We describe how large landscape-scale conservation initiatives involving local communities, NGOs and resource managers have engaged with landscape scientists with the goal of achieving landscape sustainability. We focus on two landscapes where local people, practitioners and landscape ecologists have co-produced knowledge to design conservation interventions.
ObjectiveWe seek to understand how landscape ecology can engage with practical landscape management to contribute to managing landscapes sustainably.
MethodsWe focus on two large tropical landscapes: the Sangha Tri-National landscape (Cameroon, Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic) and the Batéké-Léfini Landscape (Gabon and Republic of Congo). We evaluate (1) a participatory method used in the Sangha Tri-National landscape that embeds interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners within a landscape to apply transdisciplinary learning to landscape conservation and (2) a participatory landscape zoning method where interdisciplinary teams of conservation practitioners analyse local land and resource use in the Batéké-Léfini landscape.
ResultsWe find that landscape ecology’s tradition of understanding the historical context of resource use can inform landscape conservation practice and natural resource mapping. We also find that the Sangha Group provides an example for landscape ecology on how to integrate local people and their knowledge to better understand and influence landscape processes.
ConclusionsPlace-based engagement as well as the uptake of co-produced knowledge by policy makers are key in enabling sustainable landscapes. Success occurs when researchers, local communities and resource managers engage directly with landscape processes.
相似文献As agricultural demands for land continues to expand, strategies are urgently needed to balance agricultural production with biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provision in agricultural landscapes.
ObjectivesWe used a factorial landscape design to assess the relative contributions of forest proximity and local forest cover to bee diversity and the provision of coffee pollination services.
MethodsWe quantified bee diversity and fruit set in 24 sun-grown coffee fields in Southeast Region of Brazil that were selected following a factorial sampling design to test the independent effects of local forest cover (in a radius of 400 m) and proximity to forest fragments. To assess the impact of landscape simplification, we also evaluated local coffee cover.
ResultsBee richness and abundance were higher in the proximity of forest fragments, but only bee abundance decreased when the coffee cover dominated the surrounding landscapes. Coffee fruit set was 16% higher overall with bee visitations compared with bee exclusion and increased to 20% when coffee bushes were near forest fragments, and the coffee cover was low. Surprisingly, local forest cover did not affect the bee community or coffee fruit set.
ConclusionOur results provide clear evidence that the proximity of coffee crops to forest fragments can affect the abundance and richness of bees visiting the coffee flowers and thereby facilitate the provision of pollination services. The positive association between forest proximity and fruit set reinforces the importance of natural vegetation in enhancing bee diversity and, therefore, in the provision of pollination services. The negative effect of coffee cover on fruit set at the local scale suggests that the service demand can surpass the capacity of pollinators to provide it. These effects were independent of the local forest cover, although all studied landscapes had more than 20% remaining forest cover (within a 2 km radius), which is considered the extinction threshold for Atlantic Forest species. Interspersion of forest fragments and coffee plantations in regions with more than 20% of forest cover left could thus be a useful landscape management target for facilitating pollinator flows to coffee crops and thus for increasing coffee yields.
相似文献Management actions and land-use change can disrupt interdependent population processes, re-define population networks, and change source-sink dynamics. Yet we know little about the types of changes that can de-stabilize source-sink dynamics and how such changes could affect management decisions.
ObjectivesWe examined the degree to which source-sink status and strength could change under a range of management actions and land-use change scenarios including different patterns and extents of habitat loss, restoration, demographic improvements from parasitism control, and increased frequencies inter-population movement.
MethodsWe developed an empirically-rich, spatially explicit, individual-based model for the formerly endangered Black-capped vireo in Texas. We simulated the network-wide consequences of different kinds of changes and compared the resulting source-sink strength, status, and regional abundance across scenarios. We gauged source-sink stability by the degree to which system changes caused the reversal of source or sink status.
ResultsThe stability of source-sink characterizations differed with the type of change. Source-sink dynamics were less responsive to small changes to population structure and changes that minimally affected demographic conditions. Source-sink status was most responsive to changes that affected habitat patterns and quality.
ConclusionsAccurately classifying sources and sinks is challenging, particularly in variable and directionally changing systems. The stability of source-sink classifications depends on the type of management or land-use change. Management actions may need to weigh interventions that improve regional abundance against those that alter regional source-sink dynamics as abundance and source-sink states can be sensitive to different kinds of change.
相似文献Predicting ecosystem resilience is a challenge, especially as climate change alters disturbance regimes and conditions for recovery. Recent research has highlighted the importance of spatially-explicit disturbance and resilience processes to long-term ecosystem dynamics. “Neoecological” approaches characterize resilience mechanisms at relatively fine spatio-temporal resolutions, but results are difficult to extrapolate across broad temporal scales or climatic ranges. Paleoecological methodologies can consider the effects of climates that differ from today. However, they are often limited to coarse-grained spatio-temporal resolutions.
MethodsIn this synthesis, we describe implicit and explicit examples of studies that incorporate both neo- and paleoecological approaches. We propose ways to build on the strengths of both approaches in an explicit and proactive fashion.
ResultsLinking the two approaches is a powerful way to surpass their respective limitations. Aligning spatial scales is critical: Paleoecological sampling design should incorporate knowledge of the spatial characteristics of the disturbance process, and neoecological studies benefit from a longer-term context to their conclusions. In some cases, modeling can incorporate non-spatial data from paleoecological records or emerging spatial paleo-data networks with mechanistic disturbance/recovery processes that operate at fine spatiotemporal scales.
ConclusionsLinking these two complementary approaches is a powerful way to build a complete understanding of ecosystem disturbance and resilience.
相似文献Biodiversity in tropical region has declined in the last decades, mainly due to forest conversion into agricultural areas. Consequently, species occupancy in these landscapes is strongly governed by environmental changes acting at multiple spatial scales.
ObjectivesWe investigated which environmental predictors best determines the occupancy probability of 68 bird species exhibiting different ecological traits in forest patches.
Methods.We conducted point-count bird surveys in 40 forest sites of the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Using six variables related to landscape composition and configuration and local vegetation structure, we predicted the occupancy probability of each species accounting for imperfect detections.
ResultsLandscape composition, especially forest cover, best predicted bird occupancy probability. Specifically, most bird species showed greater occupancy probability in sites inserted in more forested landscapes, while some species presented higher occurrence in patches surrounded by low-quality matrices. Conversely, only three species showed greater occupancy in landscapes with higher number of patches and dominated by forest edges. Also, several species exhibited greater occupancy in sites harbouring either larger trees or lower number of understory plants. Of uttermost importance, our study revealed that a minimum of 54% of forest cover is required to ensure high (> 60%) occupancy probability of forest species.
ConclusionsWe highlighted that maintaining only 20% of native vegetation in private property according to Brazilian environmental law is insufficient to guarantee a greater occupancy for most bird species. We recommend that policy actions should safeguard existing forest remnants, expand restoration projects, and curb human-induced disturbances to minimise degradation within forest patches.
相似文献Worldwide, anthropogenic habitat loss and degradation have led to substantial biodiversity declines. Preserving biodiversity requires an understanding of how habitat loss and degradation interact to impact species populations, and how land-use decisions can limit these losses.
ObjectivesWe present a mathematical partitioning of changes in landscape-level population abundance in response to land-use change using a modified version of the Price equation from evolutionary biology.
MethodsThe Price equation partitions changes in species abundance into multiple drivers related to habitat loss, habitat degradation, and their interaction. We describe its development and exemplify its applicability using simulated data.
ResultsApplying the Price equation to simulated data reveals the roles of habitat loss, habitat degradation, and their interaction in driving population change in patchy landscapes undergoing complex land-use change processes.
ConclusionsThe Price equation is a theoretical tool that may enhance our understanding of the effects of land-use change on populations by accounting for the specific processes by which land-use change operates across landscapes.
相似文献In the Andalusia region (Spain), olive grove agro-systems cover a wide area, forming social-ecological landscapes. Recent socioeconomic changes have increased the vulnerability of these landscapes, resulting in the abandonment and intensification of farms. The provision of the main ecosystem services of these landscapes have thus been degraded.
ObjectivesTo analyse the sustainability of an olive grove social-ecological landscape in Andalusia. Specifically, to develop a quantitative model proposing land planning and management scenarios, considering abandonment, production and economic benefits of olive crops in different conditions of erosion and management.
MethodsWe applied a dynamic model using agronomic and economic data, to evaluate different types of olive management. We considered different levels of erosion, the loss of production related to this erosion, and useful life spans for each type of management. We simulated scenarios for the long-term assessment of dynamics of crops, abandonment rate, production and benefits.
Results(a) There was a loss of productive lands and benefits in the medium term in the more intensive crops. (b) Scenarios that partially incorporated ecological management proved to be more sustainable without economic subsidies. (c) The spatial combination of integrated, intensive and ecological plots was sustainable, and was well balanced from an economic, productive and ecological point of view.
ConclusionsScenarios that partially incorporate ecological management allowed the best economic and environmental balance. However, to ensure the sustainability of olive landscapes, farmers should be financially rewarded for their role in the conservation of ecosystem services through landscape stewardship and direct environmental payments.
相似文献Patch-based population models predominately focus on factors that affect regional processes namely, patch size and connectivity, as the primary drivers explaining patch occupancy. This trend persists despite the recognition that patch quality can strongly influence population demography at the local scale. The quality of patches is often temporally variable and influenced by abiotic conditions. However, few studies have explicitly investigated how climatic variables influence the spatial and temporal dynamics of spatially-structured populations either directly or indirectly through changes in patch quality.
ObjectivesUsing a 10-year census of a spatially-structured population of an outbreaking caterpillar, we determined the relative importance of patch quality (determined demographically), connectivity, precipitation, and their interactive effects on patch abundance, occupancy, colonization, and extinction.
MethodsWe generated a series of statistical models and performed comparisons using Akaike’s information criterion. We subsequently used likelihood ratio tests to determine the influence of each parameter on model fit.
ResultsPatch quality and precipitation were the strongest predictors of the observed dynamics. We found that the dynamics of the spatially-structured population of Arctia virginalis were strongly influenced by precipitation: all patches had a higher probability of occupancy, contained higher abundances of caterpillars, and experienced fewer extinctions following wet winters compared to years following droughts.
ConclusionThese findings suggest that precipitation may act to influence the strength of heterogeneity of patch quality. This work demonstrates that patch-based models that do not include local and climatic factors may produce poor predictions under future climatic regimes.
相似文献Context
Movement is one of the key mechanisms for animals to deal with changes within their habitats. Therefore, resource variability can impact animals’ home range formation, especially in spatially and temporally highly dynamic landscapes, such as farmland. However, the movement response to resource variability might depend on the underlying landscape structure.Objectives
We investigated whether a given landscape structure affects the level of home range size adaptation in response to resource variability. We tested whether increasing resource variability forces herbivorous mammals to increase their home ranges.Methods
In 2014 and 2015 we collared 40 European brown hares (Lepus europaeus) with GPS-tags to record hare movements in two regions in Germany with differing landscape structures. We examined hare home range sizes in relation to resource availability and variability by using the normalized difference vegetation index as a proxy.Results
Hares in simple landscapes showed increasing home range sizes with increasing resource variability, whereas hares in complex landscapes did not enlarge their home range.Conclusions
Animals in complex landscapes have the possibility to include various landscape elements within their home ranges and are more resilient against resource variability. But animals in simple landscapes with few elements experience shortcomings when resource variability becomes high. The increase in home range size, the movement related increase in energy expenditure, and a decrease in hare abundances can have severe implications for conservation of mammals in anthropogenic landscapes. Hence, conservation management could benefit from a better knowledge about fine-scaled effects of resource variability on movement behaviour.Humans continually transform landscapes, affecting the ecosystem services (ES) they provide. Thus, the spatial relationships among services vary across landscapes. Managers and decision makers have access to a variety of tools for mapping landscapes and analyzing their capacity to provide multiple ES.
ObjectivesThis paper characterizes and maps ES bundles across transformed landscapes in southeast Spain incorporating both the ecological and social perspectives. Our specific goals were to: (1) quantify ES biophysical supply, (2) identify public awareness, (3) map ES bundles, and (4) characterize types of ES bundles based on their social-ecological dimensions.
MethodsBiophysical models and face-to-face social surveys were used to quantify and map ES bundles and explore the public awareness in a highly transformed Mediterranean region. Then, we classified ES bundles into four types using a matrix crossing the degree of biophysical ES supply and the degree of social awareness.
ResultsResults mapped seven ES bundles types representing diverse social-ecological dynamics. ES bundles mapped at the municipality level showed mismatches between their biophysical provision and the public awareness, which has important implications for operationalizing the bundles concept for landscape planning and management. ES bundles characterization identified four types of bundles scenarios.
ConclusionsWe propose an ES bundles classification that incorporates both their social and ecological dimensions. Our findings can be used by land managers to identify areas in which ES are declining as well as priority areas for maximizing ES provision and can help to identify conflicts associated with new management and planning practices.
相似文献Organisations acting to conserve and protect species across large spatial scales prioritise to optimise use of resources. Spatial conservation prioritization tools typically focus on identifying areas containing species groups of interest, with few tools used to identify the best areas for single-species conservation, in particular, to conserve currently widespread but declining species.
ObjectiveA single-species prioritization framework, based on temporal and spatial patterns of occupancy and abundance, was developed to spatially prioritize conservation action for widespread species by identifying smaller areas to work within to achieve predefined conservation objectives.
MethodsWe demonstrate our approach for 29 widespread bird species in the UK, using breeding bird atlas data from two periods to define distribution, relative abundance and change in relative abundance. We selected occupied 10-km squares with abundance trends that matched species conservation objectives relating to maintaining or increasing population size or range, and then identified spatial clusters of squares for each objective using a Getis-Ord-Gi* or near neighbour analysis.
ResultsFor each species, the framework identified clusters of 20-km squares that enabled us to identify small areas in which species recovery action could be prioritized.
ConclusionsOur approach identified a proportion of species’ ranges to prioritize for species recovery. This approach is a relatively quick process that can be used to inform single-species conservation for any taxa if sufficiently fine-scale occupancy and abundance information is available for two or more time periods. This is a relatively simple first step for planning single-species focussed conservation to help optimise resource use.
相似文献Conservation for the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), a federally endangered species in the United States of America, is typically focused on local maternity sites; however, the species is a regional migrant, interacting with the environment at multiple spatial scales. Hierarchical levels of management may be necessary, but we have limited knowledge of landscape-level ecology, distribution, and connectivity of suitable areas in complex landscapes.
ObjectivesWe sought to (1) identify factors influencing M. sodalis maternity colony distribution in a mosaic landscape, (2) map suitable maternity habitat, and (3) quantify connectivity importance of patches to direct conservation action.
MethodsUsing 3 decades of occurrence data, we tested a priori, hypothesis-driven habitat suitability models. We mapped suitable areas and quantified connectivity importance of habitat patches with probabilistic habitat availability metrics.
ResultsFactors improving landscape-scale suitability included limited agriculture, more forest cover, forest edge, proximity to medium-sized water bodies, lower elevations, and limited urban development. Areas closer to hibernacula and rivers were suitable. Binary maps showed that 30% of the study area was suitable for M. sodalis and 29% was important for connectivity. Most suitable patches were important for intra-patch connectivity and far fewer contributed to inter-patch connectivity.
ConclusionsWhile simple models may be effective for small, homogenous landscapes, complex models are needed to explain habitat suitability in large, mixed landscapes. Suitability modeling identified factors that made sites attractive as maternity areas. Connectivity analysis improved our understanding of important areas for bats and prioritized areas to target for restoration.
相似文献