Landscape Ecology最新文献

Context: As cities seek to provide more habitat for wildlife, there may be unintended consequences of increasing tick-borne disease hazards. In the United States, the Northeast is both highly urban and a hotspot for blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) and tick-borne disease emergence. Though tick-borne disease was once considered a suburban and rural problem, tick-borne hazards in urban landscapes are increasing.

Objectives: We hypothesized that multi-scale ecological processes hierarchically contribute to tick-borne hazards across an urbanization gradient. Urban greenspaces with higher functional connectivity to deer movement would have higher deer occupancy at the 'ecological neighborhood' scale, resulting in increased blacklegged tick populations and pathogen infection at the scale of within greenspaces.

Methods: To evaluate our hypothesis, we used circuit theory methods to model the impact of functional connectivity on deer occupancy, blacklegged tick abundance, and pathogen infected ticks across an urbanization gradient. We sampled nymphal ticks during their peak activity and deployed wildlife cameras to detect deer at 38 greenspaces across New York City and Long Island, NY from 2022 to 2023.

Results: We found that functional connectivity significantly predicted deer occupancy with cascading effects on abundance of blacklegged nymphal ticks and Borrelia burgdorferi infection. We novelly identified a threshold of functional connectivity in urban areas necessary for deer occupancy, tick populations, and tick infection with B. burgdorferi, to emerge in urban environments.

Conclusions: We recommend targeted tick-borne hazard mitigation along this functional connectivity threshold as part of urban greenspace management plans. Additionally, we highlight the importance of examining multi-scale landscape drivers of host, tick, and pathogen interactions.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02101-4.

Context: Land use change and deforestation drive both biodiversity loss and zoonotic disease transmission in tropical countrysides. For mosquito communities that can include disease vectors, forest loss has been linked to reduced biodiversity and increased vector presence. The spatial scales at which land use and tree cover shape mosquito communities present a knowledge gap relevant to both biodiversity and public health.

Objectives: We investigated the responses of mosquito species richness and Aedes albopictus disease vector presence to land use and to tree cover surrounding survey sites at different spatial scales. We also investigated species compositional turnover across land uses and along environmental gradients.

Methods: We paired a field survey of mosquito communities in agricultural, residential, and forested lands in rural southern Costa Rica with remotely sensed tree cover data. We compared mosquito richness and vector presence responses to tree cover measured across scales from 30 to 1000 m, and across land uses. We analyzed mosquito community compositional turnover between land uses and along environmental gradients of tree cover, temperature, elevation, and geographic distance.

Results: Tree cover was both positively correlated with mosquito species richness and negatively correlated with the presence of the common invasive dengue vector Ae. albopictus at small spatial scales of 90-250 m. Land use predicted community composition and Ae. albopictus presence.

Conclusions: The results suggest that local tree cover preservation and expansion can support mosquito species richness and reduce disease vector presence. The identified spatial range at which tree cover shapes mosquito communities can inform the development of land management practices to protect both ecosystem and public health.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02105-0.

Context: Lakes can provide thermal refugia effects by buffering shoreline and inland temperatures, potentially delaying forest transitions. However, this effect has not been quantified for the majority of boreal Canada lakes, which are often excluded in general circulation model predictions of climate, thus potentially underestimating the effects of lake-mediated buffering.

Objectives: Here, we quantify the effects of varying lake morphometry on temperature buffering potential of 11 boreal lakes in central to western Canada. We aim to provide context for lake-mediated climate buffering in Canada's boreal forest.

Methods: We established inland transects at 11 lakes in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the NWT of Canada, with temperature stations at 10 m, 100 m, 1 km, 10 km, and 100 km from shore. We predicted the effects of lake characteristics on mean July temperature anomaly, net ice-off period temperature anomaly, and the proportion of coniferous trees at sites.

Results: July temperatures were coolest on the downwind side of lakes, within 10 km of shore, and at lakes with a high volume (R²c = 0.71), Near-shore sites were cooler than inland sites, particularly at a lower altitude above the lake and larger lake volumes (R²c = 0.66). Ice-off temperature anomalies were best predicted by the interaction between lake area and average lake depth (R²c = 0.55). Lastly, the proportion of coniferous trees at sites was best predicted by mean July temperature (R²c = 0.41).

Conclusions: We identified lakes across boreal Canada large enough to provide seasonal temperature buffering on their shoreline and nearshore forests, with an aim for inclusion in circulation models and to guide management and conservation efforts associated with lake-mediated climate refugia.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02146-5.

Context: Connectivity is a key property of water, enabling the flow of energy, material and individuals within and between sites. Climate and land use changes can profoundly modify connectivity, yet few studies have quantified the patterns in connectivity among lakes at national scales.

Objectives: Our objectives were: i) to examine relationships between a broad range of lake connectivity metrics, ii) to evaluate how lake connectivity varies nationally, regionally and in relation to land cover.

Methods: We calculated hundreds of metrics of freshwater connectivity for all lakes in Great Britain > 1 ha (n = 10,095), quantifying connectedness in their catchments and surrounding landscape. Patterns of metrics, as well as their correlations and inter-connectedness, were examined at multiple scales.

Results: Strong correlations existed within groups of metrics for lake, pond and river connectivity. However, both pond and river metrics varied independently of lake metrics. The most and least urban river basin districts showed noticeable differences in metric correlation. Lake area, pond count and river length in catchments were selected as a core set of connectivity metrics, which explain most of the variation across national and regional scales.

Conclusions: Connectivity metrics can be synthesised to core groups that are easily calculated and effectively account for lake, pond and river connectivity. From a landscape management perspective, hydrological connectivity was highest per unit area in the zone nearest the lake. When interpreting ecological responses, the connectivity metric within each core group can be selected based on suitability and data availability. The minimum set of three metrics is recommended to support comparative, global studies.

Context: Historical land use is thought to have influenced plant community diversity, composition and function through the local persistence of taxa that reflect ecological conditions of the past.

Objectives: We tested for the effects of historical land use on contemporary plant species richness, composition, and ecological preferences in the grassland vegetation of Central Europe.

Methods: We analyzed 6975 vegetation plots sampled between 1946 and 2021 in dry, mesic, and wet grasslands in the borderland between Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Using 1819-1853 military maps, we assigned each plot to a historical land-use category (arable land, forest, grassland, settlement, permanent crop, and water body). We modeled the response of species richness, composition, and plant ecological preferences to the historical land use including contemporary covariates.

Results: Nineteenth-century land use explained little overall variation in species richness and composition, whereas more variation was explained by contemporary environmental conditions. However, we found that ecological preferences of some species were associated with specific historical land uses. Specifically, species more frequently occurring in historically forested grasslands showed lower light and disturbance frequency indicator values, while those associated with former settlements displayed higher disturbance severity indicator values.

Conclusions: We conclude that signatures of specific land-use conversions, including the restoration of grasslands in human-impacted areas, may still be detectable in grasslands even 200 years into the future. However, while local historical land use influences the occurrence of some species based on their ecological preferences, these effects do not significantly influence community species richness and total composition.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-024-02016-6.

Context: Habitat loss is widely recognized as a major threat to biodiversity, but the effects of habitat fragmentation, whether positive or negative, remain controversial. It has been suggested that these effects vary depending on the spatial scale studied (patch vs. landscape) and the biodiversity metric considered (α-, β-, or γ-diversity).

Objectives: We aimed to test the contrasting effects of habitat fragmentation on insect diversity across different scales. Specifically, we tested whether habitat fragmentation negatively affect α-diversity at the patch scale, while having positive effects on β- and γ-diversity at the landscape scale.

Methods: We conducted surveys of Lepidoptera and Orthoptera in 18 dry meadows of varying size and isolation in Switzerland. We assessed the effects of patch size and connectivity on species diversity (α-diversity), analyzed species turnover (β-diversity) between patches, and performed SLOSS analyses to compare cumulative species richness (γ-diversity) between patches.

Results: Patch size and connectivity positively influenced α-diversity for both Lepidoptera and Orthoptera. However, at the landscape scale, multiple small patches supported equal or even higher γ-diversity than a single large patch of equivalent area. β-diversity increased with geographical distance between patches, indicating greater species turnover between more distant patches.

Conclusion: Our results highlight that the effects of habitat fragmentation, whether positive or negative, are scale-dependent. While habitat fragmentation negatively affects α-diversity at the patch scale, it can enhance overall β- and γ-diversity at the landscape scale. These findings suggest that conservation strategies should consider both large and small habitat patches to maximize biodiversity.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02133-w.

Context: Historically, large-scale outbreaks of the European spruce bark beetle were initiated mainly by windthrows. However, after 2018, a severe drought triggered the hitherto largest bark beetle outbreak observed in Europe, signalling a major shift in the disturbance regime.

Objectives: Develop and test an approach that allows simulating this novel disturbance dynamics and evaluate landscape-scale compound impacts of wind- and drought-initiated outbreaks throughout the twenty-first century.

Methods: We incorporated drought-initiated outbreaks into the forest landscape simulation model iLand, using critical values of vapour pressure deficit as the outbreak trigger. Forest management records and remote sensing-based disturbance maps were used to derive model parameters and evaluate simulated dynamics in a Central European forest landscape (41,000 hectares). The period 1961-2021 was used for model evaluation, and the years until 2100 for scenario analysis.

Results: Incorporating drought as outbreak trigger led to a notable decoupling of wind and bark beetle disturbances, which have historically formed a typical disturbance cascade in European forests. While forest growing stock and species composition were resilient to a wind-dominated disturbance regime, this resilience diminished under the compounded impact of wind- and drought-triggered disturbances. The new disturbance regime caused a persistent decline in Norway spruce and resulted in an overall decrease in landscape-level growing stock.

Conclusions: Our findings underscore the urgent need for new approaches to evaluate increasingly complex disturbance dynamics and suggest that the future impacts of bark beetles on forest landscapes may be greater than previously anticipated.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02125-w.

Context: Understanding the effects of landscape composition on biodiversity is crucial, especially in human-dominated agricultural landscapes. This study focuses on dung beetles, an ecologically significant group, to explore how landscape composition and configuration influences species richness, abundance and community structure of dung beetles in Eastern Austrian agricultural areas.

Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between landscape composition and dung beetle communities. Specifically, we aim to determine how different habitat types within agricultural landscapes affect dung beetle species richness, abundance and community structure.

Methods: We sampled dung beetles across 14 study landscapes, each with a diameter of 1 km, varying from homogenous landscapes dominated by annual crops to highly heterogeneous landscapes with diverse habitats such as woodlands, hedgerows, and set-aside land (areas left fallow or uncultivated). The study design focused on comparing dung beetle communities across these varying landscape compositions.

Results: Our results reveal that dung beetle species richness is positively correlated with woodland cover, set-aside land and hedgerow length, while beetle abundance is associated with woodland cover and hedgerow length. Additionally, dung beetle communities were highly nested, with communities from landscapes with less woodland cover nested within those from landscapes with higher woodland cover. This underscores the importance of heterogeneously structured landscapes, such as woodlands, for maintaining diverse dung beetle communities. These findings highlight that a decline in structural diversity, often caused by agricultural intensification, likely reduces the ecosystem services provided by dung beetles.

Conclusions: The study's findings emphasize the significance of maintaining landscape structural diversity to support dung beetle communities and their associated ecosystem services. Recommendations for landscape management and planning include promoting heterogeneous landscapes with set-aside land to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in agricultural areas.

Context: Throughout their annual cycle and life stages, animals depend on a variety of habitats to meet their vital needs. However, habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation are making it increasingly difficult for mobile species such as birds to find suitable habitats. Wetlands are highly productive systems of great importance to many animals, but their continued degradation threatens their capacity to support different species, including waterbirds. In this context, waterbirds are likely to benefit not only from the creation and management of protected wetlands, but also from the existence of anthropogenic wetlands, managed for economic or recreational activities.

Objectives: We investigated the habitat use of Eurasian spoonbills within an extensive and heterogeneous area in Southern France, and how it varies across the annual cycle and for different age classes.

Methods: We tracked 91 spoonbills of different ages throughout their annual cycle and tested for overall differences in the use of strongly protected areas in Camargue between periods and age classes. Additionally, we identified the main sites used and their management practices.

Results: Our study shows that privately managed wetland areas play a complementary role to strongly protected areas: they may provide spoonbills (and other waterbirds) with suitable foraging habitat at certain periods of the year when these are less available in strongly protected areas.

Conclusions: This study illustrates how the spoonbill, a moderately specialized species, is benefiting from current global changes due to its ability to use suitable habitats, natural and artificial, in fragmented landscapes. Nevertheless, reliance on privately managed wetland areas may have serious consequences for species that are highly dependent on them, and thus, habitat management promoting natural conditions may be crucial to maintain species resilience. It is therefore essential to understand how specific management actions may affect waterbird presence and habitat use, not only to enhance the effectiveness of conservation efforts, but also to promote wetland connectivity and species resilience, particularly in fragmented landscapes.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-024-02017-5.

Context: Landscape changes can alter habitat availability for species over time. There can be a time-lagged response of species to such changes, leading to possible extinction debts. In human-modified landscapes, understanding these dynamics is critical to inform conservation actions and mitigate biodiversity loss.

Objectives: This study examines temporal trajectories of habitat availability over 113 years from 1899 to 2012 in the Swiss Plateau and evaluates their relationship with current occurrences of an indicator generalist species group that inhabits mosaic agricultural landscapes.

Methods: Time-series of resistance surfaces were derived from roads and buildings. Resistance kernels were then used to calculate the Amount of Habitat Available (AHA) metric across five maximum dispersal distances. Spatio-temporal patterns of AHA were analysed using multi-dimensional K-Means time-series clustering. The clusters were evaluated based on their overlap with species occurrences. The suitability of AHA to predict species presences was also determined. The results were compared with current best-practice approaches that use contemporary landscape data and fixed-shape moving-windows.

Results: Ten AHA trajectories were identified, showing variable patterns of decline in AHA over time. Time-series clusters with higher historical AHA were associated significantly with greater contemporary species occurrences. The AHA in 1933 showed the strongest link to current species presences, highlighting a time-lagged response. The presented approach outperformed the current best-practice approaches.

Conclusions: Historical trajectories of habitat availability are essential for understanding species occurrences and time-lagged responses to landscape changes. The presented approach is generic and effectively links historical dynamics to current biodiversity, supporting conservation planning in human-modified landscapes.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02124-x.