Small-scale Landscape Research Articles

The Alluvial Geoarchaeology of the Upper River Kennet in the Avebury Landscape: a Monumental Transformation of a Stable Landscape

Geoarchaeological research as part of the AHRC funded Living with Monuments (LwM) project investigated the upper Kennet river system across the Avebury World Heritage landscape. The results demonstrate that in the early–mid-Holocene (c. 9500–1000 bc) there was very low erosion of disturbed soils into the floodplain, with floodplain deposits confined to a naturally forming bedload fluvial deposit aggrading in a shallow channel of inter-linked deeper pools. At the time of the Neolithic monument building in the 4th–early 3rd millennium bc, the river was wide and shallow with areas of presumed braid plain. Between c. 4000 and 1000 bc, a human induced signature of soil erosion became a minor component of fluvial sedimentation in the Kennet palaeo-channel but it was small scale and localised. This strongly suggests that there is little evidence of widespread woodland removal associated with Neolithic farming and monument building, despite the evidently large timber requirements for Neolithic sites like the West Kennet palisade enclosures. Consequently, there was relatively light human disturbance of the hinterland and valley slopes over the longue durée until the later Bronze Age/Early Iron Age, with a predominance of pasture over arable land. Rather than large Neolithic monument complexes being constructed within woodland clearings, representing ancestral and sacred spaces, the substantially much more open landscape provided a suitable landscape with areas of sarsen spreads potentially easily visible. During the period c. 3000–1000 bc, the sediment load within the channel slowly increased with alluvial deposition of increasingly humic silty clays across the valley floor. However, this only represents small-scale landscape disturbance. It is from the Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age when the anthropogenic signal of human driven alluviation becomes dominant and overtakes the bedload fluvial signal across the floodplain, with localised colluvial deposits on the floodplain margins. Subsequently, the alluvial archive describes more extensive human impact across this landscape, including the disturbance of loessic-rich soils in the catchment. The deposition of floodplain wide alluvium continues throughout the Roman, medieval, and post-medieval periods, correlating with the development of a low-flow, single channel, with alluvial sediments describing a decreasing energy in the depositional environment.

Working freedom: Black farmers building industrious landscapes in Maryland, 1814-1880

This article studies the industrious strategies that Black farmers in Maryland’s Piedmont pursued before and after the Civil War and the resultant landscapes they created. An examination of antebellum landholdings, demographic patterns, and agricultural production trends demonstrate how free Black farmers leveraged ‘next to nothing’ to provide the foundations of the county’s Black industrious landscapes. In the years immediately following emancipation, additional Black land acquisitions had an importance that was out of scale to their relative paucity: an individual farm could help establish a new settlement. Analysis of agricultural census data, along with investigations of small-scale landscape features such as outbuildings, gardens, and orchards, shows how expanded household production remained a key strategy in the 1870s and 1880s. Black industriousness shaped homesteads, farms, and villages, and Black farming families created distinctive landscapes that endured well into the twentieth century. By embracing the industrious revolution, Black farmers established places of sanctuary and opportunity, in the midst of white hostility. Though these vital places have nearly disappeared from modern maps, Maryland’s Black industrious landscapes matter because they reveal Black farmers were responsible for extending the industrious revolution as it began to fade in other places and for other groups.

Multi-proxy evidence for woodland clearance in northeast Northumberland (England) during the Iron Age

Pollen diagrams covering the Bronze Age to Roman period from northeast Northumberland are scarce. We present a 14C-dated pollen record from a peat-filled forest hollow in Chillingham Wild Cattle Park, northeast Northumberland, that spans the Iron Age. For the first time for this part of Northumberland, fungal spores are also analysed to investigate whether clearances took place in the context of crop cultivation or pastoralism. The pollen diagram shows significant woodland cover during the Late Bronze Age, with small-scale landscape openness potentially representing crop cultivation and animal grazing under a tree canopy. A local clearance event, with arboreal pollen falling to 13.2%, is radiocarbon dated to the late Early to Middle Iron Age, likely coinciding with the construction and occupancy of the nearby Ros Castle hillfort. A significant rise in dung fungal spores and the presence of Plantago and other open vegetation taxa indicate animal husbandry played an important role in this clearance phase. A subsequent large decrease in dung fungi and a small rise in arboreal pollen may reflect a degree of abandonment of the area after the climate cooled. Peat formation ceased in the late Middle to Late Iron Age as the hollow filled up. Limited renewed peat growth occurred in the last century or so, after peat shrinkage due to drying and consequent oxidation provided the possibility for renewed peat formation within the hollow.

Detection of small-scale landscape elements with remote sensing

Abstract. Landscape elements located on agricultural fields or on their edges play a crucial role in the biodiversity of agricultural land. The landscape elements’ database in Estonia is updated in accordance with the applications of the field owners, and usually it does not represent a real situation of the landscape elements on the field. Hence, the analysis and control over landscape elements are limited. The main aim of this study is to create a methodology to map landscape elements in Estonia with remote sensing data. The first method was created considering the importance of computational efficiency and therefore fast and non-complex map algebra solution was developed. The second, more precise but more computationally expensive way to map landscape elements, was the object-based image analysis method utilizing machine learning classification. Both methods displayed high overall accuracies, but users’ and producers’ accuracies were lower. Taking into account the computational time and accuracy, it was concluded that the map algebra method is better suitable for fast landscape elements’ detection. However, the object-based image analysis method is more suitable for identifying more exact classes of landscape elements.

Cascading effects of management and landscape on insect pollinators, pollination services and yield in apple orchards

Recent insect pollinator declines, mainly due to the expansion and intensification of agricultural land use, are jeopardizing ecosystem service provisioning in agroecosystems. Organic farming has been suggested as a biodiversity-friendly alternative to conventional farming, but additional insights evaluating its effectiveness in perennial cropping systems are needed. Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis of local and landscape effects on the provided pollination services and yield in apple crops. We first used mixed models to disentangle effects of agricultural management and landscape effects on both taxonomic and functional diversity of wild bees and hoverflies during bloom in both organic and integrated pest management (IPM) apple orchards in Belgium, and then compared these biodiversity indicators with semi-natural grasslands as a benchmark. Next, we applied piecewise structural equation modeling to quantify the direct and indirect effects of orchard management type and landscape on fruit set, seed set and ultimately on crop yield. Orchards, regardless of their type of management, hosted lower taxonomic and functional pollinator diversity compared to the semi-natural benchmark. Yet, pollinator abundance and diversity were higher in orchard edges and increased with small-scale landscape diversity, which was positively associated with the presence of semi-natural habitat, as well as arable and urban land. Investigating the cascading effects on apple yield, we found that yield levels were not shaped by the observed pollinator diversity or by the measured pollination services, but were lower in organic orchards. Overall, we conclude that apple yield was likely not pollinator limited in our study system, but that conserving and restoring semi-natural habitats, maintaining and expanding orchard edges through reducing field sizes and promoting landscape diversity are the most promising avenues for pollinator conservation in orchard landscapes.

Construction and Optimization of an Ecological Network in the Comprehensive Land Consolidation Project of a Small Rural Town in Southeast China

In recent years, China has put forward comprehensive land consolidation projects to solve problems in rural areas, such as cultivated land fragmentation, scattered spatial pattern of construction land and ecological environment pollution, and boost the rural revitalization strategy. Constructing ecological networks is important for maintaining ecological security. This study built an ecological network using morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), spatial principal component analysis (SPCA) method and minimum cumulative resistance model (MCR) models to analyze the spatial and temporal characteristics and ecological security pattern. Finally, it was optimized by analyzing ecological network indices and using two methods of adding additional ecological sources and stepping stones. The results show that ecological sources and ecological corridors for three phases are located in the central and northern parts with an uneven distribution. In fact, adding new ecological sources is more efficient in balancing the ecological pattern of a study area. The ecological network indices α, β, γ and C values increased by 15.3%, 8.4%, 8.5% and 3.3%, respectively. Constructing and optimizing an ecological network is expected to provide scientific basis for small-scale landscape design, provide theoretical reference for spatial pattern optimization of comprehensive land consolidation projects and coordination of regional development and ecological protection.

Мелкомасштабное ландшафтное картографирование территорий традиционного природопользования Республики Саха (Якутия)

In the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), there are 63 territories of traditional land use of the Indigenous Minorities of the North within the boundaries of municipal districts and nasleg (lowest municipal division), as well as nomadic tribal communities. Almost 58 % of the republic’s territory is under the traditional land use status. The traditional use of natural resources and traditional lifestyles of indigenous peoples are inextricably linked to the resource potential and ecological state of natural landscapes. The paper is aimed to develop a standardized methodology for the design of a small-scale landscape map of traditional land use in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Based on the review of atlas approaches to landscape structure mapping of protected natural areas, we propose to use a multi-thematic dataset of geospatial layers according to the criteria of the classification of typological, regional and basin categories of landscapes. The dataset includes layers from previously published landscape maps and permafrost-landscape regionalization maps, soil-vegetation maps, and global geospatial data for Hammond relief regions, GMTED2010 digital elevation model and HydroBASINS river basins. Methods for delineation of mapped units include overlay geoprocessing, zonal statistics, and relief analysis. For the basemap, the description of typological landscape units includes landscape subclass-genus-type(subtype) and terrain type. The methodology was tested for the Ust-Maiskij district with predominance of mountain taiga and mid-taiga landscapes and Eveno-Bytantaiskij national district with predominance of mountain-tundra, mountain-woodland and north taiga landscapes. The obtained landscape maps contain 36 typological units that synthesize 6 subclasses, 7 landscape types (subtypes) and 12 terrain types by 5 landscape provinces and large river basins (Lena, Yana, Omoloi and Aldan). Thus, the proposed landscape mapping methodology covers the holistic spatial structure of the leading components, allowing for a multidimensional approach to territorial planning and functional zoning of traditional land use.

Effects of Antecedent Precipitation Amount and COVID-19 Lockdown on Water Quality along an Urban Gradient

Water quality is affected by multiple spatial and temporal factors, including the surrounding land characteristics, human activities, and antecedent precipitation amounts. However, identifying the relationships between water quality and spatially and temporally varying environmental variables with a machine learning technique in a heterogeneous urban landscape has been understudied. We explore how seasonal and variable precipitation amounts and other small-scale landscape variables affect E. coli, total suspended solids (TSS), nitrogen-nitrate, orthophosphate, lead, and zinc concentrations in Portland, Oregon, USA. Mann–Whitney tests were used to detect differences in water quality between seasons and COVID-19 periods. Spearman’s rank correlation analysis was used to identify the relationship between water quality and explanatory variables. A Random Forest (RF) model was used to predict water quality using antecedent precipitation amounts and landscape variables as inputs. The performance of RF was compared with that of ordinary least squares (OLS). Mann–Whitney tests identified statistically significant differences in all pollutant concentrations (except TSS) between the wet and dry seasons. Nitrate was the only pollutant to display statistically significant reductions in median concentrations (from 1.5 mg/L to 1.04 mg/L) during the COVID-19 lockdown period, likely associated with reduced traffic volumes. Spearman’s correlation analysis identified the highest correlation coefficients between one-day precipitation amounts and E. coli, lead, zinc, and TSS concentrations. Road length is positively associated with E. coli and zinc. The Random Forest (RF) model best predicts orthophosphate concentrations (R2 = 0.58), followed by TSS (R2 = 0.54) and nitrate (R2 = 0.46). E. coli was the most difficult to model and had the highest RMSE, MAE, and MAPE values. Overall, the Random Forest model outperformed OLS, as evaluated by RMSE, MAE, MAPE, and R2. The Random Forest was an effective approach to modeling pollutant concentrations using both categorical seasonal and COVID data along with continuous rain and landscape variables to predict water quality in urban streams. Implementing optimization techniques can further improve the model’s performance and allow researchers to use a machine learning approach for water quality modeling.

Vegetation Dispersion, Interspersion, and Landscape Preference.

The spatial aggregation/dispersion of the vegetation in a landscape affects landscape texture, with potentially important implications for its perception. The aim of the study was to investigate how plant dispersion and interspersion in small-scale landscapes could affect garden preference. Dispersion referred to the proximity and distance between plants, and interspersion referred to the degree of intermixing between plants of different species. Fifty-six participants evaluated 40 pairs of landscapes that differed in terms of plant dispersion or plant interspersion. Participants were asked to rate their preference for each pair of landscapes. Furthermore, eye movements were recorded during the viewing time, and the number of fixations and fixation time were computed for each landscape image. Overall, plants arranged in a more dispersed and a more interspersed design resulted in a higher landscape preference. Dispersion was more effective than interspersion in affecting landscape preference. The number of fixations and fixation time were higher when viewing landscapes with plants arranged in a high-dispersion and high-interspersion layout.

Variation in diet of frugivorous bats in fragments of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest associated with vegetation density

AbstractSpecies distribution and persistence have long been known to vary with landscape structure; however, continued human activities in altered landscapes raise many questions as to how habitat fragmentation impacts the biology of persistent animal populations. Using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis, we examined interspecific variation in the diet of frugivorous bats among remnant habitat patches of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. We hypothesized that the diet of individuals captured in habitat patches would be different than those captured in contiguous habitats. We predicted that bats would alter their realized dietary niche breadth, taking food items (i.e., fruits or insects) according to landscape structure. However, more mobile species should be less impacted by small-scale landscape changes. We predicted that (1) a wide-ranging species (Artibeus lituratus), which move through open areas, will be less affected by small-scale landscape attributes, patch size, composition, and isolation; while (2) two narrow-ranging species (Carollia perspicillata and Sturnira lilium) will have more variation between populations in niche breadth and isotopic ratio ranges dependant on the local environment. Using Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC) to rank a priori selected candidate models to explain variation, we found that fragment composition, largely involving vegetation density rather than spatial aspects of landscape structure (i.e., patch area, isolation) best explained diet variation in frugivorous bats. Additionally, there was evidence that wide-ranging A. lituratus were less impacted by differences in the landscape than narrow-ranging species. This supports the prediction that bats resident to fragments have altered feeding behavior, in response to environmental perturbation.

Individual heterogeneity influences the effects of translocation on urban dispersal of an invasive reptile

BackgroundInvasive reptiles pose a serious threat to global biodiversity, but early detection of individuals in an incipient population is often hindered by their cryptic nature, sporadic movements, and variation among individuals. Little is known about the mechanisms that affect the movement of these species, which limits our understanding of their dispersal. Our aim was to determine whether translocation or small-scale landscape features affect movement patterns of brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis), a destructive invasive predator on the island of Guam.MethodsWe conducted a field experiment to compare the movements of resident (control) snakes to those of snakes translocated from forests and urban areas into new urban habitats. We developed a Bayesian hierarchical model to analyze snake movement mechanisms and account for attributes unique to invasive reptiles by incorporating multiple behavioral states and individual heterogeneity in movement parameters.ResultsWe did not observe strong differences in mechanistic movement parameters (turning angle or step length) among experimental treatment groups. We found some evidence that translocated snakes from both forests and urban areas made longer movements than resident snakes, but variation among individuals within treatment groups weakened this effect. Snakes translocated from forests moved more frequently from pavement than those translocated from urban areas. Snakes translocated from urban areas moved less frequently from buildings than resident snakes. Resident snakes had high individual heterogeneity in movement probability.ConclusionsOur approach to modeling movement improved our understanding of invasive reptile dispersal by allowing us to examine the mechanisms that influence their movement. We also demonstrated the importance of accounting for individual heterogeneity in population-level analyses, especially when management goals involve eradication of an invasive species.

Landscape structure of the Iya river basin

The article deals the landscape structure of the Iya river basin (left tributary of the Oka river). Landscape analysis was conducted in order to identify landscape-hydrological conditions of flood formation in 2019. Since the available small-scale landscape maps for the study area did not meet the requirement of the scientific issue in detail, a landscape map was compiled at a scale of 1: 500 000. The territory is heterogeneous in its physical and geographical conditions and topographic and humidification features, which resulted in formation of different landscapes and different types of intralandscape differentiation. We used a standard set of data to create the landscape map of the Iya river basin at a scale of 1: 500 000: electronic multi-scale topographic maps, Landsat 7 and 8 satellite images, digital terrain model, slope steepness and exposure maps, small-scale landscape, geobotanical and soil maps. We based on the landscape classification, which was developed for the map “Landscapes of the South of Eastern Siberia”. The landscape diversity of the basin is represented by 39 groups of facies, united in 17 geoms and 4 classes of geoms. The landscapes of the mountainous, foothill-plain and upland-plain parts of the Iya River basin are substantially different in their appearance, characteristics of individual components, and their nature. The area of landscape units increases from southwest to northeast as the absolute height and vertical dissection of the relief decrease, their diversity increases towards the foothill part of the Iya river basin.

城市小型景观水体溶存N2O浓度及排放通量特征

淡水生态系统是大气中N₂O的重要排放源，受到国内外广泛关注。城市小型景观水体作为区域淡水系统的重要组成，具有环境容量小，受人类活动干扰强烈，其N₂O排放特征及影响机制并不清楚。选择重庆大学城8个典型景观水体和2个城市外围的自然水体（对照）作为研究对象，利用顶空法和漂浮箱法对水体溶存N₂O浓度及排放通量进行季节性监测，并通过分析生境特征及水环境特征，探究城市小型景观水体N₂O排放特征及关键影响因素。结果表明：1）小型景观水体TN、NO₃^--N、NH₄⁺-N、NO₂^--N含量总体偏低但变异性极强（变化范围分别为0.31-1.47 mg/L、0.05-0.79 mg/L、0.03-0.14 mg/L、0.00-0.04 mg/L），硝态氮是主要的氮形态；景观水体氮丰度远高于外围的自然水体；2）10个小型水体N₂O浓度范围为16.51-158.96 nmol/L，平均为（47.60±21.47） nmol/L，均处于过饱和状态；漂浮箱法实测8个景观水体N₂O排放通量均值为（0.13±0.05）mmol m^-2 d^-1，是对照水体的1.3-5.2倍，高于大部分已有研究结果，是大气N₂O的排放热源；3）景观水体N₂O排放通量与水体各形态氮含量呈显著的正相关关系，较高的N负荷和强烈的氮转化过程是导致景观水体成为N₂O排放热源的主要因子，水体N含量可以作为景观水体N₂O排放强度的有效指示因子；同时水生植物分布对水体N₂O排放影响显著，有植物分布的水域比开敞水域高1.4倍；4）漂浮箱法和边界层模型法对小型景观水体N₂O排放通量的监测结果呈较好的线性关系，但不同季节仍存在着一定差异，需要进一步优化模型估算方法；5）水体N₂O排放通量对温度的季节性变化较为敏感，呈夏季最高，春、秋季次之，冬季最低的季节模式。本研究强调，城市小型景观水体具有较高的N₂O排放速率，在区域氮循环及全球淡水系统温室气体排放清单中具有不可忽视的作用，在未来研究中应得到更多关注。;Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is an important greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and stratospheric ozone destruction. Freshwater ecosystem, acting as a sink of the terrestrial and anthropogenic nitrogen, continuously processes nitrogen loading and emits N₂O to atmosphere. Human perturbation of the global nitrogen cycle has seriously increased nitrogen loading and N₂O emission from aquatic ecosystems and gained widespread attention. Urban small-scale landscape water bodies, as a significant component of the regional freshwater systems but small environmental capacity, are strongly disturbed by human activities and have an unclear nitrogen processing efficiency. As result of small area, the N₂O emission from urban small landscape waters has not been concerned world widely. In this study, we selected eight typical landscape water bodies and two natural water bodies in Chongqing, and carried out four seasonal investigations of the dissolved N₂O concentrations and N₂O fluxes from the surface water by floating chamber method and headspace method in order to clarify the spatiotemporal variations and the key influencing factors of N₂O emission from small landscape waters. The results showed that: 1) TN, NO₃^--N, NH₄⁺-N, and NO₂^--N concentrations in the sampling water bodies were generally low but significantly different from each other with range of 0.31-1.47 mg/L, 0.046-0.789 mg/L, 0.031-0.141 mg/L, 0.003-0.041 mg/L, respectively. NO₃^--N was the main nitrogen form in landscape waters. Besides, the nitrogen abundance of landscape waters was significantly higher than that of the natural waters. 2) The dissolved N₂O concentrations in all sampling waters ranged from 16.51-158.96 nmol/L,average of (47.60±21.47)nmol/L, and were all observably oversaturated with N₂O relative to atmospheric equilibrium, acting as net N₂O sources to the atmosphere. The N₂O concentrations in the eight landscape waters were two times higher than those in the tow natural water bodies. The average N₂O fluxes measured by floating chamber method from eight landscape water bodies were (0.13±0.05) mmol m^-2 d^-1, approximately 1.3-5.2 times higher than those from the natural waters, and also higher than most of the other reports. Our results highlighted that the small urban landscape waters would act as important and nonnegligible sources of N₂O to atmosphere. 3) There was a significantly positive correlation between N₂O flux and nitrogen contents in landscape waters, indicating that nitrogen content could be used as effective indicators of N₂O emission from landscape waters. High nitrogen loading and strong nitrogen biogeochemical processes were key drivers for the high N₂O flux in landscape water bodies. In addition, the distribution of aquatic plants in the small landscape water bodies could enhance the N₂O emissions and create N₂O emission hotspot in the same water body. 4) We also evaluated the availability of floating chamber method and boundary layer model for the monitoring of N₂O emissions from small landscape water bodies. It was found that the N₂O fluxes derived from boundary layer model had a good linear relationship with that derived from floating chamber method, despite there were still some discordance in different seasons. 5) The N₂O fluxes from urban small landscape water bodies were sensitive to the seasonal variation of temperature, and presented obviously seasonal patterns with the highest values in summer, intermediate values in spring and autumn, and the lowest in winter. This study emphasized that urban small landscape waters had high N₂O emission rate and played a crucial part in the regional nitrogen cycle and N₂O budget of global freshwater system, thus should be paid more attention in future research.

Visitors’ satisfaction and evaluation to walk on the trails of forest: evidence from the national forest of Akasawa, Japan

In the recent decade, people’s interest for forests has increased tremendously throughout the globe. So, providing good forest landscape space to visitors has become an important issue for the landscape designers. Because, good forest resource planning and development can not only drive the sustainable development of the forest industry, but also its ripple effect can induce improvement in agricultural industry and economy in the region. The present study identified the evaluative behaviors among visitors walking on the trails of Akasawa national recreational forest, the birthplace of forest bathing in Japan. The study determined the factors that influenced the satisfaction rates of the visitors. The significance of this study is not only to improve the planning and design of the forest space itself, but also to provide theoretical guidance for the planning of the regional landscape of the rural areas attached to it. The study results revealed, visitors’ subjects for evaluation changed with the surrounding environment. While visitors appreciated large-scale landscape elements, such as “large-size trees” and “buttress roots” within coniferous forests. They valued small-scale landscape elements such as “flowering plants” within broad-leaved or mixed forests. Another important issue came out as a result of the present study is that the light and dark changes in the forest walking trail can continuously awaken the evaluation behavior of tourists. In this study visitors displayed evaluative behaviors most frequently on the Mukaiyama Course. It is rich in different types of forest stands and has variance illumination levels. Factors that influence the satisfaction rates of visitors were “landscape”, “vegetation”, “trail condition” and “ease of walking”. Factors that influence the frequency of evaluative behaviors included “landscapes” surrounding the trails and “ease of walking”. Through this study we can see that when we need to plan the forest spatial walking trails, it is very necessary to consider small-scale landscape elements, rich in different types of forest stands with varying illumination levels.

Classification of Atlantic Coastal Sand Dune Vegetation Using In Situ, UAV, and Airborne Hyperspectral Data

Mapping coastal dune vegetation is critical to understand dune mobility and resilience in the context of climate change, sea level rise, and increased anthropogenic pressure. However, the identification of plant species from remotely sensed data is tedious and limited to broad vegetation communities, while such environments are dominated by fragmented and small-scale landscape patterns. In June 2019, a comprehensive multi-scale survey including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), hyperspectral ground, and airborne data was conducted along approximately 20 km of a coastal dune system in southwest France. The objective was to generate an accurate mapping of the main sediment and plant species ground cover types in order to characterize the spatial distribution of coastal dune stability patterns. Field and UAV data were used to assess the quality of airborne data and generate a robust end-member spectral library. Next, a two-step classification approach, based on the normalized difference vegetation index and Random Forest classifier, was developed. Results show high performances with an overall accuracy of 100% and 92.5% for sand and vegetation ground cover types, respectively. Finally, a coastal dune stability index was computed across the entire study site. Different stability patterns were clearly identified along the coast, highlighting for the first time the high potential of this methodology to support coastal dune management.

Adaptation of wild boar (Sus scrofa) activity in a human-dominated landscape

BackgroundWild boars (Sus scrofa L.) are globally widely distributed, and their populations have increased in Europe during recent decades. Encounters between humans and wild boars are rare because of the predominantly nocturnal lifestyle of the latter, and wild boar management by hunting is a challenging task. Animal activity patterns are important for understanding the behaviour of a species. However, knowledge of detailed temporal patterns and an understanding of the drivers of wild boar activity at a fine temporal scale are lacking. Of special relevance for human–wild boar interactions (e.g., encounters, conflicts, and management) is the question of whether nocturnal activity depends on anthropogenic factors and, particularly, how local hunting regimes may affect activity patterns. We used GPS telemetry and acceleration measurements to shed light on this part of wild boar behaviour, observing 34 animals in Central Europe. Animals were tracked along a gradient of hunting pressure from hunting-free areas to areas with low or high hunting pressure. Fitted generalised additive models allowed predicting the probability of active behaviour under differing disturbance regimes precisely to day of year and time of day.ResultsThe wild boars were predominantly nocturnal, with peak activity at approximately midnight. However, the data showed increased activity during daylight for wild boars that used no-hunting zones or reduced-hunting zones. Large areas with low disturbance levels promoted activity during daylight more than smaller areas with an intermediate disturbance regime. High air temperatures and locations within forests reduced the probability of active behaviour, whereas proximity to tracks used for forestry or agriculture was accompanied by a higher probability of activity.ConclusionsWe conclude that wild boars flexibly adjust their activity to their local environmental conditions, considering disturbances at the scale of long-term home ranges as well as actual small-scale landscape quality. Entire wild boar home ranges should be covered in the delineation of reserves intending to stimulate activity during daylight.

Characterizing urban butterfly populations: the case for purposive point-count surveys

Developing effective butterfly monitoring strategies is key to understanding how butterflies interact with urban environments, and, in turn, to developing local conservation practices. We investigated two urban habitat types (public gardens and restored/reconstructed prairies) and compared three survey methods (Pollard transects, purposive point counts, and random point counts) to determine which was most productive for detecting butterflies and assessing family diversity. We conducted 66 butterfly surveys by using each method (198 total) from May through September in 2015 and 2016 at six sites (three public gardens and three prairies) in Ames, Ankeny and Des Moines, Iowa. All survey methods were used on 11 sampling dates at each site. Overall, we observed 2,227 butterflies representing 38 species: 1,076 in public gardens and 1,151 in prairie areas. We used a smaller data set standardized for survey effort, including 1,361 of these sightings, to compare survey methods and habitat types. Although there were no significant differences in number of butterfly sightings between the two habitats, more sightings (798) were documented by using purposive point counts when compared to Pollard transects (297) or random point counts (266) (for both comparisons, p < 0.0001). Occupancy modeling also indicated that purposive point counts were most effective in detecting certain species of butterflies, most notably those within the Pieridae (whites, sulphurs) and Papilionidae (swallowtails). We conclude that public gardens and restored/reconstructed prairies in urban settings can provide important butterfly habitat, and that purposive point-count surveys are most effective for detecting butterflies in these relatively small-scale landscape features.

Multilevel assessments reveal spatially scaled landscape patterns driving coastal fish assemblages

Ecological research, particularly in marine environments, tends to focus on single habitats and often single spatial scales, and thus not account for ecological processes operating at multiple spatial scales. Here we aim to explore how coastal fish assemblages are influenced by landscape patterns integrating multiple spatial scales, to assess the strength of these associations and to identify the most relevant spatial scales at which these associations occur. We use a multiscale approach through multilevel modelling to evaluate the association of landscape metrics with fish assemblages, at three nested spatial scales, in temperate coastal seascapes composed of seagrass meadows, sandy bottoms and rocky reefs. Landscape composition metrics, expressed as cover of vegetated habitats, significantly influenced fish assemblages at small (metres) and intermediate (hundred of metres) scales, while landscape configuration metrics did it at all three scales assessed (from metres to kilometres). Species richness was only influenced by small scale landscape patterns (cover of rocky reefs, positive association), whereas total abundance was associated with landscape patterns measured at small and intermediate scales, encompassing metrics associated with landscape composition (rocky reef cover, positive association), and those indicating landscape heterogeneity (negative association). Similarly, the abundances of different functional groups were influenced by metrics consistent with their mobility and their ecological and behavioural traits at all the spatial scales assessed. These results show how landscape patterns influence coastal fish assemblages, and particularly show that spatially scaled landscape patterns, measured in complex ecological systems as a whole, act simultaneously but not always equally on species assemblages.

Mapping and modelling past and future land use change in Europe’s cultural landscapes

Cultural landscapes are valued for their landscape character and cultural heritage. Yet, these often low-intensity, multifunctional landscapes are at risk of disappearance. Understanding how cultural landscapes might change under alternative futures is important for identifying where to target actions towards persistence of cultural landscapes. This study therefore aims to identify past and future land use changes in the European Union’s (EU’s) cultural landscapes. To do so, we overlay past and projected plausible future land change trajectories with the spatial distribution of cultural landscapes in the EU. Our results highlight a clear co-occurrence of specific land change trajectories and cultural landscape types. Past and future urbanization and agricultural abandonment are the land use change processes most strongly affecting small-scale, low-intensity agricultural landscapes that are valued by society. De-intensification is overrepresented in landscapes with a low management intensity. Past intensification was overrepresented in small-scale landscapes with a high value to society, while future intensification might concentrate on landscapes with a low intensity. Typical cultural landscapes show a strong variation of changes under different scenario conditions in terms of future landscape change. Scenario analysis revealed that some of the threats to cultural landscapes are related to agricultural policies, nature policies and other spatial restrictions. At the same time, these policies may also alleviate these threats when properly designed and targeted by accounting for the impacts they may have on cultural landscapes. Considering cultural landscapes more directly in decisions to be made for the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy period is needed, and could be achieved by a focus on landscape quality beyond the current focus on specific greening measures.

Weak evidence for fine-scale genetic spatial structure in three sedentary Amazonian understorey birds

The ecological characteristics of a species, along with small-scale landscape features are known to affect the patterns of genetic structure within populations. Due to dispersal limitation, closely-related individuals tend to be closer spatially, leading to spatial genetic structure. Physical barriers also may prevent individuals from dispersing further, and lead individuals on one side of a barrier to be more related than individuals from different sides. We tested these hypotheses by examining patterns of fine-scale spatial genetic structure within populations of three relatively sedentary Amazonian-forest understorey birds that differ in their ecological requirements. We sampled birds in a 10,000 ha reserve, covered by largely undisturbed old-growth forests and traversed by a central ridge. We found positive spatial genetic structure at short distances only for Percnostola rufifrons, a treefall-gap specialist. Positive genetic structure occurred at 6 km for Glyphorynchus spirurus, a solitary bark-forager; no spatial genetic structure was found for Gymnopithys rufigula, an army-ant follower. Individuals of none of the three species were more related on a given side of the ridgeline than between different sides but, at greater distances, there was a tendency of individuals located on opposite sides of the ridgeline to be less related than individuals located on the same side, for all species analysed. Our study indicates that local topographic features do not prevent, but likely reduce, gene flow within populations in continuous forests, and that the development of fine-scale spatial genetic structure may depend on the dispersal propensity of a species. Thus, studies of species assemblages need to account for the different ecological characteristics of the constituent species.