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178 results for “Landscape heterogeneity”
Data from: Landscape heterogeneity can partially offset negative effects of habitat loss on mammalian biodiversity in agroecosystems
<p>Intensive, large-scale agriculture promotes the conversion of natural habitats and diversified crops into monocultures, decreasing both native vegetation cover and landscape heterogeneity, leading to landscape simplification. Yet, a key knowledge gap persists on the relative impacts of the loss of native vegetation and landscape heterogeneity on biodiversity. Addressing this gap is pressing to support policies that conciliate agricultural production and biodiversity conservation and to move forward some scientific controversies, as the "land sharing versus land sparing" and "habitat loss versus fragmentation" debates.<br>Through a hierarchical sampling design that maximized variation, while minimizing correlation, between landscape heterogeneity and native vegetation cover, we recorded the occurrence of medium and large-bodied mammals in native vegetation and agricultural areas of 55 landscapes in a global conservation hotspot and a key commodity production area – the Brazilian savanna, Cerrado. We compared simple, additive, and interactive models to investigate the effects of landscape heterogeneity and native vegetation cover on richness and composition of native and invasive mammals. <br>Native and invasive mammal communities were affected by both native vegetation cover and landscape heterogeneity, although the effects of the first was stronger than the later. Both aspects had positive effects on native species richness and negative on invasive species richness, indicating that the loss of native vegetation and the reduction in landscape heterogeneity lead to biotic homogenization. Yet, while landscape heterogeneity benefited most native species, the direction of its effect varied among invasive species and depended on native vegetation cover.<br>Synthesis and applications: Besides reducing habitat loss, avoiding landscape homogenization is key for conciliating agricultural production and biodiversity conservation, pointing to the relevance of policies encouraging crop diversification. As increasing landscape heterogeneity can in part compensate the negative effects of losing native habitat on biodiversity in agroecosystems, policies can gain feasibility by adjusting the balance between native vegetation cover and landscape heterogeneity according to what best suits local restraints and demands.</p>
Data from: Born in heterogenous landscapes: birth timing, body mass and growth of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) fawns in contrasting habitats
<p>Although the widespread effects of global change impact almost all ecosystems, we lack a detailed understanding of how wildlife that thrive in human-dominated environments are able to adjust their life history to modifications in land use of their natural habitat. In particular, spatial variation in environmental conditions is predicted to influence development during the crucial early life phase, with marked impacts on individual performance and population dynamics for long-lived species. Large herbivores such as roe deer (<em>Capreolus capreolus</em>), a synanthropic species, have increased substantially in number and distribution over the last half century across Europe. Roe deer have been particularly successful, gradually colonizing agricultural landscapes to cope with a global warming-driven phenological mismatch in their natural forest habitat. However, to date, little is known about how habitat heterogeneity impacts their demographic performance in this heavily human-impacted environment. Specifically, we predicted that fawns born in predominantly cultivated local habitats would achieve faster early development due to the food subsidies obtained by their mothers from agricultural crops. Contrary to our expectations, fawns in semi-natural forest habitats were around 10% heavier at birth than those born in more mixed (by 0.163 ± 0.058 kg) and open (by 0.169 ± 0.006 kg) agricultural habitats. However, all fawns subsequently grew at a similar average rate (0.148 ± 0.058 kg/day), irrespective of their habitat. This habitat-dependent variation in birth mass appeared to be driven by reproductive phenology, as i) early-born fawns were heavier than late-born fawns, and ii) mothers living in the forest gave birth around 10 days earlier than those living in the mixed and open habitats. As natural habitats become increasingly scarce and fragmented due to the activities of humans, the prospects for many wild populations will depend on their ability to subsist in the heavily modified habitats of anthropogenic landscapes.</p>
Data from: Landscape heterogeneity drives population structure in four western bumble bee species
<p>Bumble bees are critical pollinators in wild, agricultural, and urban ecosystems—providing the necessary ecological services for food and crop production. In western North America, mountain ranges have high bumble bee species richness. However, as climate change increases temperatures and restricts montane populations to higher elevational spaces, their ability to disperse and maintain genetic diversity decreases. This genetic isolation could lead to the extirpation of local pollinator communities and an overall loss of pollinators. We analyzed the genetic diversity of four broadly sympatric species of bumble bees across the Rocky and Cascade Mountains of western North America to assess habitat isolation's impact on population genetic structure. We expected species restricted to higher elevation habitats to display higher population structure and less genetic diversity across the landscape. We sampled approximately 150 bees per species from seven to eight sites across each species' range. We genotyped bees with an average of 10 loci and used FST and Bayesian Structure analysis to quantify population differentiation. Using isolation by distance and isolation by resistance analyses, species with both narrow and broad habitat suitability requirements showed evidence of habitat suitability restricting gene flow. Although each species showed varying degrees of genetic structure and gene flow, knowing how habitat heterogeneity drives genetic structure and isolation can help guide conservation efforts and determine focal regions for bumble bee conservation in the face of climate change.</p>
Landscape heterogeneity increases bird functional diversity within Neotropical vineyards
<p>Conversion of lands to agroecosystems has resulted in a decline in bird biodiversity. Analyzing functional diversity is a central tool for detecting changes in the ecological functions performed by birds in these landscapes. This paper aims to investigate the responses of bird taxonomic and functional diversity to landscape heterogeneity and native forest cover in Neotropical vineyards. We sampled 19 vineyard landscapes in southeastern Brazil. These landscapes covered a gradient of forest cover and heterogeneity resulting from various land uses. To assess bird diversity, we considered both taxonomic diversity and functional diversity (i.e., functional richness, evenness, and divergence). To examine the potential interactions between landscapes and bird assemblages, we employed generalized linear models (GLM). Taxonomic diversity showed no correlation with any landscape metrics. On the other hand, variation in the three metrics of functional diversity was related to landscape heterogeneity. However, in heterogeneous landscapes, these communities can be structured by limiting similarity processes. We highlight the impact of landscape homogenization on the ecological functions performed by birds in vineyards while finding no significant effect on species diversity. These findings can provide valuable support for the formulation of public policies aimed at striking a balance between agricultural production and biodiversity conservation.</p>
Data from: Landscape heterogeneity filters functional traits of rice arthropods in tropical agroecosystems
<p>Biological control services of agroecosystems depend on the functional diversity of species traits. However, the relationship between arthropod traits and landscape heterogeneity is still poorly understood, especially in tropical rice agroecosystems which harbour a high diversity of often specialized species. We investigated how landscape heterogeneity, measured by three metrics of landscape composition and configuration, influenced body size, functional group composition, dispersal ability and vertical distribution of rice-arthropods in the Philippines.</p> <p> </p> <p>We found that landscape composition and configuration acted to filter arthropod traits in tropical rice agroecosystems. Landscape diversity and rice habitat fragmentation were the two main gradients influencing rice-arthropod traits, indicating that different rice-arthropods have distinct habitat requirements. Whereas small parasitoids and species mostly present in the rice-canopy were favoured in landscapes with high compositional heterogeneity, predators and medium-sized species occupying the base of the rice plant, including planthoppers, mostly occurred in highly fragmented rice habitats. We demonstrate the importance of landscape heterogeneity as an ecological filter for rice-arthropods, identifying how the different components of landscape heterogeneity selected for or against specific functional traits. However, the contrasting effects of landscape parameters on different groups of natural enemies indicate that not all beneficial rice-arthropods can be promoted at the same time when using a single land management strategy. Increasing compositional heterogeneity in rice landscapes can promote parasitoids but may also negatively affect predators. Future research should focus on identifying trade-offs between fragmented rice habitats and structurally diverse landscapes to maximize the presence of multiple groups of beneficial arthropods.</p>
Data from: Scale-dependence of landscape heterogeneity effects on plant invasions
<p><span>Invasive alien species are amongst the most concerning threats to native biodiversity worldwide, and the level of landscape heterogeneity is considered to affect spatial patterns of their occurrence and spread. However, as previous studies on these associations report contrasting results, the role of landscape heterogeneity on its susceptibility to invasions remains poorly understood. Landscape heterogeneity is usually described by two measures: configuration and composition. Both measures may differently affect invasive species and these impacts may be additionally scale-dependent. Nevertheless, their relative contribution to invasion patterns is poorly known. We investigated the effect of two landscape heterogeneity components: configuration (edge density) and composition (number and evenness of land-cover types) measured at different spatial scales (from within 0.25 km to 5 km of the studied localities) on the local abundance of one of the most invasive alien plant species in Europe, the North American goldenrods (<em>Solidago canadensis</em> and <em>S. gigantea</em>). Using publicly available geospatial environmental data and a novel method based on remote analysis of Google Street View images, we collected and analyzed large dataset on goldenrod occurrence along 1347 roadside transects in agricultural landscapes of Poland. Both the compositional and configurational heterogeneity were positively associated with the local abundance of goldenrods, however the effect size of these relationships was dependent on spatial scale. While abundance-heterogeneity associations were most pronounced at the largest spatial scale for compositional heterogeneity, the pattern was the opposite for configurational heterogeneity. Landscape heterogeneity is a clear correlate of plant invasion potential, with occurrences of invasive plants generally higher in more heterogeneous landscapes. However, scale-dependence of this association means that researchers and practitioners may miss the association if only concentrating on a single spatial scale. While increasing heterogeneity of rural landscapes is widely introduced as a way to promote farmland biodiversity, we show that it may also support invasive plants and thus conflict with original goals of biodiversity-oriented strategies. Therefore, we suggest implementing regular management and eradication schemes in most heterogeneous landscapes. Finally, we demonstrate how remote analysis of plant invasions using existing imagery can advance our understanding of invasion biology.</span></p>
Data from: Filtering ground noise from LiDAR returns produces inferior models of forest aboveground biomass in heterogenous landscapes
<p>Airborne LiDAR has become an essential data source for large-scale, high-resolution modeling of forest aboveground biomass and carbon stocks, enabling predictions with much higher resolution and accuracy than can be achieved using optical imagery alone. Ground noise filtering -- that is, excluding returns from LiDAR point clouds based on simple height thresholds -- is a common practice meant to improve the 'signal' content of LiDAR returns by preventing ground returns from masking useful information about tree size and condition contained within canopy returns. However, ground returns may be helpful for making accurate aboveground biomass predictions in heterogeneous landscapes that include a patchy mosaic of vegetation heights and land cover types.<br> <br> In this paper, we applied several ground noise filtering thresholds while mapping forest AGB across New York State (USA), a heterogenous landscape composed of both contiguously forested and highly fragmented areas with mixed land cover types. We fit random forest models to predictor sets derived from each filtering intensity threshold and compared model accuracies, paying attention to how changes in accuracy correlated with landscape structure. We observed that removing ground noise via any height threshold systematically biases many of the LiDAR-derived variables used in AGB modeling, with mean correlation (Spearman's $\rho$) between variables increasing from 0.183 to 0.266. We found that that ground noise filtering yields models of forest AGB with lower accuracy than models trained using predictors derived from unfiltered point clouds, with RMSE increasing by up to 2.2 Mg ha^-1^ statewide. Although we only modeled AGB for forest cover types, models fit to predictors derived from filtered point clouds performed worse as landscape heterogeneity (as measured by patch density and edge density) increased, suggesting ground returns are particularly useful when modeling edge forests. Our results suggest that ground filtering should be a carefully considered decision when mapping forest AGB, particularly when mapping heterogeneous and highly fragmented landscapes, as ground returns are more likely to represent useful 'signal' than extraneous 'noise' in these cases.</p>
Burn severity data from: The heterogeneity of burn severity affects bird density in an abandoned mountain landscape of the Atlantic-Mediterranean transition
<p><strong>[Abstract]</strong></p> <p>Fire regimes in mountain landscapes of southern Europe have been shifting from their baselines due to the accumulation of fuel fostered by long-standing rural abandonment and fire exclusion policies. Understanding the role of fire on biodiversity is paramount to implement adequate management to mitigate the impacts of altered fire regimes and land abandonment on biodiversity. Here, we explored to what extent the spatiotemporal variation in burn severity has affected bird abundance of a mountain abandoned landscape located in the Atlantic-Mediterranean transition (NW Iberia). We took advantage of: (1) satellite images of Sentinel 2 and Landsat missions to compute burn severity indicators from 2010 to 2020, and (2) standardized bird surveys carried out over 206 point-counts along the breeding season of 2021. Bird abundance models were built from burn severity metrics together with well-known fire regime attributes (% of burnt area and time since fire). Our results showed that the spatiotemporal variation of burn severity significantly correlated with the abundance of the 39% of the modeled species, supporting the role of pyro-diversity in driving bird populations in our region. The burnt area also explained abundance patterns for 28% of species. Time since fire only correlated with the abundance of 3 species. Our findings confirm the importance of incorporating burn severity indicators into the toolkit of decision makers to anticipate the response of birds to fire management.</p> <p><strong>[Dataset Description]</strong></p> <p>For each year between 2010 and 2020, we used a pair of satellite images, one before (April - July) and one after (September - November) the fire season. In order to use the best available information, we selected different satellites along the study period: for years 2010 and 2011, we used Landsat 5 imagery, whereas for 2012 we used Landsat 7, since Landsat 5 imagery was not useful due to high cloudiness. Since its launch in 2013, we shifted to Landsat 8 data, and finally to Sentinel 2 data from 2015 onwards. For each of these images we calculated the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), which is the normalized ratio between near infrared (NIR) and short wave infrared (SWIR) radiation (Eq. 1). NIR and SWIR bands of satellite sensors respond in opposite ways to burned vegetation, allowing to identify burned areas.</p> <p>NBR =(NIR - SWIR) / (NIR +SWIR) (1)</p> <p>To obtain a quantitative measure of change for each year, we calculated the dNBR by subtracting the NBR of the post-fire season image from the NBR of the pre-fire season image (Eq. 2). Finally, dNBR values were used as an estimate for fire severity.</p> <p>dNBR = NBRprefire- NBRpostfire (2)</p>
Data from: Habitat heterogeneity determines species richness on small habitat islands in a fragmented landscape
<p><span><strong>Aim</strong>:</span><span> The small-island effect (SIE), as an exception to the species-area relationship, has received much attention in true island systems. However, the prevalence and related patterns of the SIE have not been well evaluated in habitat island systems. Here, we aimed to identify the existence of SIE for habitat islands in fragmented landscapes and determine the key factors influencing species richness on small habitat islands.</span></p> <p><span><strong>Location</strong>:</span><span> Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China.</span></p> <p><span><strong>Taxon</strong>:</span><span> Vascular plants.</span></p> <p><strong><span>Methods</span></strong><span>: Based on 78 grassland fragments in fragmented landscapes of the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China, we used piecewise regression, path analysis, and null models to investigate the SIE of the species-area relationship. We then used a multi-model selection to evaluate the impacts of four influencing factors (instability, isolation, habitat heterogeneity, and surrounding productivity) on species richness (including habitat specialists and generalists) on small habitat islands within the range of SIE. </span></p> <p><span><strong>Results</strong>:</span><span> We found an obvious threshold of 5.1 ha in the species-area relationship,</span> <span>below which habitat island area had no direct and indirect effects on species richness.</span><span> Small habitat islands (< 5.1 ha) host a lower percentage of habitat specialists and a higher percentage of generalists. On small habitat islands, species richness was positively affected by habitat heterogeneity while negatively affected by instability and isolation. Habitat heterogeneity had the strongest effect on species richness, positively affecting specialist richness while negatively affecting generalist richness.</span></p> <p><strong><span>Main conclusions</span></strong><span>: There is a SIE in fragmented landscapes of the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China, which should be considered in biodiversity conservation. Habitat heterogeneity had a key role in determining the pattern of species richness, especially for small islands. Habitat specialists and generalists had different SIE-related patterns. Our study highlights the importance of considering different ecological groups of species to improve our understanding of the SIE in fragmented habitats.</span></p>
Local and landscape environmental heterogeneity drive ant community structure in temperate semi-natural upland grasslands
<p>Environmental heterogeneity is an important driver of ecological communities. Here, we assessed the effects of local and landscape spatial environmental heterogeneity on ant community structure in temperate semi-natural upland grasslands of Central Germany. We surveyed 33 grassland sites representing a gradient in elevation and landscape composition. Local environmental heterogeneity was measured in terms of variability of temperature and moisture within and between grassland sites. Grassland management type (pasture vs. meadows) was additionally included as a local environmental heterogeneity measure. The complexity of habitat types in the surroundings of grassland sites was used as a measure of landscape environmental heterogeneity. As descriptors of ant community structure, we considered species composition, community evenness, and functional response traits. We found that extensively grazed pastures and within-site heterogeneity in soil moisture at local scale, and a high diversity of land cover types at the landscape scale affected ant species composition by promoting nest densities. Ant community evenness was high in wetter grasslands with low within-site variability in soil moisture and surrounded by a less diverse landscape. Fourth-corner models revealed that ant community structure response to environmental heterogeneity was mediated mainly by worker size, colony size, and life history traits related with colony reproduction and foundation. We discuss how withinsite local variability in soil moisture and low-intensity grazing promote ant species densities, and highlight the role of habitat temperature and humidity in affecting community evenness. We hypothesize that a higher diversity of land cover types in a forest-dominated landscape buffers less favorable environmental conditions for ant species establishment and dispersal between grasslands. We conclude that spatial environmental heterogeneity at local and landscape scales plays an important role as a deterministic force in filtering ant species and, along with neutral processes (e.g. stochastic colonization), in shaping ant community structure in temperate semi-natural upland grasslands.</p>
Data from: Structure of microhabitats used by Microcebus rufus across a heterogeneous landscape
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Data from: Born in heterogenous landscapes: birth timing, body mass and growth of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) fawns in contrasting habitats
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Data from: Changing flight and flocking dynamics of homing pigeons (<em>Columba livia d.</em>) over heterogeneous landscapes
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Local and landscape environmental heterogeneity drive ant community structure in temperate semi-natural upland grasslands
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Wind direction and strength determine the genetic structure of an insect-pollinated plant across heterogeneous landscape
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Data from: Landscape heterogeneity is key to forecasting outcomes of plant reintroduction
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Data from: A trait-based framework for discerning drivers of species co-occurrence across heterogeneous landscapes
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Data from: Habitat heterogeneity determines species richness on small habitat islands in a fragmented landscape
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Data from: Landscape heterogeneity can partially offset negative effects of habitat loss on mammalian biodiversity in agroecosystems
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Data from: Scale-dependence of landscape heterogeneity effects on plant invasions
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