasslands, shrublands, forests and water bodies) of the area of interest has been compiled using satellite imagery as of 2022. The ecological and economic balance of the basin, which was subdivided into 20 smaller river basins, has been evaluated. Each land use class was assigned to a category representing the intensity of anthropogenic impact. Ecological and economic balance indicators – absolute tension, relative tension, natural protectiveness indices and total area of land with resource-stabilizing properties – were calculated. The balance between the natural potential and economic development was found to be maintained in the study area as a whole, albeit with a few exceptions such as the Pervaya Rechka and Bogataya river basins which host the most intense human impact in the basin. Minimum human influence on the natural potential can be observed in the southwest of the basin (basins of the Bolotnaya, Tesnaya, Tsukanovka, Gladkaya, Ryazanovka, Poyma, Brusya, Narva, Barabashevka, Amba rivers).

A new indicator approach to reconstruct agricultural land use in Europe from sedimentary pollen assemblages

The reconstruction of human impact is pivotal in palaeoecological studies, as humans are among the most important drivers of Holocene vegetation and ecosystem change. Nevertheless, separating the anthropogenic footprint on vegetation dynamics from the impact of climate and other environmental factors (disturbances such as fire, erosion, floods, landslides, avalanches, volcanic eruptions) is a challenging and still largely open issue. For this purpose, palynologists mostly rely on cultural indicator pollen types and related indices that consist of sums or ratios of these pollen types. However, the high environmental and biogeographical specificity of cultural indicator plants hinders the application of the currently available indices to wide geographical settings. Furthermore, the achievable taxonomic resolution of cultural indicator pollen types may hamper their indicative capacity. In this study, we propose the agricultural land use probability (LUP) index, a novel approach to quantify human impact intensity on European ecosystems based on cultural indicator pollen types. From the ‘classic’ cultural indicators, we construct the LUP index by selecting those with the best indicator capacity based on bioindication criteria. We first train the LUP index using twenty palynological sequences along a broad environmental gradient, spanning from treeless alpine to subtropical mediterranean evergreen plant communities. We then validate the LUP index using independent pollen datasets and archaeological proxies. Finally, we discuss the suitability of the selected pollen types and the potential of the LUP index for quantifying Holocene human impact in Europe, concluding that careful application of the LUP index may significantly contribute to refining pollen-based land-use reconstructions.

Anthropogenic and climatic‐driven peatland degradation during the past 150 years in the Greater Khingan Mountains, NE China

AbstractRelationships between modern pollen, climate, and human activities are important for improving the explanation of fossil records. To better understand anthropogenic and climatic impact on peatland vegetation and environment, we assessed the impact of the human influence index (HII) on modern pollen assemblages from 61 surface soil samples (different land‐use types) in the Greater Khingan Mountains by using detrended correspondence analysis and redundancy analysis. Based on the palynological analysis, 210Pb age‐depth model, and weighted averaging partial least squares, we reconstructed HII values of Tuqiang peatland in the Greater Khingan Mountains during the last 150 years. The reconstructed HII values demonstrated that the intensity of human activities increased gradually before 1900 AD, when the population of Heilongjiang Province was less and its native inhabitants continued to hunt and gather. During the period of 1900–1950 AD, human influence intensity increased sharply and reached peak values. Wars and placer gold mining caused large numbers of people immigrated north to Heilongjiang Province, rapid population growth strengthened the human impact intensity. In addition, invaders exploited the forest resources without limit. Widescale deforestation and land reclamation destroyed vegetation landscape and reduced forest coverage seriously, which led to soil erosion and land degradation. With the foundation of new China (1949 AD), the implementation of forest protection policies clearly reduced the human disturbance intensity. However, due to the needs of economic development, human influence intensity increased again after 2000 AD.

Changes in and Modelling of Hydrological Process for a Semi-Arid Catchment in the Context of Human Disturbance

Hydrological modelling is of critical importance to flood control. However, flood forecasting in semi-arid region is a great challenge to hydrologists, particularly in a changing environment. Taking the Zhulong River catchment located in north China as a case, the performance of GR4J model for hydrological modelling was investigated based on the analysis for changes in hydrological process of three periods defined as natural period (1967–1979), moderate human impact period (1980–1996) and intensive human impact period (1997–2015). Results show that 1) the annual precipitation and temperature of the catchment both presented upward trends, while the annual observed runoff exhibited a significant downward trend in the time span from 1967 to 2015; 2) the correlations between runoff and precipitation were comparatively higher on both monthly and annual scales in natural period than those in human disturbed periods; 3) both annual runoff and daily peak discharge in human disturbed periods decreased relative to those in natural period due to the environmental changes; 4) the GR4J model performed well for runoff simulations in natural period but gradually lost its applicability with the intensification of human activities. It is essential to improve the accuracy of hydrological modelling under a changing environment in further studies.

Amphibians of the Sinos River Basin, southern Brazil

The Sinos River encompasses a wide area of natural habitats and, at the same time, supports one of the highest population densities of southern Brazil. Consequently, natural habitats along the Basin present a high degree of habitat disturbance. Despite of the existence of threatened species, information about diversity of amphibians in that area is scarce. Thus, we aimed to catalogue the amphibian species of the Sinos River Basin from records in scientific collections and compilation of published articles. We recorded 52 species, all with geographic coordinates validated at the collection point, indicating that the Sinos River Basin harbours about 50% of the amphibian species of the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Three anuran species were classified as having some degree of threat: Melanophryniscus cambaraensis, Melanophryniscus dorsalis and Thoropa saxatilis. We also expected other 18 species with a high probability of occurrence in the Basin. This work shows that, despite the intense human impact, the Sinos River Basin has a relevant role for the maintenance of a considerable fraction of the amphibian biodiversity in southern Brazil.

Coverage and Rainfall Response of Biological Soil Crusts Using Multi-Temporal Sentinel-2 Data in a Central European Temperate Dry Acid Grassland

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are thin microbiological vegetation layers that naturally develop in unfavorable higher plant conditions (i.e., low precipitation rates and high temperatures) in global drylands. They consist of poikilohydric organisms capable of adjusting their metabolic activities depending on the water availability. However, they, and with them, their ecosystem functions, are endangered by climate change and land-use intensification. Remote sensing (RS)-based studies estimated the BSC cover in global drylands through various multispectral indices, and few of them correlated the BSCs’ activity response to rainfall. However, the allocation of BSCs is not limited to drylands only as there are areas beyond where smaller patches have developed under intense human impact and frequent disturbance. Yet, those areas were not addressed in RS-based studies, raising the question of whether the methods developed in extensive drylands can be transferred easily. Our temperate climate study area, the ‘Lieberoser Heide’ in northeastern Germany, is home to the country’s largest BSC-covered area. We applied a Random Forest (RF) classification model incorporating multispectral Sentinel-2 (S2) data, indices derived from them, and topographic information to spatiotemporally map the BSC cover for the first time in Central Europe. We further monitored the BSC response to rainfall events over a period of around five years (June 2015 to end of December 2020). Therefore, we combined datasets of gridded NDVI as a measure of photosynthetic activity with daily precipitation data and conducted a change detection analysis. With an overall accuracy of 98.9%, our classification proved satisfactory. Detected changes in BSC activity between dry and wet conditions were found to be significant. Our study emphasizes a high transferability of established methods from extensive drylands to BSC-covered areas in the temperate climate. Therefore, we consider our study to provide essential impulses so that RS-based biocrust mapping in the future will be applied beyond the global drylands.

Construction of a human-wildlife spatial interaction index in the Three-River Source Region, China

In the context of today’s rapid economic development and increasingly strict ecological protection, interactions between humans and wildlife will intensify. Therefore, we need to identify the spatial distribution of such interactions and to take measures to mitigate possible negative interactions. Using the Three-Rivers Source Region as a case study, we combined species habitat suitability, species feeding habits, species conservation levels and human impact intensity to construct a “human-wildlife spatial interaction index” (HWSII) to evaluate the intensity of human-wildlife spatial interactions. The overall level of HWSII was relatively low in the Three-River Source Region. Higher potential human-wildlife interactions occurred in areas with roads and railways. Areas of relatively high interactions between carnivores and livestock were mainly located in the southern part of the study area, and those with relatively high interactions between herbivores and livestock appeared in the western and eastern parts. Managers in these areas should consider mitigation measures. Although developed for a specific region of China, the ‘human-wildlife spatial interaction index’ could have application in other areas of the world for setting a baseline reference to identify areas with the potential for high levels of human-wildlife interactions and pinpoint places where potential negative interactions can be mitigated.

Holocene high-resolution forest-steppe and environmental dynamics in the Tarvagatai Mountains, north-central Mongolia, over the last 9570 cal yr BP

The Tarvagatai Nuruu National Park, situated in the northern Khangai Mountains in central Mongolia, is dominated by a forest-steppe ecosystem. An extreme continental and semi-arid climate is characteristic for forest-steppe ecosystems in Central Asia and their vegetation is very sensitive to climatic changes and human impacts by pastoralism and tree-logging. In the selected study area, nowadays human impact is exceptionally low, and it has potentially also been in the past. The focus of this paper was to reconstruct vegetation variability, climate dynamics, intensity of human impact and fire dynamics by applying a broad multi-proxy approach on a lacustrine sediment core from a small closed lake in the study area. The analyses include reconstructions of pollen, spores, non-pollen palynomorphs, and charcoal distribution as well as XRF-scanning. Overall, the radiocarbon-dated lacustrine sediment core reveals stable, long-term environmental conditions since the early Holocene (9570 cal yr BP). Palynological results indicate that vegetation varies on a comparably low level. We assume that nomadic pastoralism played a tangential role on the vegetation changes in the study area. Higher values of coprophilous fungi between 9570 and 8350 cal yr BP suggest the highest wildlife activity during the early Holocene. Hence, our multi-proxy data reveal a surprisingly stable vegetation composition and only slight climatic changes in north-central Mongolia for the entire Holocene. An initial moist and warm period from 9570 to 4180 cal yr BP was followed by a period of slightly drier and potentially cooler conditions from 4180 until 430 cal yr BP. The latest period from 430 cal yr BP to present was moist and warm. Fires were in general relatively rare except from a strong phase of fire activity between 3550 and 2960 cal yr BP.

Multi-proxy analyses of a minerotrophic fen to reconstruct prehistoric periods of human activity associated with salt mining in the Hallstatt region (Austria)

In this study, periods of prehistoric anthropogenic activity in the Hallstatt salt mining area (Upper Austria) are reconstructed from elemental (XRF-scanning, Q-ICP-MS) and Pb isotopic analyses (206Pb,207Pb,208Pb) of a radiocarbon-dated, 137-cm-long peat core covering the past ~7,000 years. The peat core was retrieved from a minerotrophic fen in the Hallstatt High Valley. Distinct metal enrichments attributed to low anthropogenic impact in Hallstatt can be traced back to a time around 2350 cal BCE and to another period around 1800 cal BCE. The period from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age (~1300 cal BCE to ~500 cal BCE) is characterised by increased anthropogenic activity. Relatively high Sn concentrations between ~1210 cal BCE and ~540 cal BCE) point towards intensive bronze casting processes, probably associated with the production of bronze picks that were used for local salt mining during this time. Intense human impact was also determined for the early Roman imperial period (1st century BCE – 2nd century CE). Increasing Pb and Sb concentrations and a marked decrease of 206Pb/207Pb ratios in the uppermost fen layers are attributed to rising industrialization processes in the modern period. Even though peaks of the trace elements Pb, Sb, Cu and Sn do not always correspond directly to anthropogenic activity, a combination with erosional, archaeological and palaeovegetational records enables a relatively accurate and reliable interpretation of prehistoric human impact at Hallstatt.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Mercury and Arsenic Content in Soils of Larsemann Hills, Pravda Coast and Fulmar Island, Eastern Antarctica.

This study is aimed at investigation of various potential contaminants (arsenic, mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) content in soils of different landscapes of Eastern Antarctica ice-free areas. Our data not only showed that intensive human impact might result in significant direct contamination of surrounding landforms, but also revealed a specific role of ornithogenic transport in distribution of contaminants. Analysis revealed that the contents of investigated elements were 0.100-8.055mgkg-1 (arsenic), 0.025-0.027mgkg-1 (mercury) in Larsemann Hills and 0.100-1.213mgkg-1 (arsenic), 0.023-0.593mgkg-1 (mercury) in vicinities of Mirny station and Fulmar Island. Accumulation of some elements in guano-derived and moss materials lead to higher values of other soil pollution indices at natural sites. Results of our study revealed the predominance of light molecular weight PAHs (fluorene and acenaphthylene) in studied soils. Results of our study are not completely in agreement with the idea of an practically uncontaminated Antarctic ecosystem which was previously reported for Eastern Antarctica ice-free areas. Various human activities carried out at local scale have been found to be responsible for increase of metal levels in studied Antarctic environments.

The prehistory and early history of the Šumava Mountains (Czech Republic) as seen through anthropogenic pollen indicators and charcoal data

In the lower forested mountain ranges of Europe, human impact on nature is usually confined to the written history of the Middle Ages. Our research in the Šumava mountains aims to specify the nature and intensity of human impact on vegetation, especially during agricultural prehistory. We use results from a multidisciplinary study of the unique La Tène archaeological site in the Sklářské Valley (elevation 802 m a.s.l.) and from a pollen and charcoal record 60 m away. With knowledge of this reference site we focus on the meaning of anthropogenic pollen indicators in 13 other pollen sites from central Šumava. From ca 3300 cal yr BP we detect an increase in NAP, Betula, Pinus and secondary anthropogenic indicators in pollen records – vegetation changes of anthropogenic origin. Charcoal records show a significant peak around 3200 cal yr BP. We found weak anthropogenic influence on the La Tène archaeological site in the Sklářské Valley, and much stronger anthropogenic pollen signals at other pollen sites dated to the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Some of these sites are situated on trade routes which have been known since Medieval times but which most likely have much older origins. During prehistory, pollen data reveal no specific human activity such as pasturing or arable farming but reflect small-scale disturbances that supported growth of Betula and Pinus and an abundance of herbs. Such human impact could be connected primarily to activities along trade routes and to hunting, but other factors cannot be excluded.

Warming Effort and Energy Budget Difference of Various Human Land Use Intensity: Case Study of Beijing, China

Human land use intensity affects the surface energy balance by changing the biogeophysical parameters. This study used Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer remote sensing data and surface energy balance algorithms to quantify changes in surface energy budgets corresponding to changes in land use in Beijing from 2000 to 2015. Land use was reclassified by considering land use intensity. The difference in the latent heat flux (LE) and net radiation (Rn) (LE−Rn) expressed the warming or cooling effect. The results showed that: (i) The increasing trend of net longwave radiation in Beijing offset the decreasing trend of net shortwave radiation. The Rn changed slightly, while the LE and LE−Rn showed a significant increase of 0.55 and 0.56 W/(m²∙year), respectively. The findings indicated that considering only radiative forcing, or even Rn, was not enough to measure the impacts of land use change on the energy budget. (ii) The order of Rn, LE, and LE−Rn values from high to low were natural and seminatural areas, cropland, mixed pixel areas, urban expansion areas, and old urban areas. Compared with natural and seminatural areas, the changing LE−Rn trend in the other four land use types decreased with the increase in human impact intensity, indicating that human activities weakened the positive change trend of LE−Rn and increased the warming effect. (iii) Although the temporal trend of LE increased in Beijing from 2000 to 2015, the effect of Rn on LE−Rn was greater than that of LE, especially in the four land use types affected by human activities. The results for surface temperature in various land use types confirmed this point. This study highlights the energy budget differences of various land use types affected by human activities. It makes an important contribution to understanding the urban heat island effect from a biogeophysical perspective.

An investigation on the human impact intensity on the selected ecoregions of coastal areas of Hormozgan Province, Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, South of Iran

Nowadays, the impact of mankind on the environment is more deteriorating than it used to be the human activities can harm the coastal-marine habitats. So, in order to implement more effective measures for a better protection, it is crucial to determine the sensitive areas of each region. In this regard, ecoregions approach as homogenous biogeographical units can be a firm base to study perturbations in an area along with its habitats. Hormozgan province, in southern part of Iran, is one of the most important coastal regions with a wide range of extensive economic activities and diverse ecological habitats. In this research, the evaluation of the potential sensitivity of this province and its encoded habitats has been studied. Six perturbations were also assessed, according to their distance from each encoded habitat. All the above considerations were measured in a hexagonal network with the use of the analytical network process for the entire study area and also the ecoregions of Hormozgan. The results show that among 39 identified habitat codes, the most perturbed was MA.GS.UT.SG.TF.MM.SH, and the last one was CE.MF.IT.AG.MM. The most potential perturbation was ‘the access roads’, and the last one was ‘oil and gas facilities’. NPGE was a virgin ecoregion with priority in conservation as representative area. In the second step, SHE was the most perturbed one that should be in the second step to be protected and recovered, and ME was in the middle. Therefore, ANP is suitable to study effects of perturbations in habitats.

Does site elevation determine the start and intensity of human impact? Pollen evidence from southern Germany

We investigated lake sediments from Großer Ursee, Landkreis Ravensburg, Allgäu, Baden-Württemberg, to explore whether human activity was delayed and less intense at higher sites compared to those in the adjacent lower area around Bodensee (Lake Constance). A 11.1 m high resolution pollen profile from the centre of the lake was analysed, which covers the late Würm and complete Holocene sequence, providing a continuous pollen record of 1,092 samples. Human and climate induced vegetation and landscape change is discussed. The history of human impact indicated in this profile at around 700 m in the western Allgäu, with a precipitation above 1,000 mm/year and with a less favourable climate is compared with human impact in adjacent lower landscapes, with a more favourable climate for agriculture such as the Bodensee region. Since the Neolithic period, differences in vegetation development between the regions were mainly caused by a varying intensity of human impact which itself was strongly influenced by climatic differences. In the lowlands with a warm and dry climate, human impact started earlier and was stronger than in less favourable areas. Finally, the regular occurrence of Trapa natans at Großer Ursee, much more frequent there than in the adjacent warmer landscape to the west, is discussed in terms of various ecological factors.

Tracing ancient animal husbandry in tropical Africa using the fossil spore assemblages of coprophilous fungi: a validation study in western Uganda

Fossil spores of coprophilous fungi preserved in lake and bog sediments are well-established palaeoecological tracers for the local history of pastoralism and other animal husbandry. However, applications in Africa are limited by the lack of information on the exact relationship between human activity and fungi growing on large-herbivore dung. Here we use 25 small crater-lake basins in western Uganda, which cover the complete regional gradient of natural vegetation and human impact intensity, as a natural laboratory to assess the relationship between coprophilous fungal spores recovered from recently deposited bottom sediments and the presence and abundance of large domestic herbivores in the surrounding crater basins. We find that the summed abundances of Sporormiella, Sordaria, Podospora and Delitschia, or of these four types plus Cercophora, are the most useful and robust fungal-spore indicators for the presence of domestic large herbivores in an East African context. Chaetomium could also be added to this list, particularly as it may help reduce stochasticity in the often low fossil counts of obligate coprophilous types. Our results suggest that domestic large herbivores, at least when associated with some degree of crop agriculture, leave a clearer signature on fungal-spore assemblages in the lakes’ sediments than large wildlife. Furthermore, they indicate that the typically small number of livestock kept by mixed-subsistence farmers leave a stronger imprint on fungal-spore assemblages than the much larger herds of specialist pastoralists occasionally visiting the lake to drink or bathe.

Land Use and Landscape Pattern Changes on the Inside and Outside of Protected Areas in Urbanizing Selangor State, Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract Unabated land use changes in developing countries have imperilled the urban ecosystem resilience. An urban protected area is one of the critical systems to absorb disturbance regimes in the metropolitan area, but it is increasingly pressured by urbanization. Therefore, assessing their land use and landscape pattern changes are pivotal to identify the conservation capacity. We developed land use maps for Klang Gate, Bukit Kutu, and Sungai Dusun wildlife reserves to assess their spatial and temporal land use changes between 1988 and 2012. The degree of fragmentation, the intensity of human impact and structural connectedness for these wildlife reserves were also quantified. The findings revealed that Klang Gate which located adjacent to the highly urbanizing area experienced a very significant loss of forest while built-up area and commercial agriculture gradually encroached into the reserve. It also has a higher degree of fragmentation and human impact than the other two reserves. Human impact inside of Klang Gate was concomitant to the outside. However, Bukit Kutu almost undisturbed and Sungai Dusun was slightly intruded by commercial agriculture. The results help different stakeholders, such as managing authorities and policy planners to strategize new land use planning that utilize limited land-based resources for future economic and social development. As the findings showed that urban protected areas alone are not sufficient in maintaining the urban ecosystem; therefore new conservation planning that integrates other urban green spaces at their surrounding is critical to ameliorating the conservation on a long-term basis.

Phosphorus fractions and speciation in rural and urban calcareous soils in the semiarid region of Sulaimani city, Kurdistan, Iraq

The phosphorus (P) status of soils depends, among other influencing factors such as soil properties, on P content and availability. These vary with the P distribution among species of different mobility and chemical behavior. The P distribution, in turn, depends on the parent rock material and pedoclimate, and may differ between land uses. This study assesses the impact of urbanization on P contents, fractions and speciation in rural versus urban soils in the region of Sulaimani city, Iraq. Topsoil samples from calcareous soils experiencing different human impact intensity were taken in and around Sulaimani city, spanning rural soils from near-natural grassland, riverbanks and arable land, and urban soils from city parks, roadsides and industrial areas. Changes in P status and speciation were determined by combining P fractionation through sequential chemical extraction and P K-edge XANES spectroscopy. The sequence of P contents in the different fractions was (percentage of total P extracted): citrate bicarbonate-P (0.9%) < NaOH-P (1.7%) < NaHCO3-P (2.6%) ≤ citrate bicarbonate dithionate-P (3.8%) < residual P (36.2%) < HCl-P (54.8%). The dominance of stable Ca-phosphates (HCl-P) in all samples is typical for calcareous soils. The P distribution among fractions differed considerably in rural versus urban soils. Poor correlations of P fractions in urban soils with other soil parameters indicated that the P forms and contents were severely altered by human impact. P XANES analyses revealed that P speciation was dominated by P associated with Ca, especially in the urban area, and that irrigated arable land use increased the portions of P associated with pedogenic oxides. Soils of the semiarid regions in and around Sulaimani city exhibit a pattern of P fractions and species typical for calcareous soils. This pattern is clearly altered by human impacts such as agricultural land use and especially urban activities. It is concluded that the P inputs and turnover in urban soils are substantially decoupled from natural processes.