Landscape Cover Research Articles

Geoecological assessment of oil-contaminated landscapes of the Republic of Bashkortostan

This article focuses on the geoecological assessment of territories affected by oil spills in the Republic of Bashkortostan from 2017 to 2023. The authors identify the main causes and negative consequences of such incidents, including technical failures, non-compliance with safety regulations, and human factors. The study includes an analysis of statistical data characterizing the number and types of spills by year and administrative regions, which highlights the most vulnerable areas, such as Tuymazinsky and Ufimsky districts, as well as the cities of Ufa and Oktyabrsky. Special attention is given to the impact of spills on soil and landscape cover. The authors note significant changes in the morphological, physicochemical, and microbiological properties of soils, leading to ecosystem degradation. An analysis of soil types and landscapes shows that oil spills most frequently occur on leached and dark gray soils, as well as on elevated and undulating plains. The article emphasizes the importance of comprehensive geoecological assessments for planning the region's sustainable development and developing effective measures to prevent such incidents in the future. The authors provide recommendations for improving safety and monitoring measures, as well as the need to implement modern technologies for cleaning contaminated areas. In conclusion, the study underscores the necessity of continuous monitoring and assessment of environmental conditions to minimize the risk of ecological disasters and ensure public safety.

Evaluation of Changes in Land Use and Their Influence on Ecological Stability of a Selected Area of the Dolný Spiš Region (Slovakia)

In this study, the landscape and ecological stability of the Dolný Spiš region are investigated, focusing on human-induced changes and land use patterns. The purpose is to assess the impact of industrial, agricultural, and social activities on the landscape structure, using current and historical data. Field mapping and data from the DATAcube (Database of the Slovak Statistical Office) and CORINE Land Cover databases (Landscape cover layer for the whole territory of Europe) were used to evaluate land use, with ecological stability measured through the coefficient of ecological stability (CES). Three methodologies—Míchal, Löw, and Miklós—were applied and adjusted for local conditions. The study area, predominantly covered by forests (over 80%), was classified as highly stable based on CES values, with forested areas contributing significantly to this classification. Additionally, the non-forested areas were analyzed to assess the full scope of anthropic influence, revealing low-intensity human activity, as indicated by the coefficient of anthropic influence (CAI), ranging from 0 to 0.45. The results demonstrate that the landscape’s ability to resist disruptive elements is strong, particularly in forested regions. Overall, in this study, the critical role of forests is highlighted in maintaining the ecological stability in the region and suggests that the landscape structure remains resilient despite ongoing changes in agricultural land use.

Ionic composition of snow cover on the territory of Siberia and the Far East

Long-term (from 2007 to 2022) observations of the dynamics of acidity, mineralization and ionic composition of snow cover in remote mountainous and lowland landscapes of Northern Asia were carried out. As a result, spatiotemporal changes in the molar concentration of basic (Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3-, Cl- and SO42-) and nitrogen-containing (NH4+, NO3- and NO2-) ions were analyzed. It turned out that during the entire observation period, bicarbonate ions prevailed in all monitoring regions, even near the sea coasts, where there is an intensive intake of sulfate and chloride ions into the atmosphere. Until 2012, the molar concentration of these three anions was characterized by higher values, which decreased 3–8 times in subsequent years, this is especially noticeable for bicarbonate ions and to a lesser extent for chloride ions. The molar concentration of nitrogen-containing ions in the snow cover of Northern Asia was at a low level (especially nitrite ions). Ammonium ions were predominant throughout the observation period (especially in mountainous landscapes) and only in some years – nitrate ions.

Predicting Fractional Shrub Cover in Heterogeneous Mediterranean Landscapes Using Machine Learning and Sentinel-2 Imagery

Wildfires pose a growing threat to Mediterranean ecosystems. This study employs advanced classification techniques for shrub fractional cover mapping from satellite imagery in a fire-prone landscape in Quinta da França (QF), Portugal. The study area is characterized by fine-grained heterogeneous land cover and a Mediterranean climate. In this type of landscape, shrub encroachment after land abandonment and wildfires constitutes a threat to ecosystem resilience—in particular, by increasing the susceptibility to more frequent and large fires. High-resolution mapping of shrub cover is, therefore, an important contribution to landscape management for fire prevention. Here, a 20 cm resolution land cover map was used to label 10 m Sentinel-2 pixels according to their shrub cover percentage (three categories: 0%, >0%–50%, and >50%) for training and testing. Three distinct algorithms, namely Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), and Random Forest (RF), were tested for this purpose. RF excelled, achieving the highest precision (82%–88%), recall (77%–92%), and F1 score (83%–88%) across all categories (test and validation sets) compared to SVM and ANN, demonstrating its superior ability to accurately predict shrub fractional cover. Analysis of confusion matrices revealed RF’s superior ability to accurately predict shrub fractional cover (higher true positives) with fewer misclassifications (lower false positives and false negatives). McNemar’s test indicated statistically significant differences (p value < 0.05) between all models, consolidating RF’s dominance. The development of shrub fractional cover maps and derived map products is anticipated to leverage key information to support landscape management, such as for the assessment of fire hazard and the more effective planning of preventive actions.

Effect of local habitat and landscape attributes on bird communities in shade coffee plantations in the Colombian Andes

Agroforestry is increasingly promoted to support biodiversity conservation by increasing tree cover in agricultural landscapes, but the extent to which landscape context affects how benefits accrue remains uncertain. We used shade-coffee systems to ask how the proximity and extent of forest and forest-agriculture mosaic in the landscape influenced bird communities in 160 coffee plantations that differed in coffee plant density and shade tree richness and abundance in two departments of Colombia with differing regional forest cover. Our findings suggest that regional forest cover and landscape conditions can mediate the response of birds to local habitats on plantations. Avian richness and community completeness was positively related to the amount of forest-agriculture mosaic within landscapes surrounding coffee plantations only within the comparatively forested department of Antioquia (mean 32 % regional forest cover), particularly where plantations had high richness and abundance of trees. In the largely deforested department of Cauca (mean 1 %), neither distance to forest nor cover by forest-agriculture mosaics explained avian richness and community completeness, both of which were positively related only to local tree richness and abundance. We show that biodiversity benefits from increasing habitat quality at local and landscape scales, and habitat quality within plantations becomes increasingly influential as the amount of habitat in the broader landscape declines. Our results emphasize the role of landscape context in conservation planning to promote biodiversity in coffee-growing regions.

Cattle exclusion increases encounters of wild herbivores in Neotropical forests

Abstract Ongoing habitat loss and species extinctions require managers to implement and quantify the effectiveness of conservation actions for protecting biodiversity. Fencing, when done properly, is an important management tool for conservation in landscapes where wildlife and domestic animals co‐occur, potentially enhancing habitat use through selective exclusion of domestic species. For instance, the fencing of forest patches in the Neotropics is expected to reduce the degradation of understory vegetation by cattle, releasing these resources for the native community of browsers and fruit consumers. Here, we implemented an ecological experiment using a before‐after control‐impact design to quantify the effect of cattle exclusion on encounter probability of the native community of browsers and fruit consumers, and percent ground cover in multifunctional landscapes of the Colombian Orinoquía. We built 14 km of wildlife‐permeable fences along forest edges in four forest patches (i.e. blocks) containing control and fenced (treatment) sites. We installed 33 camera traps to obtain information about wildlife and cattle encounter probabilities, before and after the fences were constructed. We used Bayesian generalised linear mixed effects models to quantify the effect of fences via the interaction between the time period (before and after the fences were built) and treatment (control or fenced sites). Fencing was effective at reducing encounter probabilities of cattle in the treated sites, and it had a positive impact on relative encounter probabilities of four of seven studied wildlife species (herbivores including the black agouti [dry season only], lowland tapir [dry season only] and spotted paca [both seasons] and an omnivore, the South American coati [rainy season only]). The effect of fencing was negative for the collared peccary but only during the dry season. No statistically significant effect was detected for the white‐lipped peccary or white‐tailed deer. Synthesis and applications: We provide experimental evidence that fences are effective at selectively excluding cattle and increasing encounter rates of wild browsers and fruit consumers in forest patches where these species co‐occur with cattle. Our results highlight an important application of fencing ecology in Neotropical forests, where the implementation of wildlife‐permeable fences is feasible due to smaller body sizes of wildlife compared to domestic animals such as cattle.

A living inventory of planted trees in South Africa derived from iNaturalist

Trees have a multifaceted influence on ecosystems globally. Treescapes have been manipulated by humans over millennia for ecological, economic, and cultural reasons that have changed over time and continue to change. In South Africa tree planting over three centuries has radically affected the composition of treescapes, contributing important ecosystem services, but also disservices. Rapid global change calls for diverse interventions to create more resilient ecosystems. Many nature-based solutions involve manipulating tree cover in rural and urban landscapes. There is a need for a spatially-explicit database of planted trees in South Africa to serve as the foundation for policy and management decisions.We used the community science platform iNaturalist to create a comprehensive database of planted trees in South Africa. Records were carefully checked to verify the accuracy of taxon identifications, locality data, and categorization as planted rather than wild-growing trees.The cleaned database contained 35,303 records of 805 planted tree taxa; over 90 % of records were identified to species level. Almost a third of taxa (32.2 %) belong to three families: Fabaceae (97 taxa), Myrtaceae (80 taxa) and Arecaceae (78 taxa). Rarefaction and extrapolation curves suggest fairly comprehensive sampling, but several regions are under-sampled. Non-native taxa dominate, with Melaleuca viminalis having the most records. The Western Cape has the highest number of records and taxa, particularly in urban areas. Both native and non-native trees provide key ecosystem services, but non-natives dominate.The database provides the first spatially-explicit open-access resource for guiding decisions on tree planting and the management of planted trees in South Africa. It offers a snapshot of tree planting trends, predominantly from recent years, leading to some underrepresentation of historically planted species. The database has numerous potential uses, including guiding management of trees pests and diseases, urban greening initiatives, monitoring for new invasions, and planning nature-based solutions.

Moths respond to key habitat structures in conifer plantations managed as irregular high forest

Conifer plantations need to deliver greater multi-functionality beyond the production of timber. This includes the support of biodiversity and associated ecosystem functioning. Forest managers are increasingly adopting novel, more sustainable forest management techniques such as irregular silviculture, a type of continuous cover forestry, to manage plantations, in response to climate change. This may confer benefits to important elements of woodland biodiversity such as moths, by creating plantations that have diverse vertical structure and a permanent canopy (called irregular high forest). In this study at two estates in south-west Britain we specifically tested whether moth species richness and abundance (at the guild and overall level) were associated with (1) surrounding land cover types and (2) habitat structures within stands undergoing transformation using irregular silviculture. A total of 268 species of 11,582 individuals were recorded. Moths responded to all four landscape cover types, negatively to arable and conifer woodland, positively for broadleaf woodland, and both positively and negatively for improved grassland. Moth richness and abundance had a positive association with basal area (albeit below standard even aged stocking rates with most plots around 40–45 m2ha) and a weak positive association with higher vertical structural complexity (indicated by a more developed understorey and sub-canopy layers). Moth abundance had a moderate positive association with broadleaf canopy where we recommend plantations should have at least 10–15 % broadleaf canopy cover. Moth richness and abundance were negatively associated to mean tree diameter and canopy openness. Many of these features are more prevalent in stands further progressed towards irregular high forest. We show how moth communities can be maintained via more sustainable forestry management techniques that increase overall habitat and structural complexity.

Assessment of environmental impact of road construction based on results of remote sensing monitoring

Remote sensing detected the impact of road construction on important environmental properties. The digital elevation model was applied to assess the impact of road construction on environmental regimes. The study focused on the total area of the 3-km zone of influence (monitoring zone of probable impact) around the national road H-31 Dnipro-Tsarychanka-Kobeliaky-Reshetylivka from Loboikivka village to the boundary of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The following derivatives of the digital elevation model are considered as geomorpho­logical variables: the topographic wetness index (TWI) and erosion factor (LS). To model the effect of road construction on the moisture regime and dynamics of erosion processes, the TWI and LS indices were calculated for a digital terrain model without a road and with a road with an elevation that corresponds to the planned level. Thus, the road is considered as an anthropogenic landform that changes the direction of water redistribution along the topography and thus affects the potential moisture conditions and erosion risks. The modeling results indicate that the transformation of the water regime will be observed within the entire 3-km monitoring area. Deviations from the normal value can be up to 7 units by module, which is about one third of the landscape-wide range of topographic moisture index values. Almost no impact of construction can be predicted for 80.7% of the territory. For 10.6% of the territory, the increase in moisture regime will be moderate, and for 3.2% of the area the increase will be very significant. In turn, for 4.3% of the area the decrease in humidification will be moderate, and for 1.2% the decrease will be very significant. The greatest impact on the redistribution of moisture conditions is predicted in the immediate vicinity of the road. Changes in the moisture regime can have significant negative consequences for both soil cover and biotic components of ecosystems. Changes in vegetation as a consequence of changes in both moisture and trophic conditions can be considered as possible scenarios for the development of landscape cover dynamics.

Rapid land cover change in agricultural valleys of the Atacama Desert, Chile

The profound landscape modification produced by agriculture is considered one of the main threats to biodiversity worldwide. Although the main ecological impacts are likely due to agricultural expansion into natural areas, changes in crop types and production intensification also induce significant ecological changes. We studied the land cover change process in four agricultural valleys (Lluta, Azapa, Vítor and Camarones) in the Atacama Desert of Chile between 2003 and 2019, divided into four equal periods. Using spatial data and logistic regression, we assessed the driving factors of land cover change. The Azapa valley showed the highest rate of land cover change, reaching 36.4% of netting and greenhouses landscape cover by the end of the study, and 50.4% annual rate of increase during the 2007–2011 period. Intensification was observed as the anti-aphid netting cover expanded mainly in Azapa and in the last four years in Vítor and Lluta valleys. Most land cover change was related to low slopes and elevation or sites closer to roads or surrounded by already cultivated land, like agriculture expansion on barren soil or native shrubland loss. High population density was significantly correlated with land cover change (p < 0.01). If land cover change into netting continues as observed, it is possible that landscape homogenization occurs in the short term in almost all valleys. Anyway, disentangling how landscape change works and the involved drivers, could be useful to understand landscape simplification in arid lands that are under an agricultural intensification process.

Ten years of directing seeding restoration in the Brazilian savanna: Lessons learned and the way forward

Savannas and grasslands have lost almost 50% of their original cover worldwide. Therefore, the development of methods and information on open-canopy ecosystem restoration is urgent for the inclusion of these ecosystems into global and regional priorities. In the Brazilian savanna, the most diverse savanna in the world, restoration efforts focused on open ecosystems have been virtually absent, but have increased in the last 10 years. Such efforts are frequently threatened by invasive exotic grasses (IEG) that invade and dominate areas excluding native species, oftentimes aided by altered soil conditions. Long-term studies of savanna restoration trajectories are rare. In this study, we surveyed 22 savanna restoration areas established two to ten years before the study with similar restoration methods to assess their current status. We show that the current restoration methods are successful in establishing native species and allowing species turnover but they are threatened by IEG. Restoration success varies and is affected by soil conditions, IEG landscape cover and post-sowing weeding. Despite that, the simultaneous introduction of different plant functional groups allows turnover from fast to slow-growing plants. Establishing savanna native species is possible at an operational scale with current knowledge and techniques. However, native species establishment fails to prevent IEG reinfestation, which needs to be managed in restoration efforts in the Brazilian savanna.

Urban Matrices Threaten Patch Occurrence of Howler Monkeys in Anthropogenic Landscapes

Habitat modification due to human activities threatens species survival. While some species can inhabit habitat patches in anthropogenic landscapes, their occurrence often depends on landscape structure. We assessed the effects of landscape structure on brown howler monkey (Alouatta guariba clamitans) occurrence in an urban scenario. We conducted censuses in 59 forest patches from 2014 to 2016 in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. We evaluated patch occurrence (presence/absence) in response to landscape composition (forest cover, arboreal crops, urban areas, open areas, and water) and configuration (patch density), considering the scale of effect. Water, urban, and open areas were the most important predictors of howler presence. Their presence was notably higher in landscapes with more water, likely because these landscapes consist of rural areas with low urbanization, less farming, and relatively high forest cover. Presence of howlers was positively associated with forest cover and negatively related to urban areas, open areas, and arboreal crops. Resource scarcity and increased mortality risks from human pressures, such as domestic dog attacks, electrocution, and roadkill on these land covers may explain these relationships. We highlight the importance of conserving and increasing forest cover in anthropogenic landscapes to protect species reliant on forested habitats, like howler monkeys.

Spatial pattern of urban forest diversity and its potential drivers in a snow climate city, Northeast China

Urban forest diversity is the cornerstone of providing ecosystem services and improving urban environment. However, the spatial pattern of urban forest (UF) diversity and its driving mechanisms are still not well understood. In our study, using 330 UF sample plots and the corresponding plot-based standard deviation values of remote sensing parameters with different spatial resolutions, we developed prediction models for the spatial pattern of UF diversity, and the driving factors of UF diversity were further explored in our study. Our findings indicated that the 3-m spatial resolution of remote sensing was optimal for predicting UF diversity. Both excessively high and excessively low resolutions can increase misclassification errors. In addition, among the three prediction models, the boosted regression trees (BRT) model exhibited greater robustness than the support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) models for predicting UF diversity. UF species were abundant, with 112 tree species in Changchun City. Spatially, the UF diversity showed a significant gradient decreasing trend from suburban areas (outer rings) to downtown areas. We also observed higher diversity in the older communities with high housing prices, supporting the “legacy effect and luxury effect”. Additionally, our research revealed that socioeconomic factors, landscape cover, and patterns collectively explained 41.25% of the UF diversity variation, wherein socioeconomic factors contributed the most variation (17.33%). We further found that UF diversity does not increase more with increasing house prices when the house prices are higher than ¥ 12,000/m2. The higher patch density reduced UF diversity, while a higher UF landscape shape index (LSI) promoted diversity. The LSI threshold, which significantly impacted UF diversity, was about 12. Our research showed that high-resolution remote sensing offers a rapid, cost-effective approach to acquire UF diversity patterns, which could enhance urban forest diversity and contribute to sustainable urban development.

Habitat loss reduces abundance and body size of forest-dwelling dung beetles in an Amazonian urban landscape

The loss of forest cover in urban landscapes alters the dynamics of spatial and food resources, challenging the maintenance of forest species, which may have their condition compromised. Dung beetles are sensitive to changes in vegetation structure and land use caused by human activities, processes that are intrinsically related to the establishment and development of cities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of landscape structure on the abundance and morphological characteristics of two species of dung beetle (Dichotomius boreus and Dichotomius quadrilobatus) that inhabit forested areas in urbanized landscapes in the Amazon region. We carried out the study in 38 landscapes located in six urban regions in the central region of the Amazon. We evaluated the effect of landscape structure, at the site and city scales, on beetle abundance, individual body size, and relative horn length of males. At the local scale, landscapes with greater forest cover showed greater abundance of dung beetles, as well as greater lengths of D. boreus horns. Cities with a greater amount of forest cover had larger individuals than those with less forest cover. We conclude that forested areas in urban landscapes are a key habitat for the maintenance of dung beetle populations with a strong relationship between the amount of forest cover in the landscape. The maintenance of healthy and abundant populations of beetles in urban Amazonian landscapes guarantees the persistence of ecosystem services provided by these organisms in urban ecosystems.

Research on Urban Garden Landscape Planning and Construction Based on Ecological Concepts

Abstract As an important part of urban ecology, the planning and construction of ecological landscape gardens is an effective way to improve the quality of urban life. The biodiversity of urban gardens is measured using species diversity indicators such as species richness, Simpson, Shan-Wiener, and Pielou evenness in this paper. The landscape single dynamic attitude, landscape comprehensive dynamic attitude and landscape patch transfer matrix were selected to construct a landscape dynamic change model, and the six urban areas of H city were used as the research object to analyze the landscape pattern of vegetation cover in urban gardens and landscapes. The results showed that among the area indexes on the landscape level in the study area of H city from 2018 to 2022, the maximum patch index, patch density and edge density indexes increased year by year, with an increase of 0.24, 3.42 m*hm−2, and 0.21 hm−2, respectively, in five years. Among the aggregation indexes, the effective particle size index showed an increasing trend, with an increase of 4301.3ha2 in 2022 compared with that in 2018, and the aggregation index showed a gradual decreasing trend, with a decrease of 0.4 in 2022 compared to 2018. By analyzing the landscape pattern, the changes in the landscape pattern can be described, and then the internal mechanism affecting the landscape pattern can be determined, which is of significant significance for the study of urban garden landscape planning and construction.

Greenspace and Land Cover Diversity During Pregnancy in a Rural Region, and Associations With Birth Outcomes.

Beneficial effects on health outcomes have been observed from exposure to spaces with substantial green vegetation ("greenspace"). This includes studies of greenspace exposure on birth outcomes; however, these have been conducted largely in urban regions. We characterized residential exposure to greenspace and land cover diversity during pregnancy in rural northern New England, USA, investigating whether variation in greenspace or diversity related to newborn outcomes. Five landscape variables (greenspace land cover, land cover diversity, impervious surface area, tree canopy cover, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) were aggregated within six circular zones of radii from 100 to 3,000m around residential addresses, and distance to conservation land was measured, providing a total of 31 greenspace and diversity metrics. Four birth outcomes along with potentially confounding variables were obtained from 1,440 participants in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study. Higher greenspace land cover up to 3,000m was associated with larger newborn head circumference, while impervious surface area (non-greenspace) had the opposite association. Further, birth length was positively associated with land cover diversity. These findings support beneficial health impacts of greenspace exposure observed in urban regions for certain health outcomes, such as newborn head circumference and length but not others such as birthweight and gestational age. Further our results indicate that larger radius buffer zones may be needed to characterize the rural landscape. Vegetation indices may not be interchangeable with other greenspace metrics such as land cover and impervious surface area in rural landscapes.

Identifying and managing disturbance-stimulated flammability in woody ecosystems.

Many forest types globally have been subject to an increase in the frequency of, and area burnt by, high-severity wildfire. Here we explore the role that previous disturbance has played in increasing the extent and severity of subsequent forest fires. We summarise evidence documenting and explaining the mechanisms underpinning a pulse of flammability that may follow disturbances such as fire, logging, clearing or windthrow (a process we term disturbance-stimulated flammability). Disturbance sometimes initiates a short initial period of low flammability, but then drives an extended period of increased flammability as vegetation regrows. Our analysis initially focuses on well-documented cases in Australia, but we also discuss where these pattens may apply elsewhere, including in the Northern Hemisphere. We outline the mechanisms by which disturbance drives flammability through disrupting the ecological controls that limit it in undisturbed forests. We then develop and test a conceptual model to aid prediction of woody vegetation communities where such patterns of disturbance-stimulated flammability may occur. We discuss the interaction of ecological controls with climate change, which is driving larger and more severe fires. We also explore the current state of knowledge around the point where disturbed, fire-prone stands are sufficiently widespread in landscapes that they may promote spatial contagion of high-severity wildfire that overwhelms any reduction in fire spread offered by less-flammable stands. We discuss how land managers might deal with the major challenges that changes in landscape cover and altered fire regimes may have created. This is especially pertinent in landscapes now dominated by extensive areas of young forest regenerating after logging, regrowing following broadscale fire including prescribed burning, or regenerating following agricultural land abandonment. Where disturbance is found to stimulate flammability, then key management actions should consider the long-term benefits of: (i) limiting disturbance-based management like logging or burning that creates young forests and triggers understorey development; (ii) protecting young forests from disturbances and assisting them to transition to an older, less-flammable state; and (iii) reinforcing the fire-inhibitory properties of older, less-flammable stands through methods for rapid fire detection and suppression.

Multispectral Remote Sensing Data Application in Modelling Non-Extensive Tsallis Thermodynamics for Mountain Forests in Northern Mongolia.

The imminent threat of Mongolian montane forests facing extinction due to climate change emphasizes the pressing need to study these ecosystems for sustainable development. Leveraging multispectral remote sensing data from Landsat 8 OLI TIRS (2013-2021), we apply Tsallis non-extensive thermodynamics to assess spatiotemporal fluctuations in the absorbed solar energy budget (exergy, bound energy, internal energy increment) and organizational parameters (entropy, information increment, q-index) within the mountain taiga-meadow landscape. Using the principal component method, we discern three functional subsystems: evapotranspiration, heat dissipation, and a structural-informational component linked to bioproductivity. The interplay among these subsystems delineates distinct landscape cover states. By categorizing ecosystems (pixels) based on these processes, discrete states and transitional areas (boundaries and potential disturbances) emerge. Examining the temporal dynamics of ecosystems (pixels) within this three-dimensional coordinate space facilitates predictions of future landscape states. Our findings indicate that northern Mongolian montane forests utilize a smaller proportion of received energy for productivity compared to alpine meadows, which results in their heightened vulnerability to climate change. This approach deepens our understanding of ecosystem functioning and landscape dynamics, serving as a basis for evaluating their resilience amid ongoing climate challenges.

Association between land use, land cover, plant genera, and pollinator abundance in mixed-use landscapes.

Pollinators are threatened by land-use and land-cover changes, with the magnitude of the threat depending on the pollinating taxa, land-use type and intensity, the amount of natural habitat remaining, and the ecosystem considered. This study aims to determine the effect of land use (protected areas, plantations, pastures), land cover (percentage of forest and open areas within buffers of different sizes), and plant genera on the relative abundance of nectivorous birds (honeyeaters), bees (native and introduced), and beetles in the mixed-use landscape of the Tasman Peninsula (Tasmania, Australia) using mixed-effect models. We found the predictor selected (through model selection based on R2) and the effect of the predictors varied depending on the pollinating taxa. The land-use predictors were selected for only the honeyeater abundance model with protected areas and plantations having substantive positive effects. Land-cover predictors were selected for the honeyeater and native bee abundance models with open land cover within 1500 m and 250 m buffers having substantive negative and positive effects on honeyeaters and native bees respectively. Bees and beetles were observed on 24 plant genera of which only native plants (and not invasive/naturalised) were positively associated with pollinating insects. Pultenaea and Leucopogon were positively associated with native bees while Leucopogon, Lissanthe, Pimelea, and Pomaderris were positively associated with introduced bees. Leptospermum was the only plant genus positively associated with beetles. Our results highlight that one size does not fit all-that is pollinator responses to different landscape characteristics vary, emphasising the importance of considering multiple habitat factors to manage and support different pollinator taxa.

Quantifying threshold and scale response of urban air and surface temperature to surrounding landscapes under extreme heat

Studies have shown that tree canopies contribute to the reduction of both air temperature (Ta) and surface temperature (Ts) in urban areas, while impervious surfaces contribute to an intensified thermal burden. However, rare studies have investigated the threshold effect of surrounding landscapes (tree canopy and impervious surface) — the specific level of landscape coverage at which its influence on temperature is most significant, with specific attention to the scale-dependency, especially under extreme heat. Here we analyzed the influence of the surrounding landscapes on Ta and Ts and their respective threshold effects across five spatial scales, with radii of 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 m. We obtained Ta through mobile measurements and Ts from data collected by the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) on three typical streets in Shanghai at dawn, noon, and sunset during extreme heat. The results indicated that: (1) For most scales of analysis, Ta at noon exhibited a decrease with the increase in tree canopy coverage and an increase with the rise in impervious surface coverage; (2) Across all scales, the thresholds of tree canopy and impervious surface coverage were in the ranges of 20%–45 % and 40%–70 % respectively; (3) For large scales of analysis (60–100 m), the threshold coverage of impervious surface that impacts Ts gradually decreased with the increase of scale. The findings of this study provide insightful implications for climate mitigation and adaption under extreme heat.