Informing landscape planning and design for sustaining ecosystem services from existing spatial patterns and knowledge

Over the last decade we have seen an increased emphasis in environmental management and policies aimed at maintaining and restoring multiple ecosystem services at landscape scales. This emphasis has resulted from the recognition that management of specific environmental targets and ecosystem services requires an understanding of landscape processes and the spatial scales that maintain those targets and services. Moreover, we have become increasingly aware of the influence of broad-scale drivers such as climate change on landscape processes and the ecosystem services they support. Studies and assessments on the relative success of environmental policies and landscape designs in maintaining landscape processes and ecosystem services is mostly lacking. This likely reflects the relatively high cost of maintaining a commitment to implement and maintain monitoring programs that document responses of landscape processes and ecosystem services to different landscape policies and designs. However, we argue that there is considerable variation in natural and human-caused landscape pattern at local to continental scales and that this variation may facilitate analyses of how environmental targets and ecosystem services have responded to such patterns. Moreover, wall-to-wall spatial data on land cover and land use at national scales may permit characterization and mapping of different landscape pattern gradients. We discuss four broad and interrelated focus areas that should enhance our understanding of how landscape pattern influences ecosystem services: (1) characterizing and mapping landscape pattern gradients; (2) quantifying relationships between landscape patterns and environmental targets and ecosystem services, (3) evaluating landscape patterns with regards to multiple ecosystem services, and (4) applying adaptive management concepts to improve the effectiveness of specific landscape designs in sustaining ecosystem services. We discuss opportunities as well as challenges in each of these four areas. We believe that this agenda could lead to spatially explicit solutions in managing a range of environmental targets and ecosystem services. Spatially explicit options are critical in managing and protecting landscapes, especially given that communities and organizations are often limited in their capacity to make changes at landscape scales. The issues and potential solutions discussed in this paper expand upon the call by Nassauer and Opdam (Landscape Ecol 23:633–644, 2008) to include design as a fundamental element in landscape ecology research by evaluating natural and human-caused (planned or designed) landscape patterns and their influence on ecosystem services. It also expands upon the idea of “learning by doing” to include “learning from what has already been done.”     

Characterizing historical and modern fire regimes in Michigan (USA): A landscape ecosystem approach

We studied the relationships of landscape ecosystems to historical and contemporary fire regimes across 4.3 million hectares in northern lower Michigan (USA). Changes in fire regimes were documented by comparing historical fire rotations in different landscape ecosystems to those occurring between 1985 and 2000. Previously published data and a synthesis of the literature were used to identify six forest-replacement fire regime categories with fire rotations ranging from very short (<100 years) to very long (>1,000 years). We derived spatially-explicit estimates of the susceptibility of landscape ecosystems to fire disturbance using Landtype Association maps as initial units of investigation. Each Landtype Association polygon was assigned to a fire regime category based on associations of ecological factors known to influence fire regimes. Spatial statistics were used to interpolate fire points recorded by the General Land Office. Historical fire rotations were determined by calculating the area burned for each category of fire regime and dividing this area by fifteen (years) to estimate area burned per annum. Modern fire rotations were estimated using data on fire location and size obtained from federal and state agencies. Landtype Associations networked into fire regime categories exhibited differences in both historical and modern fire rotations. Historical rotations varied by 23-fold across all fire rotation categories, and modern forest fire rotations by 13-fold. Modern fire rotations were an order of magnitude longer than historical rotations. The magnitude of these changes has important implications for forest health and understanding of ecological processes in most of the fire rotation categories that we identified.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Opportunities and challenges for mainstreaming ecosystem services in development planning: perspectives from a landscape level

Despite much progress in ecosystem services research, a gap still appears to exist between this research and the implementation of landscape management and development activities on the ground, especially within a developing country context. If ecosystem service science is to be operationalised and used by decision-makers directing local development, an in-depth understanding of the implementation context for landscape planning and management, and of the opportunities and challenges for ecosystem services in this context are needed. Very little is known about these opportunities and constraints, largely because of the absence of methods to explore the complexity of the landscape planning, management and implementation context and the possibilities of integrating scientific information into these processes within a real-world setting. This study aims to address this need for information and methods, by focusing on a region in South Africa with a long history of ecosystem service research and stakeholder engagement, and testing a social science approach to explore opportunities and challenges for integrating ecosystem services in landscape planning processes and policies. Our methodological approach recognises the importance of social processes and legitimacy in decision-making, emphasizing the need to engage with the potential end-users of ecosystem service research in order to ensure the relevance of the research. While we discovered challenges for mainstreaming ecosystem service at a local level, we also found strong opportunities in the multi-sectoral planning processes driving development and in how the concept of ecosystem services is framed and aligned with development priorities, especially those relating to disaster risk reduction.     

Landscape sustainability science: ecosystem services and human well-being in changing landscapes

The future of humanity depends on whether or not we have a vision to guide our transition toward sustainability, on scales ranging from local landscapes to the planet as a whole. Sustainability science is at the core of this vision, and landscapes and regions represent a pivotal scale domain. The main objectives of this paper are: (1) to elucidate key definitions and concepts of sustainability, including the Brundtland definition, the triple bottom line, weak and strong sustainability, resilience, human well-being, and ecosystem services; (2) to examine key definitions and concepts of landscape sustainability, including those derived from general concepts and those developed for specific landscapes; and (3) to propose a framework for developing a science of landscape sustainability. Landscape sustainability is defined as the capacity of a landscape to consistently provide long-term, landscape-specific ecosystem services essential for maintaining and improving human well-being. Fundamentally, well-being is a journey, not a destination. Landscape sustainability science is a place-based, use-inspired science of understanding and improving the dynamic relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being in changing landscapes under uncertainties arising from internal feedbacks and external disturbances. While landscape sustainability science emphasizes place-based research on landscape and regional scales, significant between landscape interactions and hierarchical linkages to both finer and broader scales (or externalities) must not be ignored. To advance landscape sustainability science, spatially explicit methods are essential, especially experimental approaches that take advantage of designed landscapes and multi-scaled simulation models that couple the dynamics of landscape services (ecosystem services provided by multiple landscape elements in combination as emergent properties) and human well-being.     

Stability of ecosystem functioning and diversity of grasslands at the landscape scale

Diversity often increases ecosystem functioning and enhances stability, but this relationship has been evaluated at the community scale and considering, for the most part, only species richness. Here, we explored the relationship between landscape diversity and either the coefficient of variation or the interannual standard deviation of greenness in Pampean grasslands and Patagonian meadows, and tried to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for the resulting patterns. The coefficient of variation decreased with increasing landscape richness in Pampas but remained constant in Patagonia, while the interannual standard deviation of greenness decreased in both regions. The diversity–variability relationship in Pampean grasslands was largely accounted for by the mechanism of statistical averaging, while in Patagonian meadows, it was accounted for by a combination of statistical averaging, mean–variance rescaling and positive covariation of landscape units. There were no cases of negative covariance among landscape units. This is the first demonstration that landscape diversity increases stability of ecosystem functioning.     

Determining an appropriate minimum mapping unit in vegetation mapping for ecosystem restoration: a case study from the Everglades,USA

This paper documents the analyses that were conducted with regards to investigating an appropriate Minimum Mapping Unit (MMU) to be used to capture the potential changes in vegetation patterns for a 10,924 square km restoration project being conducted in south Florida, USA. Spatial landscape and class metrics that were shown to change predictably with increasing grain size were adopted from previous studies and applied to a multi-scale analysis. Specifically, this study examines the effects of changing grain size on landscape metrics, utilizing empirical data from a real landscape encompassing 234,913 ha of south Florida’s Everglades. The objective was to identify critical thresholds within landscape metrics, which can be used to provide insight in determining an appropriate MMU for vegetation mapping. Results from this study demonstrate that vegetation heterogeneity will exhibit dissimilar patterns when investigating the loss of information within landscape and class metrics, as grain size is increased. These results also support previous findings that suggest that landscape metric “scalograms” (the response curves of landscape metrics to changing grain size), are more likely to be successful for linking landscape pattern to ecological processes as both pattern and process in ecological systems often operate on multiple scales. This study also incorporates an economic cost for various grain dependant vegetation mapping scales. A final selection of the 50 × 50 m grain size for mapping vegetation was based on this study’s investigation of the “scalograms”, the costs, and a composite best professional judgment of seasoned scientists having extensive experience within these ecosystems.     

Linear downscaling from MODIS to landsat: connecting landscape composition with ecosystem functions

Context

The open and free access to Landsat and MODIS products have greatly promoted scientific investigations on spatiotemporal change in land mosaics and ecosystem functions at landscape to regional scales. Unfortunately, there is a major mismatch in spatial resolution between MODIS products at coarser resolution (≥?250 m) and landscape structure based on classified Landsat scenes at finer resolution (30 m).

Objectives

Based on practical needs for downscaling popular MODIS products at 500 m resolution to match classified land cover at Landsat 30 m resolution, we proposed an innovative modelling approach so that landscape structure and ecosystem functions can be directly studied for their interconnections. As a proof-of-concept of our downscaling approach, we selected the watershed of the Kalamazoo River in southwestern Michigan, USA as the testbed.

Methods

MODIS products for three fundamental variables of ecosystem function are downscaled to ensure the approach can be extrapolated to multiple functional measurements. They are blue-sky albedo (0–1), evapotranspiration (ET, mm), and gross primary production (GPP, Mg C ha^?1 year^?1). An object-oriented classification of Landsat images in 2011 was processed to generate a land cover map for landscape structure. The downscaling model was tested for the five Level IV ecoregions within the watershed.

Results

We achieved satisfactory downscaling models for albedo, ET, and GPP for all five ecoregions. The adjusted R² was?>?0.995 for albedo, 0.915–0.997 for ET, and 0.902–0.962 for GPP. The estimated albedo, ET, and GPP values appear different in the region. The estimated albedo was the lowest for water (0.076–0.107) and the highest for cropland (0.166–0.172). Estimated ET was the highest for the built-up cover type (525.6–687.1 mm) and the lowest for forest (209.7–459.7 mm). The estimated GPP was the highest for the build-up cover type (8.65–9.85 Mg C ha^?1 year^?1) and the lowest for forest.

Conclusions

Estimated values for albedo, ET, and GPP appear reasonable for their ranges in the Kalamazoo River region and are consistent with values reported in the literature. Despite these promising results, the downscaling approach relies on strong assumptions and can carry substantial uncertainty. It is only valid at a spatial scale where similar climate, soil, and landforms exist (i.e., values in isolated patches of the same cover type are similar). Plausibly, the uncertainties associated with each estimation, as well as the model residuals, can be explored for other pattern-process relationships within the landscape.

     

Landscapes, sustainability and the place-based analysis of ecosystem services

There is currently, widespread interest in the assessment of ecosystem services, and the new insights that the concept provides in understanding the ecology of landscapes and the science of sustainability. Three major assessment frameworks can be identified in the contemporary literature, namely one based on habitats, one based on the identification of the system elements that delivers the service, and one based on the understanding of places. Although all are useful for supporting decision making in relation to sustainable development, different situations require different perspectives, and so it is important to understand their advantages and drawbacks. Moreover, it is important to determine how they relate to other approaches used, for example, in landscape planning, so that the contribution that ecosystem assessments can make to sustainability debates can be better understood. The aim of this paper is to describe the strengths of the place-based approach because it is more easily overlooked as an assessment option. In particular we will argue that a place-based approach can help us better understand issues of multi-functionality, the valuation of natural capital and the role of landscape in framing debates about ecosystem services and sustainability. An appreciation of these issues will enable researchers interested in landscape to key questions and priorities in relation to questions of sustainability. Although it is useful to consider different assessment perspectives separately, we conclude that in practice, the habitat and systems approaches can form part of a place-based assessment, just as a better understanding of place can enrich assessments that spring from these more natural science approaches. Nevertheless, in designing analytical strategies to take the ecosystem approach forward, we suggest that it is vital to consider these different perspectives in order to build assessments that are relevant, legitimate and credible, and which can effectively address the problems of sustainability that emerge at the landscape scale.     

An agent-based approach to modeling impacts of agricultural policy on land use, biodiversity and ecosystem services

We present extensions to the agent-based agricultural policy simulator (AgriPoliS) model that make it possible to simulate the consequences of agricultural policy reform on farmers?? land use decisions and concomitant impacts on landscape mosaic, biodiversity and ecosystem services in a real agricultural region. An observed population of farms is modelled as a multi-agent system where individual farm-agent behaviour and their interactions??principally competition for land??are defined through an optimization framework with land use and landscape impacts resulting as emergent properties of the system. The model is calibrated to real data on the farms and the landscape to be studied. We illustrate the utility of the model by evaluating the potential impacts of three alternative frameworks for the European Union Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on landscape values in two marginal agricultural regions. Mosaic value was found to be sensitive to the choice of policy scheme in one of the landscapes, whereas significant trade-offs were shown to occur in terms of species richness by habitat and species composition at the landscape scale in both regions. The relationship between food production and other ecosystem services was found to be multifaceted. Thus illustrating the difficulty of achieving landscape goals in a particular region with simple or general land management rules (such as the current rules attached to CAPs direct payments). Given the scarcity of funding for conservation, the level and conditions for allocating direct payments are, potentially, of great importance for preserving landscape values in marginal agricultural regions (subject to levels of other support).     

Valuing ecosystem services in community-based landscape planning: introducing a wellbeing-based approach

The challenge of incorporating the concept of ecosystem services in landscape planning has been widely acknowledged, yet values of ecosystem services are not well considered in current landscape planning and environmental governance. This is particularly the case when local stakeholders are strongly involved in decision making about adapting the landscape to future demands and challenges. Engagement of stakeholders introduces a variety of interests and motives that result in diverging value interpretations. Moreover, participative planning approaches are based on learning processes, implying that the perceptions of value evolve during the planning process. Current valuation approaches are not able to support such process. Therefore we argue that there is a need for a novel view on the mechanism of integrating valuation in the different stages of community-based landscape planning, as well as for tools based on this mechanism. By revisiting the original conception of ecosystem services and redefining the value of an ecosystem service as its comparative importance to human wellbeing, we develop a conceptual framework for incorporating ecosystem service valuation that captures the full spectrum of value and value changes. We acknowledge that in the social interactions during the planning process values are redefined, negotiated and reframed in the context of the local landscape. Therefore, we propose a valuation mechanism that evolves through the phases of the cyclic planning process. We illustrate the use of this mechanism by proposing a tool that supports stakeholder groups in building a value-based vision on landscape adaptation that contributes to all wellbeing dimensions.     

Scaling up ecosystem productivity from patch to landscape: a case study of Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve,China

Scaling up ecosystem processes from plots to landscapes is essential for understanding landscape structure and functioning as well as for assessing ecological impacts of land use and climate change. This study illustrates an upscaling approach to studying the spatiotemporal pattern of ecosystem processes in the Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve in northeastern China by integrating simulation modeling, GIS, remote sensing data, and field-based observations. The ecosystem model incorporated processes of energy transfer, plant physiology, carbon dynamics, and water cycling. Using a direct extrapolation scheme, the patch-level ecosystem model was scaled up to quantify the landscape-level pattern of primary productivity and the carbon source-sink relationship. The simulated net primary productivity (NPP) for the entire landscape, consisting of several ecosystem types, was 0.680 kg C m⁻² yr⁻¹. The most widely distributed ecosystem type in this region was the mixed broad-leaved and Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) forest, which had the highest NPP (1.084 kg C m⁻² yr⁻¹). The total annual NPP for all ecosystem types combined was estimated to be 1.332 Mt C yr⁻¹. These results suggest that the Changbai Mountain landscape as a whole was a carbon sink, with a net carbon sequestration rate of about 0.884 Mt C yr⁻¹ for the study period. The simulated NPP agreed reasonably well with available field measurements at a number of locations within the study landscape. Our study provides new insight into the relationship between landscape pattern and ecosystem processes, and useful information for improving management practices in the Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve, which is one of the most important forested landscapes in China. Several research needs are discussed to further refine the modeling approach and reduce prediction uncertainties.     

Multifunctionality of floodplain landscapes: relating management options to ecosystem services

The concept of green infrastructure has been recently taken up by the European Commission for ensuring the provision of ecosystem services (ESS). It aims at the supply of multiple ESS in a given landscape, however, the effects of a full suite of management options on multiple ESS and landscape multifunctionality have rarely been assessed. In this paper we use European floodplain landscapes as example to develop an expert based qualitative conceptual model for the assessment of impacts of landscape scale interventions on multifunctionality. European floodplain landscapes are particularly useful for such approach as they originally provided a high variety and quantity of ESS that has declined due to the strong human impact these landscapes have experienced. We provide an overview of the effects of floodplain management options on landscape multifunctionality by assessing the effects of 38 floodplain management interventions on 21 relevant ESS, as well as on overall ESS supply. We found that restoration and rehabilitation consistently increased the multifunctionality of the landscape by enhancing supply of provisioning, regulation/maintenance, and cultural services. In contrast, conventional technical regulation measures and interventions related to extraction, infrastructure and intensive land use cause decrease in multifunctionality and negative effects for the supply of all three aspects of ESS. The overview of the effects of interventions shall provide guidance for decision makers at multiple governance levels. The presented conceptual model could be effectively applied for other landscapes that have potential for a supply of a high diversity of ESS.     

Impact of land-use change on biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Chilean temperate forests

Context

Land-use change impacts biodiversity and ecosystem services, which are intrinsically related. There is a serious lack of knowledge concerning on how land-use change affects this relationship at landscape level, where the greatest impacts have been reported. A proper knowledge of that relationship would provide crucial information for planning conservation strategies. The forest landscape of southern Chile, which includes Valdivian Temperate Forest, has been designated as a hotspot for biodiversity conservation. However, this landscape has been transformed by land-use change.

Objective

We evaluated the impact of land-use change on the spatial patterns of the diversity of native forest habitat and the influence of these impacts on the provision of the ecosystem services water supply, erosion control, and organic matter accumulation from 1986 to 2011.

Methods

The evaluation, at the landscape level, was carried out using satellite images, landscape metrics, spatially explicit models and generalized linear models. Results: We found that the area loss of native forest habitat was 12%, the number patches of native forest habitat increased more than 150% and the Shannon diversity index decreased by 0.20. The largest decrease in the provision of services was recorded for erosion control (346%), and the smallest for water supply (11%).

Conclusions

The loss of provision of the ecosystem services can be explained by the interaction between the area loss, increase in the number patches and diversity loss. We recommend that the conservation planning strategies should consider the current landscape configuration, complemented with land-use planning.

     

Sensitivity of ecosystem goods and services projections of a forest landscape model to initialization data

Projections of indicators of forest ecosystem goods and services (EGS) based on process-based landscape models are critical for adapting forest management to climate change. However, the scarcity of fine-grained, spatially explicit forest data means that initializing these models is both a challenge and a source of uncertainty. To test how different initialization approaches influence the simulation of forest dynamics and EGS indicators we initialized the forest landscape model LandClim with fine resolution empirical data, coarse empirical data, and simulation-derived data, and evaluated the results at three spatial scales (stand, management area and landscape). Simulations were performed for a spruce (Picea abies) dominated landscape in the Black Forest, Germany, under current climate and a climate change scenario. We found that long-term (>150 years) projections are robust to initialization uncertainty. In contrast, shorter-term projections are sensitive to initialization uncertainty, with sensitivity increasing when EGS are assessed at smaller spatial scales, and when the EGS indicators depend on the spatial distribution of individual species. EGS dynamics are strongly influenced by interactions between the density, species composition, and age structure of initialized forests and simulated forest management. If EGS dynamics are strongly influenced by climate change, such as when climate change induces mortality in drought-sensitive species, some of the initialization uncertainty can be masked. We advocate for initializing landscape models with fine-grained data in applications that focus on spatial management problems in heterogeneous landscapes, and stress that the scale of analysis must be in accordance with the accuracy that is warranted by the initialization data.     

Coupling ecosystem and landscape models to study the effects of plot number and location on prediction of forest landscape change

A fundamental but unsolved dilemma is that observation and prediction scales are often mismatched. Reconciling this mismatch largely depends on how to design samples on a heterogeneous landscape. In this study, we used a coupled modeling approach to investigate the effects of plot number and location on predicting tree species distribution at the landscape scale. We used an ecosystem process model (LINKAGES) to generate tree species response to the environment (a land type) at the plot scale. To explore realistic parameterization scenarios we used results from LINKAGES simulations on species establishment probabilities under the current and warming climate. This allowed us to design a series of plot number and location scenarios at the landscape scale. Species establishment probabilities for different land types were then used as input for the forest landscape model (LANDIS) that simulated tree species distribution at the landscape scale. To investigate the effects of plot number and location on forest landscape predictions, LANDIS considered effects of climate warming only for the land types in which experimental plots were placed; otherwise inputs for the current climate were used. We then statistically examined the relationships of response variables (species percent area) among these scenarios and the reference scenario in which plots were placed on all land types of the study area. Our results showed that for species highly or moderately sensitive to environmental heterogeneity, increasing plot numbers to cover as many land types as possible is the strategy to accurately predict species distribution at the landscape scale. In contrast, for species insensitive to environmental heterogeneity, plot location was more important than plot number. In this case, placing plots in land types with large area of species distribution is warranted. For some moderately sensitive species that experienced intense disturbance, results were different in different simulation periods. Results from this study may provide insights into sample design for forest landscape predictions.     

Linking ecosystem services,urban form and green space configuration using multivariate landscape metric analysis

Context

Landscape metrics represent powerful tools for quantifying landscape structure, but uncertainties persist around their interpretation. Urban settings add unique considerations, containing habitat structures driven by the surrounding built-up environment. Understanding urban ecosystems, however, should focus on the habitats rather than the matrix.

Objectives

We coupled a multivariate approach with landscape metric analysis to overcome existing shortcomings in interpretation. We then explored relationships between landscape characteristics and modelled ecosystem service provision.

Methods

We used principal component analysis and cluster analysis to isolate the most effective measures of landscape variability and then grouped habitat patches according to their attributes, independent of the surrounding urban form. We compared results to the modelled provision of three ecosystem services. Seven classes resulting from cluster analysis were separated primarily on patch area, and secondarily by measures of shape complexity and inter-patch distance.

Results

When compared to modelled ecosystem services, larger patches up to 10 ha in size consistently stored more carbon per area and supported more pollinators, while exhibiting a greater risk of soil erosion. Smaller, isolated patches showed the opposite, and patches larger than 10 ha exhibited no additional areal benefit.

Conclusions

Multivariate landscape metric analysis offers greater confidence and consistency than analysing landscape metrics individually. Independent classification avoids the influence of the urban matrix surrounding habitats of interest, and allows patches to be grouped according to their own attributes. Such a grouping is useful as it may correlate more strongly with the characteristics of landscape structure that directly affect ecosystem function.

     

Blowing litter across a landscape: effects on ecosystem nutrient flux and implications for landscape management

Lateral flows in landscape mosaics represent a fundamentally important process in landscape ecology, but are still poorly understood in general. For example, windblown litter nutrient transfer across a landscape has rarely been studied from an ecosystem perspective. In this study we measured the litter nutrient transfer from an Acacia mangium plantation to a Dimocarpus longan orchard in an agroforestry landscape for 3 years from January 2002 to December 2004. About 11% of the total litterfall of the acacia plantation were transported to the longan orchard annually, accounting for ca. 9–59% of the total litter nutrient input of the longan orchard. The windblown litter transfer showed high spatial variation mainly caused by wind speed and directions. Slope positions 5 m away from the source acacia plantation received significantly greater amount of allochthonous acacia litter than those 10 m away, and the northwest-facing slope of the longan orchard received 2 to 3-fold more litter than the southeast- and south-facing slopes because of the prevailing southeasterly wind in the region. To explore how different management practices may influence the litterfall, leaf production, and soil nutrient status of the two ecosystems, we developed a Meta-Ecosystem Litter Transfer (MELT) model to simulate the processes of litter-related transformation (production, deposition, and decomposition) and transfer (wind- and management-driven movement). Our simulation results suggest that less than 30% of acacia litter should be transferred to the longan orchard in order for the acacia plantation to sustain itself and maximize production of the longan. Connectivity of nutrient flow between adjacent ecosystems as shown here leads to a functional meta-ecosystem with higher landscape-scale production of ecosystem services. That is, managing this connectivity through landscape design or active litter transfers can lead to large changes in overall landscape functioning and service production.     

Variations in landscape patterns and vegetation cover between 1957 and 1994 in a semiarid Mediterranean ecosystem

The aim of this study was to analyze the main processes that determine changes in landscape patterns and vegetation cover from 1957-1994 to develop a model for land cover dynamics. Land cover and landscape patterns were assessed and compared using aerial photographs taken in 1957, 1985, and 1994. Over this period, tall grass steppe and arid garrigues increased by 6% and 4%, respectively, while crop fields decreased by 15% and tall arid brush remained the same. Over the same period, tall grass steppes and arid garrigues became less fragmented.Changes in land use were triggered by socioeconomic forces, which were constrained by the underlying structure of the physical landscape. The best preserved vegetation (tall arid brushes) was concentrated at higher elevations, with a pronounced slope, not oriented towards the sea, and in volcanic substrate. Communities tended to be better preserved further away from towns and at lower house densities. Tall grass steppe was present on more gradual sea-oriented slope and in calcareous substrate, and increased at higher elevations, although not far from the town but away from high anthropogenic influence. Previous studies have revealed that traditional land uses of this landscape, particularly grazing, favoured the transition from tall arid brush to tall grass steppe. In this study, we analyzed to what extent the underlying structure of the physical landscape imposes limitations to the vulnerability to human activity of the main vegetation types. According to the data on the probability of vegetation transition over the 37-year period, the shift from tall arid brush to tall grass steppe appeared to be favoured by gradual slopes. Tall arid brush recovered from either arid garrigues or tall grass steppes at steeper slopes. Thus, steep terrain had a favourable effect on the formation of brushwood and more gradual terrain favoured tall grass steppe. The prevalent trends were confirmed by a projection of a transition matrix over 100 years.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The effects of landscape patterns on ecosystem services: meta-analyses of landscape services

Purpose

The recently introduced concept of ‘landscape services’—ecosystem services influenced by landscape patterns—may be particularly useful in landscape planning by potentially increasing stakeholder participation and financial funding. However, integrating this concept remains challenging. In order to bypass this barrier, we must gain a greater understanding of how landscape composition and configuration influence the services provided.

Methods

We conducted meta-analyses that considered published studies evaluating the effects of several landscape metrics on the following services: pollination, pest control, water quality, disease control, and aesthetic value. We report the cumulative mean effect size (E₊₊), where the signal of the values is related to positive or negative influences.

Results

Landscape complexity differentially influenced the provision of services. Particularly, the percentage of natural areas had an effect on natural enemies (E₊₊ =?0.35), pollination (E₊₊?=?0.41), and disease control (E₊₊?=?0.20), while the percentage of no-crop areas had an effect on water quality (E₊₊?=?0.42) and pest response (E₊₊?=?0.33). Furthermore, heterogeneity had an effect on aesthetic value (E₊₊?=?0.5) and water quality (E₊₊ =???0.40). Moreover, landscape aggregation was important to explaining pollination (E₊₊?=?0.29) and water quality (E₊₊?=?0.35).

Conclusions

The meta-analyses reinforce the importance of considering landscape structure in assessing ecosystem services for management purposes and decision-making. The magnitude of landscape effect varies according to the service being studied. Therefore, land managers must account for landscape composition and configuration in order to ensure the maintenance of services and adapt their approach to suit the focal service.

     

Landscape sustainability science (II): core questions and key approaches

Landscape Ecology - A background assumption of landscape approaches is that some landscape patterns are more sustainable than others, and thus searching for these patterns should be a unifying...