Landscape Ecology Approach Research Articles

The Historical Transformation of Peri-Urban Land Use Patterns, via Landscape GIS-Based Analysis and Landscape Metrics, in the Vesuvius Area

Peri-urban areas constitute an enormous resource in terms of natural capital, landscape heritage and economic activities, but, at the same time, they are often affected by physical and socio-economic degradation, drawing the attention of decision makers and planners. Many studies have focused on these contexts both in terms of suburbs, with a close dependence on urban centers, and new land typologies. The present paper focuses on documentary evidence of the direct impacts of urban growth on rural lands. The study area entails the Vesuvius National Park, which, belonging the Naples metropolis, is well-known for its historical, geo-morphologic and naturalistic value. Furthermore, the area has a history of high-quality cartographic production: the 1817, 1907, 1960, 2009 time steps maps were digitized, georeferenced, vectorized and compared in a GIS environment. The results highlight a strong change in land-use, in vineyards and urban class types, with a more disaggregated landscape mosaic. The approach shows that the historical modeling of land-use changes supports the understanding of current land-use dynamics and landscape patterns. The study also shows the need to integrate landscape planning and landscape ecology approaches, highlighting the close interactions between urban, agricultural and natural areas, for the purpose of supporting decision makers in land-use management and conservation policies.

Application of Landscape-Ecological Approach for Greenways Planning in Rural Agricultural Landscape

This article presents an innovative approach to the concept of facilitating greenways into sustainable landscape planning. The greenways can be planned by application of a landscape-ecological concept, including analysis and synthesis of selected abiotic, biotic, and socio-economic landscape-ecological factors and recreation conditions, and by reviewing the current landscape structure and condition of linear components of green infrastructure. Determining the landscape ecological stability, visual impact of agricultural lands, potential erosion risks and real erosion processes, and identifying the natural, cultural, and historical values in the landscape, contributes to the design of ideal greenways placement and other linear components of green infrastructure. Applying these proposals to the agricultural landscape would increase the ecological stability and connectivity, decrease soil and water erosion risks, eliminate visual impact, and develop recreational infrastructure. In this way, greenways planning brings about a synergy between sustainable rural development, landscape and nature protection, and landscape aesthetics, which provides optimal landscape utilization and may encourage tourism and economic prosperity in the study area. Finally, in addition to the researched ecological benefits, our greenways proposal represents an alternative connection of settlements in rural agricultural landscapes, and so it can stimulate sustainable mobility and recreation as well as physical activity, health, and well-being.

Pilot Studies of the Unique Highland Palsa Mire in Western Sayan (Tuva Republic, Russian Federation)

In contrast to the well-studied West Siberian sector of frozen bogs in the Russian Arctic, the frozen mound bogs (so-called “palsas”) on the highlands of Southern Siberia have not yet been studied, but they are suspected to be even more sensitive to ongoing climate change. This article provides the pilot study on palsa mire Kara-Sug in the highland areas of Western Sayan mountain system, Tuva Republic. The study focuses on the current state of palsa mire and surrounding landscapes, providing wide range of ecological characteristics while describing ongoing transformations of natural landscapes under a changing climate. The study used a variety of field and laboratory methods: the integrated landscape-ecological approach, the study of peat deposits, geobotanical analysis, and modern analysis of the chemical composition of water, peat, and soils. The study shows that highland palsa mires are distinguished by their compactness and high variety of cryogenic landforms leading to high floristic and ecosystem diversity compared with lowland palsa mires. This information brings new insights and contributes to a better understanding of extrazonal highland palsa mires, which remain a “white spot” in the global environmental sciences.

Habitat Integrity in Protected Areas Threatened by LULC Changes and Fragmentation: A Case Study in Tehran Province, Iran

The integration and connection of habitats in protected areas (PAs) are essential for the survival of plant and animal species and attaining sustainable development. Investigating the integrity of PAs can be useful in developing connections among patches and decreasing the fragmentation of a habitat. The current study has analyzed spatial and temporal changes to habitat to quantify fragmentation and structural destruction in PAs in Tehran Province, Iran. To achieve this purpose, the trends in land use/land cover (LULC) changes and the quantitative metrics of the landscape ecology approach have been examined. The results revealed that in Lar National Park, low-density pasture has the top increasing trend with 4.2% from 1989 to 2019; in Jajrud PA, built-up has the top increasing trend with 1.5% during the studied years; and among the land uses in TangehVashi Natural Monument, bare land has the top increasing trend with 0.6% from 1989 to 2019. According to the findings, habitat fragmentation and patch numbers have expanded in the studied areas due to the development of economic and physical activities. The results also indicate that the current trend of habitat fragmentation in PAs will have the highest negative impacts, especially in decreasing habitat integrity, changing the structure of patterns and spatial elements, and increasing the edge effect of patches.

Machine learning is a powerful tool to study the effect of cancer on species and ecosystems

Abstract Cancer is an understudied but important process in wildlife. Cancerous cells are proposed to have had significant effect on the evolution of metazoan species due to their negative effect on host fitness. However, gaining knowledge on the impact of cancer on species and ecosystems is currently relatively slow as it requires expertise in both ecology and oncology. The field can greatly benefit from automation to reduce the need of excessive manpower and analyse complex ecological datasets. In this commentary, we examine how machine learning has been used to gain knowledge on oncogenic processes in wildlife. Using a landscape ecology approach, we explore spatial scales ranging from the size of a molecule up to whole ecosystems and detail, for each level, how machine learning has been used, or could contribute to obtain insights on cancer in wildlife populations and ecosystems. We illustrate how machine learning is a powerful toolbox to conduct studies at the interface of ecology and oncology. We provide guidance for the readers of both fields on how to implement machine learning tools in their research and identify directions to move the field forward using this promising technology. We demonstrate how applying machine learning to complex ecological datasets will (a) contribute to quantitating the effect of cancer at different life stages in wildlife; (b) allow the mining of long‐term datasets to understand the spatiotemporal variability of cancer risk factors and (c) contribute to mitigating cancer risk factors and the conservation of endangered species. With this study, we aim to facilitate the use of machine learning to wildlife species and to encourage discussion between the scientists of the fields of oncology and ecology. We highlight the importance of international and pluridisciplinary collaborations to collect high‐quality datasets on which efficient machine learning algorithms can be trained.

Quantifying Landscape Structure of the Kelantan River Basin Before and After a Major Flood Event Using Landscape Metrics

Over the years, flood is one of the natural hazards which occur all over the world and it is critical to be controlled through proper management. Flood in Kelantan is mainly caused by heavy rainfall brought by the Northeast monsoon starting from November to March every year. It is categorized as annual flood as it occurs every year during the Monsoon season. Severe flood events in Kelantan, Malaysia cause damage to both life and property every year and understanding landscape structure changes is very important for planners and decision makers for future land use planning and management. This research aims to quantify the landscape structure near to Kelantan River basin during the flood event using integrated approach of remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS) technique and landscape ecological approach. As a result, this study provide new knowledge on landscape structure that contributes to understand the impact of flood events and provide the best ways to mitigate flooding for helping to protect biodiversity habitat and dwellers. As conclusions, this kind of study will give more benefits to various stakeholders such as Department of Irrigation and Drainage, Department of Environment, state government, fisherman and communities.

Escaped oilseed rape: Occurrence in the agricultural landscape and potential pollen-mediated gene flow from crop oilseed rape

To assess the role of feral oilseed rape (OSR) plants as resources for pollinators and avenues for gene flow, we compared occurrence of feral populations in standardized agricultural landscapes, using a landscape ecological approach. The occurrence of feral and volunteer populations was investigated in relation to differences in road length and width, number of OSR fields, and landscape scale. The potential for pollen-mediated gene flow from crop to feral oilseed rape was investigated with fluorescent dye in a field experiment. Moreover, greenhouse estimates of pollen germination rate and pollen tube growth rate were performed to get an indication of siring success in crop and feral plants. Escaped OSR occurred in 14 out of the 16 investigated landscapes, and feral populations were more common alongside large roads than small roads in large-scale landscapes. The number of plants in a habitat ranged from 1-160 individuals, with 1-19 habitats per landscape. In the field experiment with fluorescent dye, no transfer of dye was detected during early flowering in May. At the end of the flowering period in June, transfer of dye was found in 71.4% of the feral plants, showing that significant transfer, most likely by pollinators, occurred from the field to the feral plants. There was no difference in pollen germination rate between crop and feral plants. Pollen tube growth rate was significantly higher in feral oilseed rape than in the crop (P < 0.001). Our results contribute to increased understanding of i) the utilization of feral populations by pollinators in an intensively farmed agricultural landscape, and ii) crop-feral gene flow within OSR.

Analysis of the state of the urbanized landscape of the city of Tyumen

The multifunctionality of the city makes it possible to consider it from the point of view of the urbanized landscape, giving due attention to the concept of its sustainable development. The development is based on the landscape-ecological approach, which makes it possible to analyze the natural, social, economic and urban planning subsystems of the city’s land-property complex. This approach made it possible to assess natural and anthropogenic processes, to establish the degree of degradation of the urban landscape and, based on the method of analyzing hierarchies, the results of sociocultural surveys, to develop a set of measures for the rational organization of the use and protection of urban lands [1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9-11].

农作物景观生态研究:概念框架与研究方向

针对当前农业系统中农作物景观变化迅速、人地关系趋于复杂、粮食安全保障需求迫切，提出景观生态学和农业科学交叉产生的农作物景观生态研究这一新兴研究方向。通过构建农作物景观生态研究的概念框架，辨明农业生产中复杂的景观等级结构，为农业可持续发展提供理论依据。综述从农业景观到农作物景观的研究变化，指出农作物景观具有高动态性、尺度性和格局复杂特征。针对由种植者、消费者、耕地及其周边自然环境组成的农业景观，需要遵循相应的生态和农业经济发展规律，研究农作物种植格局变化、农作物的社会-生态效应和农作物种植可持续性的景观生态途径。重点开展以下四个研究方面的内容，农作物景观时空动态及其形成机理、农作物种植的多功能评价与权衡、景观农艺管理措施及情景模拟、可持续的农作物景观生态评价。从而构建"格局-过程-服务-管理-可持续性"的农作物景观生态研究范式，为农业可持续发展提供综合的空间分析与管理途径，为实现农业农村现代化与城乡人类福祉提升提供科学支撑。;In view of rapid crop change in agricultural system, we develop a conceptual framework of cropping landscape ecology to solve the complex interaction between human and agricultural land system, and maintain the urgently demand for food security. Frist, we analyze the hierarchical cropping landscape of agricultural system and spatial mechanism of human-land interaction, which may provide theoretical basis for agricultural sustainable development. The hierarchical level of cropping landscape can be divided into five levels. It is agricultural region, agricultural landscape, agri-ecosystem, farmland patches, and crops, which corresponding to landscape pattern, ecological process, ecosystem services, agricultural management policy and scale. We also summarize the difference between agricultural landscape and cropping landscape, and figure out that cropping landscape has the characteristics of high dynamic and complex pattern in different scales. Then, we design the framework of cropping landscape ecology research, which needs to consider the different agents of famer, consumers, cultivated land and its surroundings. It is suggested to follow the corresponding principles of landscape ecology and agricultural development. The framework can be composed by three parts, the cropping landscape pattern, the social-ecological effect of cropping pattern changes and the landscape ecological approach of agricultural sustainability. Cropping landscape pattern research describes the spatiotemporal pattern and driving mechanism of crop types change, identifies the key socio-economic factors, and understands the relationship between crop pattern and process. The social-ecological effect of crops includes its ecological process, resource environmental effect and crop diversity effect. Based on the scientific paradigm of landscape ecology, the sustainable cropping landscape regulation can be assigned in cropping landscape pattern-ecological process-ecosystem services-crop management-crop system sustainability. Moreover, four aspects are figure out future research, namely spatiotemporal dynamics of cropping landscape and its driving forces, multi-functional agricultural landscape, landscape agronomic management, and agricultural sustainability evaluation approaches. The crop pattern is the premise of relevant research. The multi-functional assessment and trade-off of cropping system are the basis to guide the policy of crop diversity and landscape agronomy management. Landscape agronomy and scenario simulation are the basis for policy makers and farmers to change copping pattern and function. The sustainable assessment is based on the cropping pattern, process and ecosystem service to formulate the approach and design to evaluate the agricultural sustainability. In general, this study tries to design a sustainable landscape approach to serve the regulation of crop pattern. Cropping landscape ecology can be constructed to provide a comprehensive analysis and management approaches for agricultural sustainable development, and provide scientific foundation to achieve the agricultural and rural modernization and the improvement of human well-being.

Assessment of Landscape Retention Water Capacity and Hydrological Balance in Traditional Agricultural Landscape (Model Area Liptovská Teplička Settlements, Slovakia)

The hydration potential of a landscape is an increasingly important attribute in a time of advancing climate change, making its assessment also a matter of some urgency. This study used the landscape ecological approach involving the hydrological balance, in which the soil water retention capacity (SWRC) and landscape water retention capacity (LWRC) are evaluated. To support our assessment of the water retention capacity in the landscape (LWRC), we used a synthetic interconnection of analytical vector layers of selected physical parameters of soil subtypes and secondary landscape structure (SLS) to create homogeneous polygons in the GIS Arc/Map10 computing environment. Selected abiotic and biotic attributes were assigned coefficients using a simple algorithm according to the authors, which were projected into landscape ecological complexes (LEC) in the GIS computer program in the Arc/Map10 program. We used hydrological balance calculations to specify the volumes of water retained in the landscape. The aim is to spatially estimate the retention capacity of the landscape, taking into account the current land use, including historical anti-erosion measures to reduce unwanted water runoff and soil erosion. Using zonal statistics, we achieved the following results. The part of the model area with very low or low LWCR represents 39.91% of the agricultural land used. We recorded a high LWCR on 17.69% of the area, with a predominance of meadows and cultizol cambis and cultizol fluvials. The calculation of the hydrological balance, which represents only 22.9% of atmospheric precipitation, also made a significant contribution to our knowledge of the LWRC.

Old tricks-new opportunities: combining telemetry ellipses and landscape metrics to assess habitat spatial structure

Confidence ellipses are areas derived from telemetry data that can be used to assess daily habitat use when integrated with land cover spatial structure. Our goal was to assess the feasibility of using confidence ellipses derived from telemetry data to assess landscape structure. Our objectives were (1) to identify the geometry of confidence ellipses that can be used in landscape level studies; and (2) to quantify landscape structure within confidence ellipses derived from telemetry data. We used Rio Grande wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) as our model species. We simulated landscapes and clipped them using known confidence ellipse shapes. We then compared the clipped areas with values measured for our simulated landscapes using landscape metrics that describe landscape structure. We used these results to select ellipse derived from telemetry data to evaluate landscape structure used by wild turkeys during the breeding and wintering seasons in South Texas. Ellipses with a low x/y ratio (< 0.38) had significant differences from simulated landscape measurements. This information was used to remove wild turkey ellipses that did not meet the simulation criteria. Our results suggest that wild turkeys in South Texas used larger, more aggregated and interconnected patches of woody cover during the wintering season than during the breeding season. Landscape simulations facilitate the understanding of how landscape sampling strategies may be affected by sampling shape models. The integration of wildlife telemetry data with landscape ecology approaches and remote sensing were important in identifying spatial patterns used by wildlife.

Ecological and geographical studies of agricultural nature management

The article describes the concept of rational environmental management, existing approaches to identification of its main types, criteria for classifying natural resources in modern environmental science. The priority direction and means of preventing the environmentally crisis is recognized as a landscape-ecological approach. The role of an ecological-geographical analysis of agricultural nature management and environmental protection was described, the main goal of geographical research of its components was identified. An analysis of natural and social laws, and their interaction was carried out. The role of regional laws and features of interconnections in the development of nature, economy and population aimed at ensuring environment and resource-reproducing functions was described.

Genotyping-by-sequencing reveals the effects of riverscape, climate and interspecific introgression on the genetic diversity and local adaptation of the endangered Mexican golden trout (Oncorhynchus chrysogaster)

How environmental and anthropogenic factors influence genetic variation and local adaptation is a central issue in evolutionary biology. The Mexican golden trout (Oncorhynchus chrysogaster), one of the southernmost native salmonid species in the world, is susceptible to climate change, habitat perturbations and the competition and hybridization with exotic rainbow trout (O. mykiss). The present study aimed for the first time to use genotyping-by-sequencing to explore the effect of genetic hybridization with O. mykiss and of riverscape and climatic variables on the genetic variation among O. chrysogaster populations. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) was applied to generate 9767 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), genotyping 272 O. chrysogaster and O. mykiss. Population genomics analyses were combined with landscape ecology approaches into a riverine context (riverscape genetics). The clustering analyses detected seven different genetic groups (six for O. chrysogater and one for aquaculture O. mykiss) and a small amount of admixture between aquaculture and native trout with only two native genetic clusters showing exotic introgression. Latitude and precipitation of the driest month had a significant negative effect on genetic diversity and evidence of isolation by river resistance was detected, suggesting that the landscape heterogeneity was preventing trout dispersal, both for native and exotic individuals. Moreover, several outlier SNPs were identified as potentially implicated in local adaptation to local hydroclimatic variables. Overall, this study suggests that O. chrysogater may require conservation planning given (i) exotic introgression from O. mykiss locally threatening O. chrysogater genetic integrity, and (ii) putative local adaptation but low genetic diversity and hence probably reduced evolutionary potential especially in a climate change context.

Landscape-Ecological Approach to Spatial Planning as a Tool to Minimize Socio-Ecological Conflicts: Case Study of Agrolandscape in the Taiga Zone of Russia

Landscape heterogeneity generates significant influences on economic activity. Present-day publications in landscape planning focus more and more on a participatory approach and a communication process. By contrast, we focus on nature-based criteria aimed at proper adaptation of planning decisions to natural landscape patterns. The paper proposes the framework aimed at considering geographical context, matter flows, and dynamic processes in projecting ecological network and perfect sites for various land use types as well as for choosing appropriate technologies. We use the example of a river basin in the taiga zone of European Russia, partially used for forestry and traditional agriculture. A landscape map, space images, and geochemical data are used to provide rationales for the necessary emergent effects resulting from proper proportions, neighborhoods, buffers, and shapes for lands use units. The proposed spatial arrangement of land use types and technologies ensures the coordination of socio-economic and ecological interests and preserves zonal background conditions, including runoff, soils, migration routes, and biodiversity. The allocation of arable lands and cutovers is aimed at minimizing undesirable matter flows that could cause qualitative changes in the geochemical environment.

Spatial Structure Analysis of Benthic Ecosystem Based on Geospatial Approach at Parang Islands, Karimunjawa National Park, Central Java, Indonesia

This research examines the spatial structure of live coral based on its patches on a geospatial data. Spatial structure is a part of the landscape ecology approach that has been applied on terrestrial and applied on marine ecosystems on this research. It is including Mean Shape Index (MSI), Number of Patches (NumP), Mean Patch Size (MPS), Total Seascape Area (TLA) and Class Area (CA). Live coral patches were extracted based on GeoEye-1 satellite image with several tasks, such as ortho-rectification, atmospheric calibration, water column correction; Lyzenga transform and supervised classification. A field survey was done in 2015 - 2016 with 38 verification sites and 16 sites of manta tow. Live coral patches produced a significant accuracy (overall accuracy=84.1%, user accuracy= 81.8%, producer accuracy = 90%, and Kappa Index k = 0.81%). Live coral was found 35% (CA: 201.99 ha) of seascape TLA area 814.19 ha and spread over a large number of patches (NumP: 5613-21087 patches). The live coral had a mean shape index (MSI) between 1.23 to 1.25 and the average size of patches (MPS) between 0.0029 - 0.0082. This approach could be applied to reef ecosystems and becomes a baseline data to anticipate future damage.

İmar Planlarının Peyzaj Ekolojisi Yaklaşımı ile Değerlendirilmesi: Niğde Kenti Örneği

Dünyada olduğu gibi ülkemizde de yaşanan hızlı nüfus artışı kentsel yerleşim alanlarının büyümesini zorunlu kılmaktadır. Yerleşim alanlarındaki bu büyüme, kentlerin içerisinde ve çevresinde yer alan ekolojik yapının bozulmasına neden olmaktadır. Bu nedenle kentlerin büyümesinde ve şekillenmesinde önemli bir yere sahip olan imar planları, kentlerin sahip olduğu ekolojik yapının sürdürülebilirliği açısından önemlidir. Yasal mevzuat kapsamında hazırlanan imar planlarında mevcut ekolojik yapının dikkate alınması, kentsel gelişimin ekolojik yapı üzerindeki etkisini azaltacaktır. Bu kapsamda araştırmanın amacı, nüfus artışına bağlı olarak ortaya çıkan kentsel büyümenin ve yayılmanın şekillenmesinde önemli bir rol oynayan imar planlarının peyzaj metrikleri kullanılarak peyzaj ekolojisi yaklaşımıyla değerlendirilmesidir. Niğde kentine yönelik gerçekleştirilen araştırmada, araştırma alanına ait veritabanı ArcGIS programında oluşturulmuştur. Veri tabanı üzerinden Avrupa Birliği Corine Arazi Sınıflandırma Sistemi I./II. düzey temel alınarak mevcuttaki (13 Temmuz 2017 tarihine ait uydu görüntüleriyle) ve imar planındaki arazi örtüsü/arazi kullanımı tipleri gruplandırılmıştır. Elde edilen gruplara yönelik analizler Fragstats 4.2 yazılımı aracılığıyla belirli peyzaj metrikleri (sınıf düzeyinde 7 ve peyzaj düzeyinde 1) kullanılarak gerçekleştirilmiştir. Sonuç olarak, imar planlarında çok sayıda yeşil alan planlanmış olmasına rağmen, zaman içerisinde artan yapılaşmaya bağlı olarak ortalama yama büyüklüğündeki azalış kentin ekolojik yapısını olumsuz etkileyecektir.

Assessing the effect of landscape features on pond colonisation by an elusive amphibian invader using environmental DNA

Abstract Environmental DNA (eDNA) is becoming an essential tool for detecting aquatic invasive species and investigating their spread. Surprisingly, this technique has been very rarely used to investigate habitat selection, site occupancy, and colonisation despite its higher capacity to detect many species. The African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) is a principally aquatic amphibian introduced in several continents from South Africa. In western France, no recent systematic survey of the invasion range has been attempted, mainly because of the elusive nature of the species. Furthermore, the influence of landscape features on invasion has never been investigated, even if adults and juveniles are known to disperse overland and along river networks. Using presence–absence data generated by an eDNA survey conducted across the known invasion front of X. laevis in western France, we aimed to determine whether and how the landscape features surrounding a pond influence the probability that a pond is colonised. Xenopus laevis was detected well beyond the formerly known invasive distribution and at the outward end of some transects, suggesting that we did not reach the actual invasion front in these parts of the range. The landscape variables that best predicted the presence of X. laevis in a pond were topographic wetness index and grass cover within a buffer of 250 m. Higher values of both topographic wetness index and grass cover were negatively related to the occurrence probability. The effects of these two variables more likely to reflect dispersal behaviour than habitat preferences at the pond scale. By combining the high detection probability of eDNA survey techniques and a landscape ecology approach, we may gain valuable insight into the colonisation process of water bodies by elusive invasive species. Such information is crucial to prevent access to specific sites and locate invasion front areas where connectivity can be disrupted, thus increasing the effectiveness of management countermeasures.

Improving conservation strategies of raptors through landscape ecology analysis: The case of the endemic Cuban Black Hawk.

Raptor species conservation should consider a landscape perspective in order to include habitat requirements associated to large home ranges around nesting sites. Landscape analysis can help to better understand raptor habitat requirements and the degree of tolerance to habitat changes at different scales.We used a landscape ecology perspective to determine the nesting habitat selection of endemic and endangered Cuban Black Hawk, and using ecological niche modeling, we obtained the potential distribution of nests to evaluate the effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) for raptor conservation.Nesting habitat selection was related to breeding success at a landscape scale using data from 27 different nesting sites during 2012–2013 breeding seasons. The potential nesting areas distribution was compared with current officially PAs design in the central region of Cuba.All nests were located in mangrove swamp. Pairs chose nesting sites with low soil–vegetation moisture and low soil reflectance. At the landscape level, they selected low shape complexity of patches and few patches of coastal vegetation around nesting sites which contained similar mangrove patch size and shape. The potential distribution of nests increased close to the coastline. The model predicted a suitable narrow area of 556 km2, and the most favorable nesting area represented 2% of this total. 33% of nests were located within officially natural protected areas while 27% were close to or inside highly threatened areas. A 16% of high to medium suitable nesting habitat overlaps with urban areas. Currently, PAs contain 23% of the nesting area distribution.Our study shows landscape ecology and nest‐site selection approach is crucial to evaluate the persistence of Cuban Black Hawk, as environmental variables and human activity can be related to its productivity. This approach can be applied in conservation strategies of island raptors.

Links between prey assemblages and poison frog toxins: A landscape ecology approach to assess how biotic interactions affect species phenotypes.

Ecological studies of species pairs showed that biotic interactions promote phenotypic change and eco‐evolutionary feedbacks. However, it is unclear how phenotypes respond to synergistic interactions with multiple taxa. We investigate whether interactions with multiple prey species explain spatially structured variation in the skin toxins of the neotropical poison frog Oophaga pumilio. Specifically, we assess how dissimilarity (i.e., beta diversity) of alkaloid‐bearing arthropod prey assemblages (68 ant species) and evolutionary divergence between frog populations (from a neutral genetic marker) contribute to frog poison dissimilarity (toxin profiles composed of 230 different lipophilic alkaloids sampled from 934 frogs at 46 sites). We find that models that incorporate spatial turnover in the composition of ant assemblages explain part of the frog alkaloid variation, and we infer unique alkaloid combinations across the range of O. pumilio. Moreover, we find that alkaloid variation increases weakly with the evolutionary divergence between frog populations. Our results pose two hypotheses: First, the distribution of only a few prey species may explain most of the geographic variation in poison frog alkaloids; second, different codistributed prey species may be redundant alkaloid sources. The analytical framework proposed here can be extended to other multitrophic systems, coevolutionary mosaics, microbial assemblages, and ecosystem services.

Structural complexity of tropical seagrasses meadows in a temperate lagoon in the Gulf of Mexico. A landscape ecology approach

Seagrass meadows are sites that help mitigate the effects of climate change. The protected area of the Laguna Madre of Tamaulipas is an important site for its biodiversity, which has undergone changes both in the structure and distribution of its seagrass meadows. Five seagrass species were found (Halodule wrightii, Syringodium filiforme, Thalassia testudinum, Ruppia maritima and Halophila engelmannii), forming multispecific meadows. The south zone presented the longest and broadest leaves, but the lowest biomass. Biomass was greatest in the center zone, whereas the highest density were observed in the north zone. The structure analysis showed that the longest and the densest seagrass meadows were S.filiforme. The greatest biomass was recorded for T.testudinum. The meadows with the greatest cover consisted of H.wrightii-S.filiforme. There is little fragmentation of the landscape, and a large succession of species. This indicates change processes, due to the variation in environmental conditions, caused by anthropic modifications, in the lagoon. Due to its importance as an environmental bioindicator, it is necessary to monitor changes in the patterns of structure, fragmentation and succession of species. The present research provides evidence of the change in the distribution of tropical seagrass cover, which may be related to the tropicalization of temperate ecosystems and the need to conserve these habitats.