Changes In Landscape Structure Research Articles

Impacts of road constructions on ecological biodiversity and livelihood in Sierra Leone

Humans are key players for the current unprecedented rate of biodiversity loss across the globe with climate change, pollution and the loss, fragmentation, and degradation of habitat (VITOUSEK et al 1997). According to convention on biological diversity (C B D) in 2019, defines biodiversity as “the variety of life on earth, including plants, animals and microorganisms, as well as the ecosystem of which they are part. Biodiversity includes genetic differences within species, the diversity of species and the variety of ecosystem. The development and presence of roads infrastructures is the major indicator of economic growth. Research has shown that several important indicators of economy like trade, electricity, communication, health are positive correlated with the road infrastructure. Therefore any government of a country considers it important to invest in road infrastructure for feature prospect of the country with the best possible ways. However, consequences of road construction cannot be neglected. Roads construction for mobility and accessibility of people inevitably transforms natural habitat in to a sealed and highly disturbed environment which always implies net loss of wild life habitat. The physical encroachment on the land, gives rise to disturbance and barrier effects that contribute to the overall habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation in Sierra Leone. Humans are changing the original structure of ecological communities by roads infrastructure which increases the death rate of species. This modification in earth ecological communities causes a compelling concern for ecosystem diversity loss Sierra Leone, like most developing countries trying to construct roads for mobility and accessibility. Road construction projects undertaken by government or NGOs in Sierra Leone can reduce landscape permeability. Therefore the fundamental changes in landscape structure have both direct and indirect impacts on the conservation of species and biodiversity. The direct loss refers to the reduction of the total area of an ecosystem caused by the presence of roads and its verges, i.e. by the conversion of the original land cover into artificial surfaces. The indirect loss refers to the effects such as the fragmentation (portioning of an ecosystem in to smaller and more isolated patches), and the degradation of ecosystem induce by noise, air, water pollution, artificial light. These effects cause and indirect loss of habitat in that, they reduce the capacity of and ecosystem to sustain its original biodiversity. It is explicit that, in Sierra Leone, most of the species are endangered as a result of road constructions the use of bulldozers and other machines in the operation to level the land, clear trees, and flatten the ground will destroy and displace many living organisms from their natural habitat and change their entire ways of living. The process will unable organism to adapt to drastic changes in their natural habitat.

Integrating Landscape Connectivity and Natural-Anthropogenic Interaction to Understand Karst Vegetation Restoration: A Case Study of Guizhou Province, China

Because of implementation of ecological projects, the restoration of vegetation not only changes the typological composition and spatial structure of the landscape, but also improves the regional ecosystem function. The present study considered the effects of natural-anthropogenic factors and landscape connectivity on vegetation restoration. It also explored the impact and underlying mechanisms by which structural changes in landscape connectivity affect vegetation coverage in the karst region of Guizhou Province and provided a novel perspective for the maintenance of regional ecological security. We used morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) and integrated valuation of ecosystem services and tradeoffs (InVEST) and circuit theory to identify ecological networks and explore the changes in landscape structure. We performed a Theil-Sen Median trend analysis and a Mann-Kendall (MK) trend test to determine spatiotemporal variations in vegetation coverage. We conducted a coupling analysis to discover correlations between the average cumulative current density (CCD) and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in various karst landform counties. We also implemented a geographical detector to detect the factors affecting the NDVI trend and disclose interactions among factors. The results showed that (1) Though the total area of forests and core areas was reduced, the ecological networks and landscape connectivity steadily improved. (2) Areas with improved vegetation coverage accounted for 77.77% of the total. By contrast, the degraded areas covered 14.28% while the remaining 7.95% was stable. (3) The relationships between the average CCD and the NDVI were inconsistent among various geomorphological counties. The counties with the highest proportions of karst landforms presented with negative correlations between the average CCD and the NDVI in 2005 and positive correlations between these parameters in 2018. (4) The NDVI trend was influenced by several factors. Of these, anthropogenic activity played a dominant role. Nevertheless, changes in landscape connectivity was also implicated. Attention should be paid to the impact of landscape connectivity on ecological restoration. The foregoing results indicated that the rocky desertification projects effectively improved landscape connectivity and vegetation coverage and provided a reference for developing policies establishing and maintaining ecological security of the karst ecosystem and coordinating sustainable development in this region.

Desertification risk fuels spatial polarization in \u2018affected\u2019 and \u2018unaffected\u2019 landscapes in Italy

Southern Europe is a hotspot for desertification risk because of the intimate impact of soil deterioration, landscape transformations, rising human pressure, and climate change. In this context, large-scale empirical analyses linking landscape fragmentation with desertification risk assume that increasing levels of land vulnerability to degradation are associated with significant changes in landscape structure. Using a traditional approach of landscape ecology, this study evaluates the spatial structure of a simulated landscape based on different levels of vulnerability to land degradation using 15 metrics calculated at three time points (early-1960s, early-1990s, early-2010s) in Italy. While the (average) level of land vulnerability increased over time almost in all Italian regions, vulnerable landscapes demonstrated to be increasingly fragmented, as far as the number of homogeneous patches and mean patch size are concerned. The spatial balance in affected and unaffected areas—typically observed in the 1960s—was progressively replaced with an intrinsically disordered landscape, and this process was more intense in regions exposed to higher (and increasing) levels of land degradation. The spread of larger land patches exposed to intrinsic degradation brings to important consequences since (1) the rising number of hotspots may increase the probability of local-scale degradation processes, and (2) the buffering effect of neighbouring (unaffected) land can be less effective on bigger hotspots, promoting a downward spiral toward desertification.

Landscape dynamics and fire regime since 17,550 cal yr BP in the Cantabrian region (La Molina peat bog, Puente Viesgo, Spain)

Our aim with this paper is to provide insight into the landscape dynamics of the Cantabrian region (northern Iberian Peninsula) from the Last Glacial Period to the present. We present a multiproxy approach performed in a sedimentary record from La Molina peat bog, located at 484 m a. s. l. in Puente Viesgo, Cantabria (Latitude: 43.26° N; Longitude: 3.97° W), that covers the last c. 17,550 years. Analyses were performed on the organic matter, pollen and sedimentary charcoals, which have been used to characterise the fire regime at a local level. The results revealed a steppe-like formation from the basis of the sequence to the Bølling-Allerød chronozone, when the spread of woody species is detected. The dry and cold conditions of the Younger Dryas caused the decrease of mesophilous taxa until the onset of the Holocene. From that point onwards, a mixed deciduous formation composed of Betula and deciduous Quercus was established in the region. Besides, a series of biomass pulses was detected during the early Holocene, probably linked to intervals of increased rainfall. Fire episodes detected at the 9.3 and the 8.2 ka events created forest openings and probably favoured the establishment of Corylus, most likely also helped by a climate shift. There was a lack of fire activity until the Neolithic, when the fire signal increased probably linked to grazing and agricultural practices and triggered deeper changes in the Cantabrian plant landscape structure.

Temperate Grassland Afforestation Dynamics in the Aguapey Valuable Grassland Area between 1999 and 2020: Identifying the Need for Protection

Temperate grasslands are considered the most endangered terrestrial ecosystem worldwide; the existent areas play a key role in biodiversity conservation. The Aguapey Valuable Grassland Area (VGA), one of the most well-preserved temperate grassland areas within Argentina, is currently threatened by the anthropogenic expansion of exotic tree plantations. Little is known about the impacts of afforestation over temperate grassland landscape structures; therefore, the aim of this study is to characterize Aguapey VGA landscape structural changes between 1999 and 2020 based on remotely sensed data. This involves the generation of land cover maps for four annual periods based on unsupervised classification of Landsat 5 TM and 8 OLI images, the estimation of landscape metrics, and the transition analysis between land cover types and annual periods. The area covered by temperate grassland is shown to have decreased by almost 22% over the 20 year-period studied, due to the expansion of tree plantation cover. The afforestation process took place mainly between 1999 and 2007 in the northern region of the Aguapey VGA, which led first to grassland perforation and subsequently to grassland attrition; however, Aguapey’s cultural tradition of cattle ranching could have partially inhibited the expansion of exotic trees over the final years of the study. The evidence of grassland loss and fragmentation within the Aguapey VGA should be considered as an early warning to promote the development of sustainable land use policies, mainly focused towards the Aguapey VGA’s southern region where temperate grassland remains the predominant land cover type.

Functional and taxonomic responses of tropical moth communities to deforestation

Abstract Global insect decline has recently become a cause for major concern, particularly in the tropics where the vast majority of species occurs. Deforestation is suggested as being a major driver of this decline, but how anthropogenic changes in landscape structure affect tropical insect communities has rarely been addressed. We sampled Saturniidae and Sphingidae moths on 27 farms located in Brazilian Amazonia (Pará state) and characterised by different deforestation histories. We used functional traits (forewing length, body mass, wing load, trophic niche breadth and resource use strategy), analysed by combining RLQ and null model analyses, to investigate the responses of their taxonomic and functional diversity to landscape change dynamics and current structure. We found that communities had a higher proportion of large and polyphagous species with low wing load in landscapes with low forest quality and relative cover and high land use turnover. This was mainly due to a significant response to deforestation by saturniids, whereas the more mobile sphingids showed no significant landscape‐related pattern. We also observed an overall increase of species richness and functional dispersion in landscapes that have been deforested for a long time when compared with more recent agricultural settlements. Our results highlight the complex way in which landscape structure and historical dynamics interact to shape Neotropical moth communities and that saturniid moths respond clearly to the structure of the surrounding landscape, confirming their potential use as an indicator group for environmental monitoring programmes.

A Study on Dynamic Changes of Landscape Structure in Old Village Area on the Suburbs of a Regional City

A Study on Dynamic Changes of Landscape Structure in Old Village Area on the Suburbs of a Regional City

Do ecological restoration programs reduce forest fragmentation? Case study of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

Ecological restoration programs (ERPs) have greatly expanded forested areas in China to mitigate environmental problems. Unfortunately, this general increase in forest cover has not revealed clear changes in the states of fragmentation and loss of connectivity of forested habitats, and few studies have investigated the effects of ERPs on the spatial patterns of forests. Taking the Three Gorges Reservoir Area as a case study, we assess and quantify how the dynamics of the spatial patterns of forest following massive ERPs from 1990 through 2015 by morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA). We examine possible landscape structure thresholds in the forest restoration gradient. The results indicate that dramatic decreases in forest fragmentation and patchiness have occurred since ERP implementation. Among the seven MSPA forest types, core forests show the highest increase of 513.91 km2·yr−1. ERPs promote the defragmentation of forests via two pathways: (1) Old forests are preserved and expanded by building new forests around existing patches and closing perforations within forests; and (2) new core forests are gradually created in areas far from older forests. However, isolated forest patches surrounded by cropland production areas formed after the conversion of croplands into forests have appeared across the study area. Furthermore, at least two points of nonlinear changes in the landscape structure with increasing forest cover are identified. These nonlinear trajectories can be used as indicators of critical shifts in ecosystem states, and relevant thresholds support the identification of specific conservation actions. Our findings demonstrate the importance of ERPs for the defragmentation of forest patches and provide a basis to establish a more effective arrangement of patches necessary to mitigate fragmentation effects. Given that landscape structural changes are not expected in ERP design, future ERPs should focus on remaining isolated forest patches and on maintaining the health and sustainability of landscapes.

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.

Spatiotemporal patterns and driving factors of carbon dynamics in forest ecosystems: A case study from Turkey.

Evaluating the spatiotemporal patterns of carbon dynamics is critical for both understanding the role of forest ecosystems in the carbon cycle and developing effective forest policies to mitigate the impacts of climate change. This study analyzes the effects of spatiotemporal changes on carbon dynamics based on landscape structure for the Hisar Planning Unit, Turkey, using forest inventory data between 1973 and 2015. The total carbon stock increased from 1434.49 Gg in 1973 to 1919.37 Gg in 2015, an increase of 33.8%. The mean annual carbon storage was 11.54 Gg · year-1 , including 4.28 Gg · year-1 in biomass and 7.26 Gg · year-1 in soil over four decades. The most significant carbon pool in the total carbon stock was from the soil, with 71.6%, 70.7%, and 69.4% of the total carbon storage in 1973, 1998, and 2015, respectively. Pure pine stands, overmature development stages, fully covered stands, and older forests were the prevailing factors affecting carbon density. The conversion from degraded (1442.47 ha, 14.85%), coppice (157.04 ha, 3.9%), and non-forest lands (1412.91 ha, 5.2%) to productive forests with afforestation or restoration activities significantly boosted the total carbon storage. Furthermore, increasing awareness and stewardship in forest management coupled with improved economic well-being reduced the pressure on the forests, leading to an increase in the quality of forest structure. These changes in landscape structure resulted in the heterogeneous distribution of carbon dynamics. In conclusion, understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of carbon dynamics is crucial for both forest managers and policy-makers in developing sustainable forest management practices and climate mitigation strategies for ecological sustainability and climate-smart forestry. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:209-223. © 2021 SETAC.

Past landscape structure drives the functional assemblages of plants and birds

Landscape structure is a major driver of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. However, the response of biodiversity can be delayed after landscape changes. This study aimed to determine the effect of current and past landscape structure on plant and bird assemblages. We used a trait-based approach to understand their responses to landscape simplification and habitat fragmentation. We quantified landscape structure at three different years (1963, 1985, 2000) and sampled current plant and bird assemblages in twenty 1 km2 landscape windows located along the Seine Valley (France). For each window, we calculated plant and bird species richness, Community Weighted Variance (CWV), and Community Weighted Mean (CWM) of five functional traits related to dispersal capacity, reproduction, and life-cycle. We detected non-random patterns of traits for both taxa. Plant and bird species richness was lower in simple landscapes. The functional variance of plant traits was higher in landscapes simple in configuration. Both plant and bird assemblages strongly responded to past landscapes, especially their traits related to reproduction and life-cycle. It suggests that landscapes of the Seine valley will face a functional extinction debt. Further research is needed to better predict the delayed response of biodiversity expected to occur after landscape structure changes.

Interaction of hydric and thermal conditions drive geographic variation in thermoregulation in a widespread lizard

AbstractBehavioral thermoregulation is an efficient mechanism to buffer the physiological effects of climate change. Thermal ecology studies have traditionally tested how thermal constraints shape thermoregulatory behaviors without accounting for the potential major effects of landscape structure and water availability. Thus, we lack a general understanding of the multifactorial determinants of thermoregulatory behaviors in natural populations. In this study, we quantified the relative contribution of elevation, thermal gradient, moisture gradient, and landscape structure in explaining geographic variation in thermoregulation strategies of a terrestrial ectotherm species. We measured field‐active body temperature, thermal preferences, and operative environmental temperatures to calculate thermoregulation indices, including thermal quality of the habitat and thermoregulation efficiency for a very large sample of common lizards (Zootoca vivipara) from 21 populations over 3 yr across the Massif Central mountain range in France. We used an information‐theoretic approach to compare eight a priori thermo‐hydroregulation hypotheses predicting how behavioral thermoregulation should respond to environmental conditions. Environmental characteristics exerted little influence on thermal preference with the exception that females from habitats with permanent access to water had lower thermal preferences. Field body temperatures and accuracy of thermoregulation were best predicted by the interaction between air temperature and a moisture index. In mesic environments, field body temperature and thermoregulation accuracy increased with air temperature, but they decreased in drier habitats. Thermoregulation efficiency (difference between thermoregulation inaccuracy and the thermal quality of the habitat) was maximized in cooler and more humid environments and was mostly influenced by the thermal quality of the habitat. Our study highlights complex patterns of variation in thermoregulation strategies, which are mostly explained by the interaction between temperature and water availability, independent of the elevation gradient or thermal heterogeneity. Although changes in landscape structure were expected to be the main driver of extinction rate of temperate zone ectotherms with ongoing global change, we conclude that changes in water availability coupled with rising temperatures might have a drastic impact on the population dynamics of some ectotherm species.

Changes in Landscape Structure in the Municipalities of the Nitra District (Slovak Republic) Due to Expanding Suburbanization

Suburbanization, as a set of several factors, influences and changes the landscape structure of smaller municipalities in the hinterland of larger cities. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the built-up areas related to suburbanization within three time horizons—in 2002, 2005, and 2020—in 62 municipalities of the district (including two cities, Nitra and Vráble). This study examines the process of spatial changes in landscape features (residential, industrial, agricultural, transport) related to suburbanization between 2002 and 2005 and between 2002 and 2020. The input analytical data were digital orthophotomaps from 2002 and 2005 and the current orthophotomosaics of the Slovak Republic from 2017 (GKÚ, Bratislava), updated for the year 2020 using Sentinel 2 satellite image data (European Space Agency). The impact of suburbanization processes between 2002 and 2005 did not reach the dimensions of the changes that occurred due to suburbanization processes between 2002 and 2020 or 2005 and 2020. The main research objective of the article is the identification and assessment of these changes. We determined which landscape features related to suburbanization affected spatial changes in municipalities of the district Nitra. The total area affected by one of the suburbanization processes monitored by us reached 92.52 ha in the period between 2002 and 2005. Between the years 2002 and 2020, the area reached a total of 2272.82 ha, which is an increase of 2180.30 ha in 2020 compared to 2002. This included mainly the expansion of settlements or housing (60.15%), industrial areas (29.31%), transport facilities (4.35%), agricultural areas (0.73%), and other areas (5.46%). These results show expanding suburbanization for the period from 2002 to 2020 and that this process has been gaining momentum in the municipalities of the Nitra district, especially in recent years, which changes the look of rural municipalities and the character of a typical rural landscape.

Anthropogenic landscape decreases mosquito biodiversity and drives malaria vector proliferation in the Amazon rainforest.

Inter-relationships among mosquito vectors, Plasmodium parasites, human ecology, and biotic and abiotic factors, drive malaria risk. Specifically, rural landscapes shaped by human activities have a great potential to increase the abundance of malaria vectors, putting many vulnerable people at risk. Understanding at which point the abundance of vectors increases in the landscape can help to design policies and interventions for effective and sustainable control. Using a dataset of adult female mosquitoes collected at 79 sites in malaria endemic areas in the Brazilian Amazon, this study aimed to (1) verify the association among forest cover percentage (PLAND), forest edge density (ED), and variation in mosquito diversity; and to (2) test the hypothesis of an association between landscape structure (i.e., PLAND and ED) and Nyssorhynchus darlingi (Root) dominance. Mosquito collections were performed employing human landing catch (HLC) (peridomestic habitat) and Shannon trap combined with HLC (forest fringe habitat). Nyssorhynchus darlingi abundance was used as the response variable in a generalized linear mixed model, and the Shannon diversity index (H’) of the Culicidae community, PLAND, and the distance house-water drainage were used as predictors. Three ED categories were also used as random effects. A path analysis was used to understand comparative strengths of direct and indirect relationships among Amazon vegetation classes, Culicidae community, and Ny. darlingi abundance. Our results demonstrate that Ny. darlingi is negatively affected by H´ and PLAND of peridomestic habitat, and that increasing these variables (one-unit value at β0 = 768) leads to a decrease of 226 (P < 0.001) and 533 (P = 0.003) individuals, respectively. At the forest fringe, a similar result was found for H’ (β1 = -218; P < 0.001) and PLAND (β1 = -337; P = 0.04). Anthropogenic changes in the Amazon vegetation classes decreased mosquito biodiversity, leading to increased Ny. darlingi abundance. Changes in landscape structure, specifically decreases in PLAND and increases in ED, led to Ny. darlingi becoming the dominant species, increasing malaria risk. Ecological mechanisms involving changes in landscape and mosquito species composition can help to understand changes in the epidemiology of malaria.

Spatial pattern analysis of land cover changes using Fragstat in Kendal Delta, Kendal Regency, Central Java

The northern coastal plains of Kendal Regency are deltaic landform whose processes are strongly influenced by fluvial (fluvial dominated deltas). The area of land in the Kendal Delta area continues to experience changes due to regional developments that occur as Kendal Regency is designated as one of the national activity center in terms of strategic and industrial economies. Various developments can trigger various land conversions so that studies are needed to identify changes occurring. The purpose of this study is to identify land cover patterns based on geomorphological aspects and analyzed land cover changes based on landscape structures in Delta Kendal in 1989 and 2021. Changes in the Kendal Delta landscape structure were analyzed using landscape metrics approach. The results showed that the land cover pattern in the Kendal Delta from 1989 to 2021 has a change. Based on the calculation from landscape metrics, land cover in Delta Kendal that has a relatively high patch density tends to have a high level of interference, and vice versa. In general, there is a relationship if there is an increase in the value of PD and ED, there will be a decrease in the value of MNN and IJI.

Spatio-temporal changes in habitat quality and linkage with landscape characteristics in the Beressa watershed, Blue Nile basin of Ethiopian highlands

An increase in human population generally exerts pressure on natural habitats and leads to a decline in biodiversity resources. As a proxy for biodiversity study, an evaluation of habitat quality (HQ) change caused by land use/land cover (LULC) and associated landscape structural changes may provide a scientific basis for ecological protection and landscape management. This study analyzed spatio-temporal changes in HQ over the last four decades and predicted the trends over the next three decades. The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model was employed to evaluate the state of HQ. Criteria of habitat naturalness, habitat complexity and a soil degradation index were used to classify habitat types. Results showed that, between 1972 and 2017, areas with high HQ indicators declined by about 20% while areas with poor HQ increased by 11%. An unprecedented expansion of anthropogenic LULC changes related to the growth of human settlements and artificial plantations and a decline in natural and semi-natural habitats resulted in the total loss of HQ by about 35%. The mean value of HQ decreased from 0.60 to 0.45 during the study period. The distribution of moderate levels of HQ, primarily in farmlands, remained essentially unchanged. Predicted HQ values are expected to follow a similar trend to past decades with 41.5% of the areas continuing to decline, although with a slight HQ improvement in some areas. The spatial distribution of HQ is negatively correlated with habitat degradation (R2 = 0.95 at p < 0.01) and slope (R2 = 0.84 at p < 0.05). HQ change also appears more strongly influenced by landscape composition than by configuration in the watershed. The most important landscape structure variables accounted for HQ change were LPI, PLAND and MPS of anthropogenic habitats, suggesting reducing habitat modifications and restoring degraded natural habitats is crucial to maintain biodiversity in the study area.

Connecting governance interventions to ecosystem services provision: A social‐ecological network approach

Abstract The fulfilment of the benefits resulting from services provided by nature requires an integrated framework that combines appropriate ecosystem service governance with spatially explicit models of service provision. Here, we propose using a social‐ecological network approach to develop a ‘landscape governance framework’ that identifies how different types of governance can act on supply, demand and flow of ecosystem services through changes in landscape structure and connections. Starting from undesirable situations where demand exceeds supply, we exemplify the application of this conceptual model considering hierarchical (e.g. creation of protected areas), market (e.g. payments for environmental services) and community‐based (e.g. enhancing links between stakeholders) governance approaches. We show how interventions associated with each of these approaches act in distinct ways to regulate different components of the service provision chain in heterogeneous landscapes. Filling such knowledge gaps can help identify appropriate governance interventions depending on factors that limit provision: restricted supply, demand or flow. The application of the landscape governance framework entails challenges related to availability of data and limited understanding of key underlying mechanisms. However, it opens important new research questions at the interface between governance and ecosystem services, with great potential as a tool for landscape management that aims to achieve ecosystem service sustainability. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Changes in the Secondary Landscape Structure in Hruby Jesenik Mountains (Czech Republic)

Abstract This study deals with the analysis of changes in the secondary landscape structure of the territory of the Jeseniky Mountains (Czech Republic) monitored in the years 1946, 1953, 1962, 2000, and 2016. The study analysed georeferencing aerial geodetic images in the QGIS 2.18 program. On the basis of the land use classification key that was created, historical changes were identified in the following categories of land use; forest, arable land, orchards, water surfaces, wild life refuges and scattered greenery, river networks, permanent grass stands, meadows and pastures, gardens and built-up areas, courtyards and hard surfaces. The surface areas of land use categories were utilized for the calculation of change indicators regarding the structure of the landscape (landscape similarity index, coefficient of ecological stability, and change index). The maps for land use created for individual historical periods functioned as the starting point for a comprehensive assessment of the landscape by means of a SWOT analysis, which created the basis for a proposal for permanently sustainable utilization of the landscape in the area that was monitored. The study results indicate that the analysis of the historical development of the secondary landscape structure may be utilized as a decision support tool when planning sustainable landscape management.

Combined effects of agrochemical contamination and forest loss on anuran diversity in agroecosystems of east-central Argentina

Agricultural expansion and intensification has led globally to a rapid landscape structure change and high agrochemical use resulting in habitat loss and degraded environmental quality. Co-occurrence of landscape change and agrochemical contamination threatens biodiversity and might have interactive effects especially for organisms with complex life-cycles such as amphibians. We evaluated effects of landscape structure and agrochemical contamination at different spatial scales on anurans in Entre Rios, Argentina. We selected 35 independent stream headwaters along an agricultural expansion and intensification gradient. We conducted anuran call surveys from spring 2012 to summer 2013 and obtained detection-non detection data to estimate mean richness and focal species occupancy. We quantified forest area and riparian forest width at two spatial scales (sub-basin and local reach scale). We measured nutrients and pesticides in water and sediment. We evaluated anuran response to landscape and contamination variables using GLMs for richness and single season single-species occupancy models for focal species. Anuran diversity increased with forest area and riparian forest width, and decreased at sites with herbicide and nutrient contamination, particularly glyphosate; 2,4-D and nitrates. Also, most focal frog species responded mainly to basin forest and 2,4-D. Negative effects of agrochemical contamination on anuran diversity was mitigated in areas with larger basin forest cover. Agricultural management should ensure the reduction of herbicide and fertilizer use, the sparing of adequate forested habitat within drainage areas, and preservation of riparian forests around anuran breeding habitat to reduce and mitigate the negative effects of agrochemical contamination on anurans diversity in agroecosystems.

Intergrating the Diversity Characteristics to Design a Quantitative Landscape Regionalization Framework: Case Study of Van Chan District, Yen Bai Province

Landscape regionalization plays an important role in delineating the heterogeneous characteristics of territory, and provide the spatial fundamental data for natural resource planning and environmental protection activities. The integrating of the diversity indices (landscape metrics) is expressed the change of landscape structure by the richness and evenness of land-use objectives. In this study, a quantitative landscape regionalization framework is designed from 03 group (attribute factor, driving factor, and diversity factor) of basic landscape unit. By using k-means clustering, the study is classified into 06 sub-regions of 68 watersheds in the administration boundary of Van Chan district, Yen Bai province. With the comparison of region numbers in statistical and practical dimensions, the optimal results are edited and determined 15 sub-regions for uncertainty reduction of landscape regionalization.