潮沟对黄河三角洲湿地典型景观格局的影响

为揭示潮沟发育对黄河三角洲典型湿地景观类型空间分布格局的影响,通过对1989-2016年黄河三角洲7期遥感影像进行目视解译,在获取潮沟及湿地景观类型空间分布基础上,通过冗余分析识别影响黄河三角洲典型湿地景观特征的主要潮沟指标。结果表明：光滩面积占比的变化趋势与芦苇（Phragmites australis）、碱蓬（Suaeda salsa）相反;黄河三角洲北部区域湿地景观的斑块密度整体上大于南部,景观破碎化程度相对较高;RDA结果显示前两个排序轴能够解释潮沟发育指标与景观格局指数关系的85.7%,较好地反映了两者的相关关系;潮沟长度、数量、网络连通度和曲率对区域景观格局的影响程度较大;潮沟分维值对景观格局影响程度最小;潮沟长度、数量、分维值与芦苇和碱蓬的面积占比及斑块密度呈负相关关系,与光滩面积占比呈正相关关系。     

In search of greener towns

Around 1970 a quiet revolution occurred in several European countries involving the use of naturalistic design approaches and ecological principles in the design and management of urban green spaces. The objective was to bring the qualities of nature into peoples’ daily lives and provide a richer external living environment. Parallel programmes of community participation and environmental education were involved. Successful projects in Holland, Sweden and Britain are described. These indicate that despoiled urban and urban‐fringe land can be quickly and economically transformed into green environments which are attractive for living and commercial investment. A reorganisation of Local Authority landscape resources is recommended.     

Assessing the role of economic actors in the production of private and public goods in three EU agricultural landscapes

The study analyses the contribution of relevant economic actors to the provision of private and public goods in agricultural landscapes. A method consisting of a multi-sectoral perspective and an integrated approach based on the analytic network process (ANP) and the use of selected local stakeholders is applied. The usefulness of the method is demonstrated in three European case studies in Austria, Italy and Spain. The results show that agriculture and tourism are the sectors that contribute the most and the least, respectively, to the provision of goods and services in agricultural landscapes. Moreover, the results underscore that policy instruments towards such provision need to be targeted differently in different areas and must take into account the different roles of the local actors involved.     

Same but different: sources of natural resource management advice for lifestyle oriented rural landholders

Amenity migration to attractive and accessible non-metropolitan areas changes social and environmental relations with consequences for natural resource management and landscape composition and trajectories. Lifestyler oriented rural landholders are often cast as a problem for land management and extension. Managers and some researchers see them as a cause of landscape and social fragmentation and report difficulties in engaging such landowners on natural resource management issues and responsibilities. In contrast, limited existing research indicates that lifestylers do join and form networks of personal and other contacts for advice and support in land management. We contribute to this research with a survey of rural landholders in southeastern New South Wales (NSW). We explicitly compare the sources of advice for land management for lifestylers with those of farmers. We focus on the types of sources available to rural landholders in Australian regions and their relative importance to these two landholder groups. We find that lifestylers and farmers are different in their sources of advice but that both prefer personal sources rather than sources such as agencies. We reflect on the significance of the differences for engagement with lifestyle oriented rural landowners and for understanding landscape change.     

Human Impacts on Regional Avian Diversity and Abundance

Abstract: Patterns of association between humans and biodiversity typically show positive, negative, or negative quadratic relationships and can be described by 3 hypotheses: biologically rich areas that support high human population densities co‐occur with areas of high biodiversity (productivity); biodiversity decreases monotonically with increasing human activities (ecosystem stress); and biodiversity peaks at intermediate levels of human influence (intermediate disturbance). To test these hypotheses, we compared anthropogenic land cover and housing units, as indices of human influence, with bird species richness and abundance across the Midwestern United States. We modeled richness of native birds with 12 candidate models of land cover and housing to evaluate the empirical evidence. To assess which species were responsible for observed variation in richness, we repeated our model‐selection analysis with relative abundance of each native species as the response and then asked whether natural‐history traits were associated with positive, negative, or mixed responses. Native avian richness was highest where anthropogenic land cover was lowest and housing units were intermediate based on model‐averaged predictions among a confidence set of candidate models. Eighty‐three of 132 species showed some pattern of association with our measures of human influence. Of these species approximately 40% were negatively associated, approximately 6% were positively associated, and approximately 7% showed evidence of an intermediate relationship with human influence measures. Natural‐history traits were not closely related to the direction of the relationship between abundance and human influence. Nevertheless, pooling species that exhibited any relationship with human influence and comparing them with unrelated species indicated they were significantly smaller, nested closer to the ground, had shorter incubation and fledging times, and tended to be altricial. Our results support the ecosystem‐stress hypothesis for the majority of individual species and for overall species diversity when focusing on anthropogenic land cover. Nevertheless, the great variability in housing units across the land‐cover gradient indicates that an intermediate‐disturbance relationship is also supported. Our findings suggest preemptive conservation action should be taken, whereby areas with little anthropogenic land cover are given conservation priority. Nevertheless, conservation action should not be limited to pristine landscapes because our results showed that native avian richness and the relative abundance of many species peaked at intermediate housing densities and levels of anthropogenic land cover.     

Visual preference and ecological assessments for designed alternative brownfield rehabilitations

This paper describes an integrative method for quantifying, analyzing, and comparing the effects of alternative rehabilitation approaches with visual preference. The method was applied to a portion of a major industrial area located in southern Italy. Four alternative approaches to rehabilitation (alternative designs) were developed and analyzed. The scenarios consisted of the cleanup of the brownfields plus: (1) the addition of ground cover species; (2) the addition of ground cover species and a few trees randomly distributed; (3) the addition of ground cover species and a few trees in small groups; and (4) the addition of ground cover species and several trees in large groups. The approaches were analyzed and compared to the baseline condition through the use of cost-surface modeling (CSM) and visual preference assessment (VPA). Statistical results showed that alternatives that were more ecologically functional for forest bird species dispersal were also more visually preferable. Some differences were identified based on user groups and location of residence. The results of the study are used to identify implications for enhancing both ecological attributes and visual preferences of rehabilitating landscapes through planning and design.     

Land use and land cover in a transitioning militarized landscape

The repurposing of military lands is common in many parts of the world and presents a variety of conservation opportunities. This study examines land cover at Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge, Indiana (U.S.A.) as it transitioned from military proving ground to wildlife refuge from 1985 to 2013. We use remote sensing, semi-structured interviews, and a review of planning and management documents to examine this transition. Limited change in land cover composition and distribution are detected, despite changes in use and management. This landscape similarity relates to similarities in land management practices, and the impact of landscape history on current management practices. The findings suggest that military use and conservation objectives at this site yield similar land covers and are not necessarily in contrast to each other. As military base closures continue, the potential to maintain and expand conservation opportunities on these lands will likely grow in importance.     

Land‐use history as a guide for forest conservation and management

Conservation efforts to protect forested landscapes are challenged by climate projections that suggest substantial restructuring of vegetation and disturbance regimes in the future. In this regard, paleoecological records that describe ecosystem responses to past variations in climate, fire, and human activity offer critical information for assessing present landscape conditions and future landscape vulnerability. We illustrate this point drawing on 8 sites in the northwestern United States, New Zealand, Patagonia, and central and southern Europe that have undergone different levels of climate and land‐use change. These sites fall along a gradient of landscape conditions that range from nearly pristine (i.e., vegetation and disturbance shaped primarily by past climate and biophysical constraints) to highly altered (i.e., landscapes that have been intensely modified by past human activity). Position on this gradient has implications for understanding the role of natural and anthropogenic disturbance in shaping ecosystem dynamics and assessments of present biodiversity, including recognizing missing or overrepresented species. Dramatic vegetation reorganization occurred at all study sites as a result of postglacial climate variations. In nearly pristine landscapes, such as those in Yellowstone National Park, climate has remained the primary driver of ecosystem change up to the present day. In Europe, natural vegetation–climate–fire linkages were broken 6000–8000 years ago with the onset of Neolithic farming, and in New Zealand, natural linkages were first lost about 700 years ago with arrival of the Maori people. In the U.S. Northwest and Patagonia, the greatest landscape alteration occurred in the last 150 years with Euro‐American settlement. Paleoecology is sometimes the best and only tool for evaluating the degree of landscape alteration and the extent to which landscapes retain natural components. Information on landscape‐level history thus helps assess current ecological change, clarify management objectives, and define conservation strategies that seek to protect both natural and cultural elements.     

庐山

探讨庐山形成发展过程，描写庐山奇峰、名瀑、绿色植被和宜人气候等优美的自然风光；介绍庐山悠久的历史文化和丰富的人文景观。容地学知识于迷人的山水景色之中，从而增加人们对庐山的认识和旅游的兴趣。庐山于１９９６年被联合国教科文组织批准为“世界文化景观”，列入《世界遗产名录》。     

Effects of Patch Size and Type of Coffee Matrix on Ithomiine Butterfly Diversity and Dispersal in Cloud-Forest Fragments

Abstract: Determining the permeability of different types of landscape matrices to animal movement is essential for conserving populations in fragmented landscapes. We evaluated the effects of habitat patch size and matrix type on diversity, isolation, and dispersal of ithomiine butterflies in forest fragments surrounded by coffee agroecosystems in the Colombian Andes. Because ithomiines prefer a shaded understory, we expected the highest diversity and abundance in large fragments surrounded by shade coffee and the lowest in small fragments surrounded by sun coffee. We also thought shade coffee would favor butterfly dispersal and immigration into forest patches. We marked 9675 butterflies of 39 species in 12 forest patches over a year. Microclimate conditions were more similar to the forest interior in the shade‐coffee matrix than in the sun‐coffee matrix, but patch size and matrix type did not affect species richness and abundance in forest fragments. Furthermore, age structure and temporal recruitment patterns of the butterfly community were similar in all fragments, independent of patch size or matrix type. There were no differences in the numbers of butterflies flying in the matrices at two distances from the forest patch, but their behavior differed. Flight in the sun‐coffee matrix was rapid and directional, whereas butterflies in shade‐coffee matrix flew slowly. Seven out of 130 recaptured butterflies immigrated into patches in the shade‐coffee matrix, and one immigrated into a patch surrounded by sun coffee. Although the shade‐coffee matrix facilitated movement in the landscape, sun‐coffee matrix was not impermeable to butterflies. Ithomiines exhibited behavioral plasticity in habitat use and high mobility. These traits favor their persistence in heterogeneous landscapes, opening opportunities for their conservation. Understanding the dynamics and resource requirements of different organisms in rural landscapes is critical for identifying management options that address both animals’ and farmers’ needs.