Land Use Effects on Landscape Diversity in Protected Areas

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment - ENVIRON MONIT ASSESS, 2010

Bafa Lake Nature Park is one of Turkey’s most important legally protected areas. This study aimed at analyzing spatial change in the park environment by using object-based classification technique and landscape structure metrics. SPOT 2X (1994) and ASTER (2005) images are the primary research materials. Results show that artificial surfaces, low maqui, garrigue, and moderately high maqui covers have increased and coniferous forests, arable lands, permanent crop, and high maqui covers have decreased; coniferous forest, high maqui, grassland, and saline areas are in a disappearance stage of the land transformation; and the landscape pattern is more fragmented outside the park boundaries. The management actions should support ongoing vegetation regeneration, mitigate transformation of vegetation structure to less dense and discontinuous cover, control the dynamics at the agricultural–natural landscape interface, and concentrate on relatively low but steady increase of artificial surfaces.

Directorate National Botanical Garden of Turkiye

Especially in recent years, with the increase of anthropogenic effect in land use, species diversity at the patch level is decreasing. As a result, biodiversity is decreasing, and species are in danger of extinction. Long-term conservation of biodiversity depends on the conservation of biodiversity elements at different natural levels, from the lowest scales (genetic and species) to landscapes. This study aims to reveal the changes in diversity in the Denizli province of Türkiye according to the years. The change at the landscape level of the diversity in natural and semi-natural areas in Denizli province between the years of 2000 and2018 was revealed with Shannon index using the CORINE Land Use/Land Cover data. The area was divided into zones to spatially determine the change in diversity. According to the analysis, diversity has decreased in zones 1 -11, 15, and 19. These areas are also the areas where the anthropogenic effect causes change. This study, which was carried out in De...

Changes in habitat extent as well as landscape and habitat structure are often caused by human pressure within protected areas and at their boundaries, with consequences for biodiversity and species distributions. Thus quantitative spatial information on landscape mosaic arrangements is essential, for monitoring for nature conservation, as also specified by frameworks such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the European Union’s Habitat Directive. While measuring habitat extent is a relatively straightforward task, approaches for measuring habitat fragmentation are debated. This research aims to delineate a framework that enables the integration of different approaches to select a set of site- and scale-specific indices and synthetic descriptors and develop a comprehensive quantitative assessment of variations in human impact on the landscape, through assessment of habitat spatial patterns, which can be used as a baseline for monitoring. This framework is based on the use of established methodologies and free software, and can thus be widely applied across sites. For each landscape and observation scale, the framework permits the identification of the most relevant indices, and appropriate parameters for their computation. We illustrate the use of this framework through a case study in a protected area in Italy, to indicate that integrated information from multiple approaches can provide a more complete understanding of landscape and habitat spatial pattern, especially related to locations experiencing disturbance and pressure. First, identification of a parsimonious set of traditional LPIs for a specific landscape and spatial scale provides insights on the relation between landscape heterogeneity and habitat fragmentation. These can be used for both change assessment and ranking of different sections of the study area according to a fragmentation gradient in relation to matrix quality. Second, morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), provides a pixel based structural characterisation of the landscape. Third, compositional characterisation of the landscape at the pixel level is provided by landscape mosaic analysis. These three approaches provide quantitative assessments through indices which can be used singly or in combination to derive three synthetic descriptors for a comprehensive quantitative baseline representation of landscape structure that can be used for monitoring: the first descriptor, landscape diversity profiling, based on the output of landscape mosaic analysis, at the landscape level, complements the evaluation which at the pixel level can be obtained by more complex modelling; the second descriptor, obtained combining of the outputs of MSPA and the landscape mosaic analysis, informs on the local structural pattern gradient across the landscape space; the third descriptor, derived from the integration of selected LPIs and those derived from MSPA into a discontinuities detection procedure, allows for the identification of “critical points” of transitions in management where threats to biodiversity and ecosystems integrity may be likely. The framework developed has significant potential to capture information on major landscape structural features, identify problematic areas of increased fragmentation that can be used to prioritise research, monitoring and intervention, and provide early warning signals for immediate response to pressures increasing habitat fragmentation, with the goal of facilitating more effective management.

Land Degradation & Development, 2007

Changes in land use/land cover have important consequences on the management of natural resources including soil and water quality, global climatic systems and biodiversity. This study analysed the spatial and temporal pattern of land use/land cover change in the Camili forest planning unit that includes the Camili Biosphere Reserve Area within the Caucasian hotspot, in the northeast corner of Turkey. To assess the patterns during a 33-year period, the necessary data were obtained from forest stand maps and evaluated with Geographic Information Systems and FRAGSTATS. Results showed that the total forested areas increased from 19 946·5 ha (78·6% of the study area) in 1972 to 20 797·3 ha (81·9 per cent) in 2005 with a slight net increase of 851 ha. Softwood cover types (411·8 ha) completely transitioned to other cover types over 33-year period. In terms of spatial configuration, the total number of forest fragments increased from 172 to 608, and mean size of forest patch (MPS) decreased from 147·7 ha to 41·8 ha during the period. Nearly 84 per cent of the patches in 1972 and 93 per cent of them in 2005 generally seem to concentrate into 0–100 ha patch size class, indicating more fragmented landscape over time that might create a risk for the maintenance of biodiversity of the area. There were apparent trends in the temporal structure of forest landscape, some of which may issue from mismanagement of the area, social conflict, and illegal utilization of forest resources due to ineffective forest protection measurements. The study revealed that it is important to understand both spatial and temporal changes of land use/land cover and their effects on landscape pattern to disclose the implications for land use planning and management. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

III. Uluslararası AVRASYA Multidisipliner Çalışmalar Kongresi, 2019

For more than a decade, habitat fragmentation has become a worldwide phenomenon causing degradation in habitat areas, interior-to-edge ratios, and native ecosystems. In order to assess the landscape fragmentation and its consequences, it is important to determine which components of habitat are relevant to the ecological process influenced by habitat fragmentation. Also, the scale of the landscape plays a vital role which often coincides with the location of fragmented elements in a landscape. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of habitat fragmentation on scenic beauty of roadside vegetation in Osmaniye, Turkey. A questionnaire survey was carried out for the views of road users about the scenic beauty of current roadside vegetation in the study area. The results of questionnaire survey showed that the majority of the respondents view the scenic beauty was a significant factor in roadside vegetation design. The majority of the respondents also described the roadside as insufficient and drab. Application of various plants in contrast to homogeneous plant species was also the most preferred answer. The respondents considered continuous roadside habitat instead of disjunct small patches on road verges. The results showed that aesthetic value of roadside vegetation was negatively affected by habitat fragmentation and degradation. However; enhanced roadside management with native plants and continuous landscape patch were described as the fundamental need of roadside vegetation. These findings suggest that highway managers should address the scenic beauty and aesthetics of roadside vegetation while implicating the ecological objectives to reduce habitat fragmentation.

Geografie

Qualities of protected areas in Europe are the result of mutual collaboration, and the influence of natural conditions and historical development. Therefore, landscape protection has a wider scope. In addition to the protection of the landscape’s natural qualities, landscape protection also needs to identify human-driven impacts that support or directly affect landscape qualities. We have compared the development of land use/land cover in selected landscape conservation areas, and suitably selected referential areas in four time levels within a period of more than 150 years. The goals were to identify the types of land use that decrease, or increase the qualities of landscape, and to verify the hypothesis that landscape conservation areas, protected areas, have gone through a different land use/land cover development than the referential areas. The results of this comparison do not confirm our hypothesis. The most substantial changes in the rural areas in Czechia took place in a dis...

Ecological Indicators, 2014

The objective of the study was to examine the extent to which landscape metrics could be used as an indicator of efficient management of protection areas. The selected sampling areas were natural-landscape units distinguished within the Roztocze Region located in the central-east Poland. Among 446 units, those representing three typological groups determined by three factors were selected. The factors included (1) the area of the unit; (2) the dominant or characteristic type of ecosystem; and (3) the form of protection. Subsequently, thirteen landscape metrics were calculated with the application of the Fragstats software. The analysis revealed high correlation between the form of nature protection and the majority of the calculated indexes. National park units show the highest landscape diversity and stability of various types of ecosystems. This suggests high conservation efficiency. Landscape park units are distinguished by fragmented patchy composition, and spatial structure even less stable than that of the non-protected areas. The study results show that landscape metrics could be used as an indicator of efficient management of different forms of nature protection. They provide an insight into the structure and functioning of the environment at various levels of its organisation. We particularly found diversity metrics to be useful for indicating whether nature conservation goals are archived, and the size and density metric for measuring human interference in the landscape. The selection and interpretation of indexes should be determined by the specific character of a given area.

Landscape and Urban Planning, 1998

The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED in Rio 1992) presents a main challenge for the development of regional strategies for biodiversity conservation. If it is to be adopted politically, then targets will have to be based on reliable documentation of the biotic`ingredients' of the different landscape systems and moreover, targets have to be adapted to the regional socio-economic systems. Landscape systems were delineated which are representative of the sequence of different land use and impact intensities in central Europe. In a ®rst test, these systems were characterized by generally available biological and socio-economic data, in order to identify the conservation performance of the dominant central European landscape systems. The results of this approach will be discussed with respect to restoration needs, preservation measures and development proposals for the different central European landscape systems. It can be shown that special attention for biodiversity conservation in central Europe has to be paid to the urban/suburban landscapes because of their high biological diversity i.e. coverage of important sites for nature conservation and species richness. In addition, the coupling of the¯oristic data with a scheme of reproduction times for vegetation formations and habitat types, helps to outline different packages of conservation action plans for sustainable regional development. #

1995

Rapid deforestation often produces landscape-level changes in forest characteristics and structure, including area, distribution, and forest habitat types. Changes in landscape pattern through fragmentation or aggregation of natural habitats can alter patterns of abundance for single species and entire communities. Examples of single-species effects include increased predation along the forest edge, the decline in the number of species with poor dispersal mechanisms, and the spread of exotic species that have deleterious effects (e.g., gypsy moth). A decrease in the size and number of natural habitat patches increases the probability of local extirpation and loss of diversity of native species, whereas a decline in connectivity between habitat patches can negatively affect species persistence. Thus, there is empirical justification for managing entire landscapes, not just individual habitat types, in order to insure that native plant and animal diversity is maintained. A landscape i...

African Journal of …, 2010

Analyzing the historical legacy of forest structure and its temporal changes is paramount to design future forest management interventions in preparing an effective forest management plan in national parks. In this study, forest cover type maps prepared in 1965, 1984 and 2008 were digitized using geographic information systems and spatial database was built for nearly 36000 ha Köprülü Canyon National Park. Spatial data bases for three periods were used to determine temporal and spatial (number, size and spatial distributions of patches) changes of forest resources using FRAGSTATS™ program. The results indicated clear changes in the temporal and spatial dynamics of land cover/forest cover. Mixed forests increased about 151.7% (1570.7 ha) like agricultural and urban areas 39.8% (777.5 ha) and productive forests (crown closure > 10%) increased 21.9% (2838.8 ha) too, while other open lands decreased about 27.5% (1326.3 ha) and 459 ha pure cedar stands entirely converted mostly to the degraded and mixed forests from 1965 to 2008. In terms of spatial configuration, analysis of the metrics revealed that landscape structure in study area has changed substantially over the 43-year study period, resulting in fragmentation of the landscape as the total number of patches increased from 238 to 672 and mean patch size drop from 1615.0 ha to 425.3 ha markedly between 1965 and 2008. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) coupled with fragmentation analysis has a powerful role in analyzing spatiotemporal dynamics of forest landscape for effective national park planning.