Landscape Ecology最新文献

Context

In 2005 Marc Antrop published the article “Why landscapes of the past are important for the future” that became a milestone for traditional and cultural landscapes research and planning, highlighting their multifunctional role and importance for sustainable development.

Objectives

After 20 years, this paper analyzes the current role of traditional rural landscapes in relation to the concept of Ecosystem Services, to understand if and why these landscapes are still important for the future of rural areas and communities.

Results

Traditional rural landscapes still represent a resource capable of providing a wide range of Ecosystem Services to local communities, having a potential key-role for sustainable development. Institutional initiatives for their conservation and valorization testify a growing interest towards these systems and related ecological knowledge. In the context of climate change, they represent examples of sustainable adaptation and resilient strategies and practices. The preservation of these landscapes often rely only on farmers’ everyday work, while the benefits are enjoyed by the whole society; therefore, adequate support by governments and institutions should be provided to farmers who apply traditional and sustainable practices.

Conclusions

Traditional landscapes should be preserved not as museums, but only making them the multifunctional basis of rural society and economy by applying the principles of dynamic conservation.

Context

Understanding the movement of bioaerosols, such as spores and pollen, through the atmosphere is important for a broad spectrum of landscape research, including agricultural fungal outbreaks and pollen threats to public health. As spores and pollen can be transported in the air over large distances, the use of aircraft has historically played a role in detecting and mapping their presence in the lower atmosphere.

Objectives

We present a simple alternative to costly and specialized aircraft and associated equipment that are typically used in the study of spores and pollen in the atmosphere.

Methods

We use 3D printable components and common lab supplies mounted on an uncrewed aircraft (UA). Conveniently, this setup does not require additional electronic components to control collection during flight, using the UA landing gear mechanism instead.

Results

We demonstrate that this apparatus can collect fungal spores in the atmosphere and describe potential impacts by the environment and experimental protocol on collection efficiency. These include the effects of: (1) competing airflows from UA rotors, flight trajectories, and wind, (2) flight altitude, and (3) particle size and Petri dish collection medium.

Conclusions

Complex biological mechanisms and atmospheric dynamics dictate the release, transport, and deposition of bioaerosols. Economical methods to sample bioaerosols in the lower atmosphere can increase the amount and type of data collected and unlock new understanding. The methodology presented here provides an economical method to sample bioaerosols that can help improve landscape-level understanding of the dispersal of bioaerosols.

Context

The Regional Safe and Just Operating Space (RSJOS), serving as a conceptual framework that supports environmental governance and policy formulation, has garnered growing recognition. However, the application of ecosystem services in the RSJOS framework still constitutes a knowledge gap in the realm of landscape sustainability science.

Objectives

Our objective was to discuss the role of ecosystem services within the Safe and Just Operating Space (SJOS) framework to promote regional sustainability.

Methods

We analyzed the relationship between ecosystem services and the SJOS framework, including their similarities in core concepts and research objectives, as well as how ecosystem services relate to environmental ceilings and social foundations. Based on these analyses, we discussed the potential and challenges of bridging safe space and just space using an ecosystem services approach.

Results

We found that ecosystem services have the potential to help understand the interaction between ecological ceilings and social foundations when assessing RSJOS, using ecosystem service flows to link “safe” and “just” boundaries. However, challenges in applying ecosystem services to assess RSJOS can limit the benefits of this framework.

Conclusions

The examination of RSJOS should extend beyond snapshots of the current regional state and encompass their inherent interconnections and impact mechanisms. This broader perspective can subsequently inform policy decisions. Ecosystem services play a pivotal role in addressing the challenges within the RSJOS framework.

Context

Birds, as indicators of biodiversity, are experiencing habitat reduction and loss due to landscape changes. Evidence is mounting that the response of bird richness to landscape patterns remains controversial on a global scale. In this study, we conducted a quantitative global synthesis to gain a comprehensive understanding of this relationship. Our findings contribute to the development of bird conservation strategies that align with the objectives of SDG15.

Objective

Through a quantitative review, this study investigated the effects of landscape patterns on bird richness and analyzed the sources of heterogeneity in the results.

Methods

A random-effects model was utilized to merge the impacts of landscape metrics on bird richness, and a meta-regression analysis was performed to investigate the origins of heterogeneity.

Results

The review encompassed 101 articles from 51 countries worldwide. Field sampling emerged as the primary method for acquiring bird data, with multiple linear regression and generalized linear models as the main analytical approaches. The meta-analysis results highlighted landscape area as a crucial factor influencing bird richness. Regarding landscape composition, the proportions of forests, shrublands, and water bodies positively impacted bird richness, while agricultural land and urban land had negative effects. The relationship between landscape complexity and bird richness is influenced by factors, including net primary productivity (NPP) and precipitation. Landscape heterogeneity was identified as a contributing factor to increased species richness.

Conclusion

Compared to landscape complexity, indicators of landscape composition and heterogeneity are more suitable as reference tools for bird conservation. The results of landscape complexity exhibit variation. Moreover, our findings underscore the crucial role of preserving forested areas in supporting bird diversity, emphasizing the necessity to account for regional variations when establishing forest cover thresholds.

Context

Landscape patterns result from complex social-ecological interactions, such as urban-rural integration which is especially notable in China. However, the impacts of urban-rural integration on landscape sustainability remain understudied.

Objectives

Our objectives were to examine the impacts of urban-rural integration on landscape patterns and to explore its implications for landscape sustainability.

Methods

The study area is the Changsha metropolitan area in central China, which has undergone urban-rural integration since 2005. A three-step approach was used to (1) assess the spatiotemporal patterns of urban-rural integration dynamics with a multidimensional indicator system, (2) quantify landscape pattern dynamics using landscape metrics, and (3) explore the main drivers and processes involved in urban-rural integration responsible for the observed changes in landscape patterns through a time-fixed effects model.

Results

Our findings reveal a significant increase in the level of urban-rural integration in the Changsha metropolitan area from 2005 to 2020. Concurrently, the regional landscape has experienced increasing trends characterized by the loss and fragmentation of natural and agricultural patches, as well as heightened connectivity among constructed patches. Urban-rural integration exerts notable impacts on landscape patterns through processes such as societal convergence, economic interaction, technology sharing, and spatial interlinkage, subsequently influencing landscape (un)sustainability.

Conclusions

The different drivers and processes of urban-rural integration have varying effects on landscape patterns, with complex and intertwined impacts on landscape sustainability. Therefore, integrated landscape governance is imperative for addressing the disadvantages of urban-rural integration while strategically leveraging its advantages in various social-ecological contexts.

Context

Conservation in working landscapes is critical for halting biodiversity declines and ensuring farming system sustainability. However, concerns that wildlife may carry foodborne pathogens has created pressure on farmers to remove habitat and reduce biodiversity, undermining farmland conservation. Nonetheless, simplified farming landscapes may host bird communities that carry higher foodborne disease risks.

Objectives

We analyzed the effects of local farming practices and surrounding landscapes on bird communities and food-safety risks across 30 California lettuce farms. Specifically, we sought to determine how farmland diversification affects bird diversity, fecal contamination, and foodborne pathogen incidences, thereby identifying potential tradeoffs between managing farms for bird conservation versus food safety.

Methods

We surveyed birds at 227 point-count locations, quantified fecal contamination along 120 transects, and assayed 601 bird feces for pathogenic E. coli, Campylobacter spp., and Salmonella spp. We then used hierarchical models to quantify effects of farm management and landscape context on bird communities and food-safety risks.

Results

Surrounding ungrazed seminatural areas were associated with higher bird diversity, more species of conservation concern, and fewer flocks that may increase risks from foodborne pathogens. In contrast, on-farm diversification practices and surrounding grazing lands offered weaker bird conservation benefits. Surrounding grazed lands were associated with more potentially pathogenic bird feces in crop fields.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that habitat conservation around produce farms could support bird conservation without increasing foodborne pathogens, especially on farms further from grazing lands. Thus, interventions that diversify farming systems offer potential to simultaneously conserve biodiversity and provide safe food for human consumption.

Context

Optimizing landscape patterns by considering ecosystem services and human well-being is crucial for landscape sustainability research. Such optimization process shall also consider multiple stakeholders’ perspectives, interests and benefits, which remain less well investigated.

Objectives

The study aims to integrate ecosystem services and land-use scenario analysis to design sustainable landscapes. The overall goal of spatial optimization is to explore pathways towards sustainable development.

Methods

This study uses the Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System as a representative agricultural landscape. It analyzes the spatiotemporal pattern of the landscape from 1975 to 2019. The market value method, InVEST model, and MaxEnt model are used to quantify the ecosystem services of the landscape. The analytic hierarchy process is used to set the weight of ecosystem services from the perspective of three stakeholder groups. We compare the outcomes of different scenarios and assessed through emergy yield ratio, environmental loading ratio, and environmental sustainability index.

Results

Our results indicated that: (1) The scale of the Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond system decreased significantly from 1975 to 2019. (2) Among the six major ecosystem services, the average value of water purification service was the highest, while average value of mulberry supply service was the lowest. (3) Spatial optimization of the three design objectives, ‘sustainably intensify’, ‘increase landscape multifunctionality’, and ‘restore ecological integrity’, were primarily distributed in the study area’s eastern, central, and western regions, respectively. (4) All three stakeholder-oriented scenarios showed improvements in ecological quality or agricultural output.

Conclusions

Our study incorporates viewpoints of critical, diverse stakeholders in the assessment of ecosystem services and scenario analysis to establish sustainable and culturally important agricultural landscape. The framework and methods can help minimize environmental stress on the system, balance agricultural productivity and profitability, and enhance the sustainability of agricultural landscapes.

Context

The relationships between ecosystem services (ES) and human well-being (HWB) have been found to be influenced by geographic locations and socioeconomic development, and vary from local to global scales. However, there is a lack of comparative analyses at fine administrative scales such as town and village scales.

Objective

This study took the core region of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) of China as the study area to examine the spatial characteristics of the values of ES and the subjective satisfaction scores of HWB and then compare their relationships at the town and village scales.

Methods

The values of 9 ES indicators were quantified using the ecosystem service equivalent factor method, and the subjective satisfaction scores of 11 HWB indicators were investigated using the questionnaire survey. The ES-HWB relationships between 9 ES and 11 HWB measures in the study area were investigated using Spearman's correlation analysis.

Results

The value of ES per unit area in the study area in 2020 was about 15,202.90 USD/ha, nearly three times the average level in China, but the per capita value was relatively low, at 322.11 USD/person. The satisfaction score of HWB was relatively high, especially for the dimensions of social relations (4.46), health (4.26), and safety (4.22), based on a 5-point Likert scale. As spatial scales decreased from town to village scales and thematic scales increased from secondary to primary indicators, the strength of the ES-HWB correlations diminished and their direction changed as well. According to secondary indicators, most of the ES-HWB relationships were positive at the town scale but became negative or nonexistent at the village scale (e.g. the Spearman correlation coefficient between the value of raw material supply and the satisfaction score of leisure and entertainment shifted from 0.9 at the town scale to -0.51 at the village scale).

Conclusions

The correlation strength and direction of the ES-HWB relationships still changed with spatial and thematic scales at the town and village scales. Thus, better understanding the relationships requires studies at multiple and broader scales and calls for caution when using the aggregating indicators, because they can also lead to different ES-HWB relationships.

Context

Parapatric sister species are ideal for tests of ecological interactions. Pacific (Martes caurina) and American pine (M. americana) martens are economically and culturally valuable furbearers that hybridize in the north-central Rocky Mountains. Despite preliminary evidence of biased introgression, the hybrid zone has been geographically stable for 70 years, but interspecific ecological interactions have yet to be examined in detail.

Objectives

We test whether ecological interactions may influence the outcome of hybridization in this system. To that end, we estimate the fundamental niche of each species and gauge how suitability landscapes change when the two species are in contact.

Methods

We genotyped > 400 martens from the Rocky Mountain hybrid zone to diagnose individuals to species-level and identify putative hybrids. We then built range-wide ecological niche models for each species, excluding individuals in the hybrid zone, to approximate their respective fundamental niches. Those models were projected into the hybrid zone and compared with niche models trained on individuals within the hybrid zone to assess how niche dynamics change when the species are in sympatry.

Results

The fundamental niche of each species differed significantly, while the hybrid zone was equally suitable for both. Niches of each species based on models built within the hybrid zone showed that Pacific martens utilized significantly less suitable habitat than expected based on their range-wide fundamental niche, suggesting that species interactions shape local hybridization. We detected few admixed individuals (12%), with no evidence of directional (sex or species) biases. Interstate-90 further acts as a major dispersal barrier.

Conclusions

North American martens are currently managed as a single species by some state agencies, yet significant ecological and genetic differences indicate they should be managed separately. The observed ecological displacement of Pacific martens by American pine martens may partially explain the mixed success of historical, mixed-species wildlife translocations and cautions such translocations in the future. Landscape-scale consideration of ecological dynamics, in addition to molecular compatibility, will be essential to the success of future translocations.