Wetland effects on lake water quality in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area

A method developed to evaluate the cumulative effect of wetland mosaics on water quality was applied to 33 lake watersheds in the seven-county region surrounding Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. A geographic information system (GIS) was used to record and measure landscape variables derived from aerial photos. Twenty-seven watershed land-use and land-cover variables were reduced to eight principal components which described 85% of the variance among watersheds. Relationships between lake water quality variables and the first six principal components plus an index of lake mixis were analyzed through stepwise multiple regression analysis. A combination of three landscape components (wetland/watershed area, agriculture/wetlands, and forest/soils components) explained 49% of the variance in a trophic state index, even though most of the lakes examined were already highly eutrophic, and thus were influenced by internal loading. The regression equations explained a range of 14 to 76% of the variation in individual water quality variables. Forested land-use was associated with lower lake trophic state, chloride, and lead. High lake trophic state was associated with agricultural land-use and with wetland distance from the lake of interest. The extent of wetlands was associated with low total lead and high color in lakes downstream. Wet meadows or herbaceous, seasonally-flooded wetlands contributed more to lake water color than did cattail marshes.     

Change in spatial characteristics of forest openings in the Klamath Mountains of northwestern California,USA

Change in the spatial characteristics of forest openings was investigated in three forested watersheds in north-western Siskiyou County, California totalling approximately 24,600 hectares. Watersheds with minimal human disturbance were chosen for study. However, fire suppression has been pervasive throughout. Characteristics of forest openings (area, perimeter, distance between neighboring openings) were measured on aerial photographs taken 41 years apart. An index of regional form was determined for the landscape. Shape complexity for each opening was calculated using two indices based upon fractals. Significant differences were found using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample test between the perimeters, areas, distance from sample point to nearest opening, and distance between neighboring openings. The perimeters and areas became smaller, and the distances from the sample point to the nearest opening and between neighboring openings became greater over the 41 years between aerial photo sets. The estimated area occupied by openings decreased from 25.8 % to 15.6 % of the study area. No significant difference was found in the shape of the openings except as the shape indices were influenced by changes in size of the openings.This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and it is therefore in the public domain and not subject to copyright.     

Landscape-ecological mapping of the Netherlands

The Landscape-ecological Mapping of the Netherlands project (LMN project) started in 1983 with the aim of establishing a landscape-ecological database for use in developing and evaluating national land-use plans. The project, working with grid cells of 1 km², has four working objectives: a) development of mapping potential for basic landscape-ecological data, b) assessment of susceptibility to interventions, c) evaluation of significance for nature conservation and d) production of vulnerability maps, as a combination of susceptibility and significance. In addition to information on soil, groundwater, ecotopes, flora and fauna, the database also incorporates information on physiographical features and entire landscapes. The resulting database is a geographic information system (GIS). This article describes the second phase of the project (1985–1989), covering the Randstad area, and focusses on the methods and the applications potential of the database.     

A review of models of landscape change

Models of landscape change may serve a variety of purposes, from exploring the interaction of natural processes to evaluating proposed management treatments. These models can be categorized as either whole landscape models, distributional landscape models, or spatial landscape models, depending on the amount of detail included in the models. Distributional models, while widely used, exclude spatial detail important for most landscape ecological research. Spatial models require substantial data, now more readily available, via remote sensing, and more easily manipulated, in geographical information systems. In spite of these technical advances, spatial modelling is poorly developed, largely because landscape change itself is poorly understood.To facilitate further development of landscape models I suggest (1) empirical multivariate studies of landscape change, (2) modelling of individual landscape processes, (3) explicit study of the effect of model scale on model behavior, and (4) scaling-up results of studies, on smaller land areas, that have landscape relevance.     

Scale of heterogeneity of forage production and winter foraging by elk and bison

The relationship between fine-scale spatial patterns of forage abundance and the feeding patterns of large ungulates is not well known. We compared these patterns for areas grazed in winter by elk and bison in a sagebrush-grassland landscape in northern Yellowstone National Park. At a fine scale, the spatial distribution of mapped feeding stations in 30 m × 30 m sites was found to be random where there were no large patches devoid of vegetation. In areas similar to the mapped sites, the underlying spatial distribution pattern of biomass was also determined to be random. At a broad scale, forage biomass differed among communities across the northern range but forage quality did not. These results suggest that ungulates are feeding randomly within forage patches (fine scale) but may select feeding sites based upon forage abundance at broader, landscape scales. Contrary to what has been suggested in other systems, ungulates were not overmatching at finer scales.     

5个草地型草地牧草的生长速率和养分动态研究

在牧草生长季节(5~9月)对小哨牧场放牧演替形成的5个草地型草地的牧草进行生长速率、牧草产量及养分的逐月观测,生长速率测定显示,白三叶+东非狼尾草和东非狼尾草+非洲狗尾草两个草地型草地均出现两个生长峰值,分别在6月和9月,其余3个草地型草地只有一个生长高峰。干物质产量和牧草养分测定结果表明,白三叶+东非狼尾草和白三叶+非洲狗尾草+画眉草两种草地型草地表现最好,可以在气候环境条件类似的地区推广种植利用;白三叶+画眉草和白三叶+非洲狗尾草两种草地型草地表现优良,可以在草地改良中,根据当地实际情况选择性地加以种植;东非狼尾草+非洲狗尾草型草地表现较差,不提倡种植。     

Contributions to the leafminer fauna (Diptera: Agromyzidae) from Turkey, with four new records

In a study carried out during 2002 and 2004 in Diyarbakıir and Mardin provinces, southeast Turkey, specimens were collected twice a month from cultivated and non-cultivated plants. Sixteen leafminer (Diptera: Agromyzidae) species were identified. Among them,Agromyza abiens Zetterstedt, 1848;Napomyza elegans (Meigen, 1830);Phytoliriomyza dorsata (Siebke, 1864); andPhytomyza aquilonia Frey, 1964 are new records for the Turkish leafminer http://www.phytoparasitica.org posting July 24, 2005.     

水分管理方式对香根草生长发育的影响

对四种不同的水分管理条件下香根草生长研究发现：香根草最适宜在土壤水分饱和的湿润环境中生长,这时它的成活率最高,分蘖速度最快,植株高度生长也最快,定植后3个月,其对应的根体积、根干生物量、茎叶干生物量和根茎比也最高。     

园林布局中必然性和偶然性要素的辩识与运用

阐释了园林构成要素中的必然性要素和偶然性要素及其相互关系与运用意义；以昆明世博园中“齐鲁园”为例，辩识了“齐鲁园”中必然性与偶然性园林要素，分析了诸要素在特定园林环境布局中的运用。     

The effects of agricultural fields and human settlements on the use of rivers by wildlife in the mid-Zambezi valley,Zimbabwe

After the eradication of the Tse-Tse fly in the Mid-Zambezi valley, human settlements and fields extended mainly along the main rivers. In order to investigate the consequences of this human development on wildlife diversity we monitored three rivers of the Mid-Zambezi valley in Zimbabwe: Angwa, Manyame and Kadzi. The rivers were divided in segments of 200 m which were checked for spoors in order to assess the number of species and the number of individuals that used the segments. Human settlements were also recorded. We used a GIS to define the spatial characteristics of the fields present along the rivers, and related them to the distribution and abundance of wild species spoors in the river beds and banks. Our results show that the number of species in one segment of the river decreased with the increasing size of the field area bordering the segment. For all the major ungulate species, the numbers of individuals recorded per segment decreased with increasing field area. A similar trend was observed for small and medium-sized carnivores, though they were in lower numbers when present. Our analyses thus confirm that the extension of human agriculture in wildlife areas has an impact on most wild species, but we also define some threshold value of field size above which there seem to be an acceleration of the decrease in wildlife density and diversity: 3.2 ha for medium and small herbivores and carnivores; only the elephant seem to tolerate larger field area with a threshold value of 32 ha.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.