Mean Patch Size Research Articles

Scaling up the effects of inbreeding depression from individuals to metapopulations.

Inbreeding is common in nature, and many laboratory studies have documented that inbreeding depression can reduce the fitness of individuals. Demonstrating the consequences of inbreeding depression on the growth and persistence of populations is more challenging because populations are often regulated by density- or frequency-dependent selection and influenced by demographic and environmental stochasticity. A few empirical studies have shown that inbreeding depression can increase extinction risk of local populations. The importance of inbreeding depression at the metapopulation level has been conjectured based on population-level studies but has not been evaluated. We quantified the impact of inbreeding depression affecting the fitness of individuals on metapopulation persistence in heterogeneous habitat networks of different sizes and habitat configuration in a context of natural butterfly metapopulations. We developed a spatial individual-based simulation model of metapopulations with explicit genetics. We used Approximate Bayesian Computation to fit the model to extensive demographic, genetic and life-history data available for the well-studied Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) metapopulations in the Åland islands in SW Finland. We compared 18 semi-independent habitat networks differing in size and fragmentation. The results show that inbreeding is more frequent in small habitat networks, and consequently, inbreeding depression elevates extinction risks in small metapopulations. Metapopulation persistence and neutral genetic diversity maintained in the metapopulations increase with the total habitat amount in and mean patch size of habitat networks. Dispersal and mating behaviour interact with landscape structure to determine how likely it is to encounter kin while looking for mates. Inbreeding depression can decrease the viability of small metapopulations even when they are strongly influenced by stochastic extinction-colonization dynamics and density-dependent selection. The findings from this study support that genetic factors, in addition to demographic factors, can contribute to extinctions of small local populations and also of metapopulations.

Winners and losers of landscape changes over the last sixty years in one of the oldest and southernmost national parks of the European Alpine region: Ordesa and Monte Perdido

Traditional land-use decline in Mediterranean mountains is translating into extensive forest recovery and the loose of “cultural landscapes”. In this context, the management of semi-natural ecosystems plays a fundamental role for the future preservation of species and processes, particularly in protected areas, and managers need rigorous information for an integrative interpretation of the long-term and complex effects of land cover replacement. Here we analyze changes in the land cover structure of the Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park and its peripheral protection zone, by comparing 7 types of patches from aerial photographs taken in 1956 and 2015. Then, we discuss how this process affected landscape diversity and two kinds of potential vulnerable plants. We found higher changes in the unprotected than protected areas, concentrated below the treeline in both cases, as a result of forest densification and strong reduction of anthropic and unvegetated areas. Total edge of patches decreased, as well as the number of patches, whereas mean patch size increased, indicating that patches merged and ecotones reduced. Shannon diversity index of the landscape decreased too, confirming a simplification of the system. Most Pyrenean endemic plants and threatened ones occur either on stable grasslands over the treeline, “winner” forests, or as rocky specialists irrespective of the land cover class. Therefore, past landscape changes do not seem to have affected them negatively, and forest expansion could also benefit several plants and tree-dominated communities at the south limit of distribution (Abies alba, Fagus sylvatica, Pinus uncinata). Landscape simplification, however, translates into plant diversity reduction too, which could be slowed down by creating or keeping small open patches inside matrices of forest. Maximization of plant diversity would require in this case some human perturbation, but at lower intensity than in the far past, in order to preserve large stands of old forests too.

Patterns of Monarch Site Occupancy and Dynamics in Iowa

The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is the focus of large-scale habitat restoration efforts because of recent population declines. From 2006-2017 we monitored monarchs at >400 sites throughout Iowa to link site occupancy and colonization/extinction dynamics to the presence of milkweed, site-specific habitat metrics, and landscape context at differing spatial scales. We used a robust design occupancy model in Program MARK and a hierarchical model selection approach to estimate site occupancy, extinction and colonization probabilities, and detection probability. Occupancy models revealed that monarchs responded differently to landscape features, environmental conditions, and local habitat conditions for site occupancy, extinction, and colonization probabilities. For site occupancy, the mean patch size of grassland at the 1-km spatial scale had a positive effect (β_GrassPS1K= 0.94, SE = 0.54) while the percent of the landscape in woodland at the 200-m spatial scale had a negative effect (β_WoodPL200= -1.68, SE = 0.34). For extinction, there were additive effects of the percent of the landscape in woodland at the 100-m spatial scale (β_WoodPLAND100= 2.70, SE = 0.63), the interspersion of grassland at the 1-km spatial scale (β_GrassIJI1K= -2.30, SE = 0.63), and litter depth (β_Litter= 0.46, SE = 0.13). Finally, there were negative effects of the percent of the landscape in woodland at the 200-m spatial scale (β_WoodPLAND200= -4.67, SE = 1.37) and the interspersion of grassland at the 100-m spatial scale (β_GrassPS1K= -2.02, SE = 0.70) on colonization probability. Detection probability was affected by the additive effects of canopy cover and monarch density; no other detection model was competitive. In the top model there was a positive effect of monarch density (β_Density = 0.28, SE = 0.05) and a negative effect of canopy cover (β_Canopy=-0.18, SE = 0.03) on detection probability. In Iowa, monarchs are widespread on conservation lands where they avoid sites with lots of canopy cover. Colonization and extinction processes are influenced by an interplay of landscape attributes across multiple spatial scales and site habitat attributes. Our study provides the first comprehensive insight into monarch use of conservation lands in Iowa, and predicted responses to important covariates may be useful for future conservation efforts.

Density of Biogas Power Plants as An Indicator of Bioenergy Generated Transformation of Agricultural Landscapes

The increasing use of biogas, produced from energy crops like silage maize, is supposed to noticeably change the structures and patterns of agricultural landscapes in Europe. The main objective of our study is to quantify this assumed impact of intensive biogas production with the example of an agrarian landscape in Northern Germany. Therefore, we used three different datasets; Corine Land Cover (CLC), local agricultural statistics (Agrar-Struktur-Erhebung, ASE), and data on biogas power plants. Via kernel density analysis, we delineated impact zones which represent different levels of bioenergy-generated transformations of agrarian landscapes. We cross-checked the results by the analyses of the land cover and landscape pattern changes from 2000 to 2012 inside the impact zones. We found significant correlations between the installed electrical capacity (IC) and land cover changes. According to our findings, the landscape pattern of cropland—expressed via landscape metrics (mean patch size (MPS), total edge (TE), mean shape index (MSI), mean fractal dimension index (MFRACT)—increased and that of pastures decreased since the beginning of biogas production. Moreover, our study indicates that the increasing number of biogas power plants in certain areas is accompanied with a continuous reduction in crop diversity and a homogenization of land use in the same areas. We found maximum degrees of land use homogenisation in areas with highest IC. Our results show that a Kernel density map of the IC of biogas power plants might offer a suitable first indicator for monitoring and quantifying landscape change induced by biogas production.

Pharmacological modulation of the spatiotemporal disposition of micromotions in the intact resting urinary bladder of the rabbit; their pattern is under both myogenic and autonomic control.

To explore and characterize the disposition and dynamics of micromotions in the wall of the intact resting teradotoxinized urinary bladder of the rabbit before and after the administration of adrenergic and cholinergic pharmaceutical agents. Spatiotemporal maps and related intravesical pressure were used to analyse propagating patches of contractions (PPCs) and their component individual myogenic contractions [propagating individual contractions (PICs)] in the wall of the tetradotoxinized urinary bladder. The bladder wall exhibited two contractile states that were of similar frequencies to those of the two types of electrophysiological discharge described in previous studies; the first, in which cyclic PPCs predominated, the second in which small irregular PICs predominated. The addition of carbachol increased the size, frequency, speed and distance of propagation of PPCs, whereas the addition of isoprenaline temporarily halted the incorporation of PICs into PPCs, and reduced patch size and total area undergoing contraction. The RhoA kinase (ROCK) inhibitor Y-27632 reduced both largest patch index and mean patch size. Both carbenoxolone and ROCK inhibition decreased the duration of PPCs. Carbenoxolone also prolonged duration and accelerated PPC propagation velocity. The authors postulate that these differences arise from differing effects of these agents on myocytes and interstitial cells within the stress environment of the bladder, influencing the development, coordination and propagation of PPCs. The timings and structure of spontaneous micromotions in the wall of the isolated bladder change when it is treated with sympathetic/parasympathetic agonists and with myogenically active agents. Correspondingly, disorders of bladder wall contraction may result from disorders of either neurogenic or myogenic signalling and may be amenable to treatment with combinations of agents that influence both.

Will the Development of a High-Speed Railway Have Impacts on Land Use Patterns in China?

In the past fifteen years, the high-speed railway (HSR) network in China has experienced unprecedented rapid growth. The development of the HSR has profound impacts in terms of redistributing accessibility in space and affecting the travel behaviors of people. The impacts of HSR development on the land use system have not been well investigated, however, because of the lack of large-scale, high-resolution land use data. Hence, this is the first time that impacts of the construction of the HSR network in China on the land use patterns at the national level are examined using high-resolution satellite land use data. In detail, a difference-in-differences model was used to evaluate the impacts of the HSR network on different landscape metrics in three land use categories: urban land, agricultural land, and natural land. We also compared the differences in land use transformations between HSR and non-HSR cities over three periods: 2005 to 2008, 2008 to 2010, and 2010 to 2013. The analysis yields the following findings: (1) for urban land, the HSR had no universal effect on the absolute size (quantity) of urban land but had a negative effect on the mean patch size (MPS) in matched samples, and regional and network endowments might lead to various effects in different regions; (2) HSR could have a negative effect on the absolute size of agricultural land, especially in the west; and (3) for natural land, patches in HSR cities tended to aggregate and regularize, whereas in non-HSR cities natural land continued to be fragmented and consumed.

Analysis of the spatiotemporal correlation between vegetation pattern and human activity intensity in Yancheng coastal wetland, China

Remote sensing images were used to reproduce the changes in wetland vegetation since 1987, and the potential impact of policy changes and human activities on vegetation restoration and biodiversity conservation in coastal wetlands was explored based on the landscape pattern index and the human disturbance index (HDI). The results showed that the vegetation displayed a zonal distribution pattern in which, perpendicular to the coastline early in the study period, the vegetation type changed from coastal wetland to bare mud flat with Spartina alterniflora, Suaeda glauca, and Phragmites australis as well as to constructed wetlands dominated by rice. Under the influence of human activities, the number of patches (NP) and mean nearest-neighbor distance (MNN) between patches gradually increased during the study period, while the mean patch size gradually decreased. The patch density increased from 179 (1987) to 296 patches per ha (2013). Additionally, human activity in the study area intensified. The HDI increased from 0.353 (1987) to 0.471 (1987) and showed positive correlations (R2 > 80%, p < 0.01) with NP and MNN. Human activity, such as changes in land use, resulted in more fragmented vegetation patterns, and the nonzonal (intrazonal) distribution of the vegetation became more obvious in coastal wetlands.

Oasis Landscape Pattern Dynamics in Manas River Watershed Based on Remote Sensing and Spatial Metrics

Constant alterations of oasis landscape pattern, triggered by specific natural and human driving forces, have aroused some heated discussions in the field of regional environmental change research especially in arid areas. In this study, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and the Soil Brightness Index have been selected to successfully identify discrete land cover classes derived from a series of Landsat satellite images of Manas River watershed in 1989, 1998, and 2014. FRAGSTATS and principal components analysis were used to recognize independent components of landscape structure. Nine land cover classes combined with ten landscape metrics indicated variations in the composition and configuration of landscape pattern. Results related to historical data were analyzed to identify driving forces, mainly including population growth, agricultural modernization, urbanization, and water resource provision. The results revealed a trend toward less landscape fragmentation, as indicated by a steady decrease in the number of patches as well as an increase in mean patch size and contagion. To be more specific, we found substantial increases in cropland (72.3%) as well as built-up land (43.7%) with larger and more compact patches, while water (64.1%), snow cover (52.0%), and saline–alkali soil (48.5%) dropped sharply. Our findings suggested that population influx and reclamation of saline–alkali soil were two major driving forces critical to those landscape pattern changes.

Coupling analysis of landscape pattern and thermal fields after the afforestation in Beijing plain area

Under the positive human land use regulation (e.g. afforestation), understanding the impacts of landscape pattern changes on urban and rural thermal fields can provide reference data for future construction and optimization of urban afforestation projects and bring new insights for future landscape patterns and thermal fields environment related research. Under the context of "One Million Mu Plain Afforestation Project" in Beijing plain area, we applied remote sensing technology and geographic information system and used transfer-matrix method and coupling analysis to evaluate the impacts of plain afforestation on thermal field environment and to explore the correlation between changes in landscape patterns resulted from urban afforestation projects and urban land surface temperature. Our results showed that the percentage of landscape (PLAND) of forests and parks increased by 7.6% and 0.5% after the afforestation project in Beijing plain area, respectively. The heat island intensity decreased by 19.2% of entire plain area, and by 23.3% of suburban area, however, it increased by 23.5% of city area. Spanning urban to urban-rural interface, the PLAND of forests and parks, the mean patch size (MPS) of forests and wetlands were significantly negatively correlated with the changes in landscape surface temperature (LST). In city area, the area-weighted mean shape index (AWMSI) of forests was significantly positively correlated with the changes of LST. In suburban area, the MPS and AWMSI of forests showed significantly negative correlation with changes of LST, which was contrary to parks. After the implementation of afforestation project in Beijing plain area, the increased urban forests and urban parks had mitigated thermal fields to some extent. The scale of mitigation was limited and most areas with decreased heat island intensity were concentrated in newly planted sites in suburban area. The more connected the forests and wetlands, the better the relief of the thermal fields in the plain area. Impacted by the grain size, time, topography, human activities and other factors, the change in landscape patterns caused by the control of land use structure showed non-linear correlation with the change of LST.

Association of urban forest landscape characteristics with biomass and soil carbon stocks in Harbin City, Northeastern China

BackgroundUrban forests help in mitigating carbon emissions; however, their associations with landscape patterns are unclear. Understanding the associations would help us to evaluate urban forest ecological services and favor urban forest management via landscape regulations. We used Harbin, capital city of the northernmost province in China, as an example and hypothesized that the urban forests had different landscape metrics among different forest types, administrative districts, and urban–rural gradients, and these differences were closely associated with forest carbon sequestration in the biomass and soils.MethodsWe extracted the urban forest tree coverage area on the basis of 2 GF-1 remote sensing images and object-oriented based classification method. The analysis of forest landscape patterns and estimation of carbon storage were based on tree coverage data and 199 plots. We also examined the relationships between forest landscape metrics and carbon storage on the basis of forest types, administrative districts, ring roads, and history of urban settlements by using statistical methods.ResultsThe small patches covering an area of less than 0.5 ha accounted for 72.6% of all patches (average patch size, 0.31 ha). The mean patch size (AREA_MN) and largest patch index (LPI) were the highest in the landscape and relaxation forest and Songbei District. The landscape shape index (LSI) and number of patches linearly decreased along rural-urban gradients (p < 0.05). The tree biomass carbon storage varied from less than 10 thousand tons in the urban center (first ring road region and 100-year regions) to more than 100 thousand tons in the rural regions (fourth ring road and newly urbanized regions). In the same urban–rural gradients, soil carbon storage varied from less than five thousand tons in the urban centers to 73–103 thousand tons in the rural regions. The association analysis indicated that the total forest area was the key factor that regulates total carbon storage in trees and soils. However, in the case of carbon density (ton ha−1), AREA_MN was strongly associated with tree biomass carbon, and soil carbon density was negatively related to LSI (p < 0.01) and AREA_MN (p < 0.05), but positively related to LPI (p < 0.05).DiscussionThe urban forests were more fragmented in Harbin than in other provincial cities in Northeastern China, as shown by the smaller patch size, more complex patch shape, and larger patch density. The decrease in LSI along the rural-urban gradients may contribute to the forest carbon sequestrations in downtown regions, particularly underground soil carbon accumulation, and the increasing patch size may benefit tree carbon sequestration. Our findings help us to understand how forest landscape metrics are associated with carbon storage function. These findings related to urban forest design may maximize forest carbon sequestration services and facilitate in precisely estimating the forest carbon sink.

Characterizing landscape patterns in changing mangrove ecosystems at high latitudes using spatial metrics

Mangroves are coastal ecosystems and a detailed characterization of their spatial metrics is important to understand the underlying processes of mangrove change and to inform future mangrove management. The main objectives of this study were: (1) to determine the past (1940) and current (2014) spatial metrics of mangroves at high latitudes and (2) to assess the relationship between spatial metrics and land-based, climatic and oceanic factors in 2014. Mangroves were mapped into categories of tall and dwarf mangroves, as well as into delta, riverine and estuarine mangroves based on field surveys, satellite images and aerial photographs across 38 estuaries of varying size in the Auckland Region, New Zealand. Fragstats was applied to determine spatial metrics indices related to complexity, connectivity, and configuration of mangrove patches. While the number of mangrove patches remained stable, mangrove patch size increased significantly (75%) suggesting that the increase in total mangrove area in the Auckland Region is mainly driven by an increase in patch size. Tall mangroves became more fragmented, through both reduction in connectivity (Mean Proximity Index in 2014 = 214, decrease of 35%) and their shape becoming more irregular (Mean Shape Index in 2014 = 1.9, an increase of 24%). Catchment related factors (e.g., sediment accumulation rate) had a strong effect on the total mangrove area and number of patches. In contrast, mean patch size and patch connectivity were influenced by nitrogen concentration, mean wave height and tidal amplitude, which in combination explained up to 63% of the variability. These findings can be used to facilitate decision-making concerning the sustainable future management of mangroves.

Spatial assessment of the effects of in situ and neighbourhood factors on urban land surface temperature mitigation in a rapidly developing region

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the effect of a set of in situ and neighbourhood factors on urban land surface temperature (LST) in the city of Sari, northern Iran. 200 urban pixels were randomly selected to investigate how LST values in these points linked to their corresponding normalized difference built-up index (NDBI) values as an in situ factor and the percentage of green pixels (%Green), the mean normalized difference vegetation index (M-NDVI), mean patch size (MPS), mean nearest neighbour distance (MNN), and mean shape index (MSI) of green patches located within a set of circular rings around the sample points as neighbourhood factors. The results showed that M-NDVI in the 150-m-radius ring had the highest impact (r = –0.63), and %Green had the longest distance impact (r = 0.24) on mitigating urban LST. MSI and MNN showed the highest association with LST within 300-m to 1000-m-radius rings with the highest r values of about −0.34 and 0.34, respectively. These results indicate that maximum integration of green cover patches with the least MNN value, and the highest degree of MSI is the most effective approach to alleviate urban LST; however, small but dense green cover patches can be suggested as an alternative approach for areas with restricted availability of open spaces.

Promoting structural and species diversity in Great Lakes northern hardwoods: a conceptual model and its application

Forest ecosystems are shaped by their historical disturbance regime. Structural and species diversity are driven by disturbance frequency, patch size and microsite disturbance severity in forests across the globe. Forest management in Lake State northern hardwoods, however, has primarily used high-frequency, low- to moderate-severity canopy disturbance and low-severity microsite disturbance harvesting techniques such as single-tree selection. Catastrophic disturbances during European settlement followed by the widespread and long-term use of uniform approaches to forest management have homogenized managed forests and created a need to emulate a fuller range of historically prevalent natural disturbances. We present a conceptual model based on complex adaptive forest management that proposes five primary factors including mean patch size, proportion disturbed, frequency, degree of exposed mineral soil and coarse woody debris input. This model demonstrates the need for a greater range of silvicultural systems to more closely emulate the range of variability associated with natural disturbance regimes. In Great Lakes northern hardwoods, using a greater variety of silvicultural systems including those with larger patch cuts and greater soil disturbance, may restore and promote structural and tree species diversity in these forests by creating greater microsite heterogeneity. Applying this conceptual model to forests more broadly, while still considering regionally specific factors, may help restore species and structural diversity and ultimately, ecosystem resilience.

Using population surfaces and spatial metrics to track the development of deprivation landscapes in Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester between 1971 and 2011

Measuring change in the spatial arrangement of deprivation over time, and making international, inter-city comparisons, is technically challenging. Meeting these challenges offers a means of furthering understanding and providing new insights into the geography of urban poverty and deprivation. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to mapping and analysing spatio-temporal patterns of household deprivation, assessing the distribution at the landscape level. The approach we develop has advantages over existing techniques because it is applicable in situations where i) conventional approaches based on choropleth mapping are not feasible due to boundary change and/or ii) where spatial relationships at a landscape level are of interest. Through the application of surface mapping techniques to disaggregate census count data, and by applying spatial metrics commonly used in ecology, we were able to compare the development of the spatial arrangement of deprivation between 1971 and 2011 in three UK cities of particular interest: Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool. Applying three spatial metrics – spatial extent, patch density, and mean patch size – revealed that over the 40 year period household deprivation has been more spatially dispersed in Glasgow. This novel approach has enabled an analysis of deprivation distributions over time which is less affected by boundary change and which accurately assesses and quantifies the spatial relationships between those living with differing levels of deprivation. It thereby offers a new approach for researchers working in this area.

LAND USE/COVER CHANGE AND LANDSCAPE FRAGMENTATION ANALYSES IN KHON KAEN CITY, NORTHEASTERN THAILAND

The aim of this study is to determine the land use and land cover changes in Khon Kaen city, Thailand, using landscape fragmentation analysis together with multi-temporal Landsat data acquired during 1990-2015. Using support vector machine techniques, multi-temporal Landsat imagery was classified to derive a map of land use and land cover change and subsequently analyze the landscape fragmentation to determine the factors driving this change. The results showed that most of the built-up area was converted from anagricultural area, illustrating the expansion of the urban area over the past twenty-five years. Consequently, the landscape has become more highly fragmented as indicated by an increase in the patch number and a decrease in the mean patch size of the agriculture land cover class. Economic development, education system development, population growth and the improvement of traffic infrastructure are main factors driving land use and land cover change in Khon Kaen city.

Quantification of forest fragmentation in pre- and post-establishment periods, inside and around Apuseni Natural Park, Romania.

Protected areas (PAs) represent real cornerstones in the conservation of biodiversity and natural habitats. Their protection must be a priority today for each society. The enhanced socio-economic requirements increase the pressure upon protected areas, and the effect can result in a reduction of biodiversity. The aim of this study is to quantify forest fragmentation in the pre- (1986-2002) and post-establishment (2002-2016) periods, inside and around (buffer 1, buffer 2 and buffer 3) Apuseni Natural Park (ANP), Romania, using a series of classified Landsat satellite images and six landscape metrics. The results show that forest fragmentation occurred both in the pre- and post-establishment periods, inside and around ANP. Inside the park, the deforestation rate increased four times, from 0.03%year-1 in the pre-establishment period to 0.14%year-1 in the post-establishment period. Around the park, the deforestation rate decreased from 0.31%year-1 in the pre-establishment period (buffer 1) to 0.10%year-1 in the post-establishment period (buffer 1). Forest fragmentation resulted in an increase in the patch density and edge density, and a decrease in the total core area and mean patch size leading to isolation of patches and fragmentation of landscape, especially in ANP in the post-establishment period. Several measures can be taken in order to stop forest fragmentation inside and around ANP, including the education of buffer-zone communities, reforestation, enforcement of park regulations, and forest legislation.

Different response patterns of epigaeic spiders and carabid beetles to varying environmental conditions in fields and semi-natural habitats of an intensively cultivated agricultural landscape

Agricultural intensification has resulted in major losses of biodiversity due to landscape homogenization and an increasing use of agrochemicals. It has often been assumed that associated changes in environmental conditions are impacting composition and diversity of two main ground-dwelling generalist predator taxa, carabid beetles and epigaeic spiders, in similar ways. Here, we test how variations in environmental conditions at local scales (plant diversity and total soil nitrogen, Ntot) and landscape-scale (mean patch size) affect species composition, richness and abundance of ground beetles and epigaeic spiders in semi-natural and cultivated habitats of an agricultural landscape. We specifically test the hypotheses that both taxa are more diverse in semi-natural than cultivated habitats, but that due to their weaker dispersal ability, ground beetles are more strongly linked to local factors than spiders. Our results indicate that in our study area, carabid diversity shows no significant difference between semi-natural habitats and cropland, while spider abundance is significantly enhanced in semi-natural habitats. Ntot significantly affected carabid species richness and abundance, but had a limited influence on spider abundances. The species composition of both carabids and spiders was influenced by plant diversity, while Ntot played a significant role in determining spider assemblages but not carabid composition. There was no significant effect of the mean patch size in the surroundings landscape on either spider or carabid species. Nonetheless, in landscapes with small patch sizes, spider abundance decreased with increasing Ntot, while in landscapes with large sized patches, this relationship was reversed. The differences in responses of these taxa to local and landscape-scale environmental factors suggests that scale- and taxon-specific targets need to be established to improve the efficiency of measures aimed at enhancing ecosystem services provisions by these key pest control agents.

Reconciling the Entomological Hazard and Disease Risk in the Lyme Disease System.

Lyme disease (LD) is a commonly cited model for the link between habitat loss and/or fragmentation and disease emergence, based in part on studies showing that forest patch size is negatively related to LD entomological risk. An equivalent relationship has not, however, been shown between patch size and LD incidence (LDI). Because entomological risk is measured at the patch scale, while LDI is generally assessed in relation to aggregate landscape statistics such as forest cover, we posit that the contribution of individual patches to human LD risk has not yet been directly evaluated. We design a model that directly links theoretical entomological risk at the patch scale to larger-scale epidemiological data. We evaluate its predictions for relative LD risk in artificial landscapes with varying composition and configuration, and test its ability to predict countywide LDI in a 12-county region of New York. On simulated landscapes, we find that the model predicts a unimodal relationship between LD incidence and forest cover, mean patch size, and mean minimum distance (a measure of isolation), and a protective effect for percolation probability (a measure of connectivity). In New York, risk indices generated by this model are significantly related to countywide LDI. The results suggest that the lack of concordance between entomological risk and LDI may be partially resolved by this style of model.

Distribution of cytochrome oxidase‐rich patches in human primary visual cortex

We studied the tangential distribution of cytochrome oxidase (CytOx)-rich patches (blobs) in the striate cortex (V1) of normally sighted Homo sapiens. We analyzed the spatial density and cross-sectional area of patches in CytOx-reacted tangential sections of flat-mounted preparations of V1 and surrounding areas. CytOx-rich patches were most clearly defined in the supragranular cortical layers of V1, particularly at middle levels of layer III. Variations in patch spatial density were subtle across different visual eccentricity representations. Within the binocular representation of V1, the average patch spatial density decreased slightly with increasing cortical eccentricity, from around 1.0 patch/mm2 in the foveal representation to 0.6 patch/mm2 at the representation of ∼60° eccentricity, but seemed to increase again at the representation of the monocular crescent. Across the entire sample, the cross-sectional area of patches (i.e., patch size) varied from approximately 0.2-0.8 mm2 , with a mean value of 0.32 mm2 . Notably, there was no significant variation in the mean patch size across eccentricity representations. Human patches are on average larger than those reported for nonhuman primate brains, and analysis of species with different brain sizes suggests an approximately linear relationship between V1 area and patch size. The relative constancy of patch metrics across eccentricities is in stark contrast with the exponential variation in V1 cortical magnification, suggesting a nearly invariant modular organization throughout human V1.

Landscape metrics as indicators of avian diversity and community measures

The identification of landscape metrics that could be used as surrogate of biodiversity is still of broad and current interest in ecology. Several landscape metrics used to provide a quantitative description of environmental structure and related to the landscape heterogeneity were proposed in ecological modelling procedures as surrogates or indicators of biodiversity metrics. Most frequently, the species occupancy in a given area is related to the niche availability, which is correlated with the spatial heterogeneity of the landscape (e.g. number of different land use patches). However, the effectiveness of biodiversity indicators (biotic indicators: e.g. species, group of species; abiotic indicators: e.g. environmental characteristics, landscape metrics) is still discussed and more efficient surrogates are needed.In this study, we explored the associations among the most common landscape metrics and several diversity and community metrics calculated for bird assemblages in the Czech Republic. Using Generalized Linear Models, we compared the strength and direction of these associations as well as their performance in three different environments.Overall, taxonomic diversity was explained by landscape metrics most accurately, even across different types of environments. The most effective landscape metric for bird species richness was the mean patch size, which was negatively correlated. In mixed environments, the functional evenness was positively correlated with the Simpson evenness, the reason probably lying in the fact that both are measures of the regularity of the distribution of relative abundances. Finally, the surrogacy of landscape metrics was weak in forest environments, where even the most effective predictor, the Simpson evenness was only poorly associated to diversity metrics. In this regard, we hypothesize that for modelling more accurately diversity metrics in forest environments, vertical data (e.g. vegetation structure, LiDAR) could be required. Our findings are useful for ecological modelling, enabling the selection of the most appropriate landscape metrics to predict each diversity metric.