Assessing the Floristic Diversity of Hedge Networks: a landscape perspective

The type of land cover adjacent to hedges has been shown to influence the species composition of the ground flora. An assessment of the contribution of hedge networks to the biodiversity of landscapes therefore requires information on the relative lengths of hedge associated with different land covers. In the River Tyne catchment, Northern England, the association between hedges and land cover types differed between four landscapes. Overall, the greatest length of hedge was adjacent to arable crops, improved grasslands and roads. Hedges next to improved grassland and roads were the most species-rich, while those adjacent to arable crops were the least species-rich. Species which were common adjacent to arable crops were also common adjacent to other land covers. Hedges adjacent to improved grassland, roads and semi-natural broadleaved woodland supported species which were not common elsewhere in the hedge network. It was also found that hedges with different land cover on each side supported different floras on each side. When planning landscape-scale surveys of hedge biodiversity, it is important to survey both sides of hedges, and sampling should be stratified to include hedges adjacent to the different types of land cover present.     

Large-scale Spatial Patterns in Species Richness of Orthoptera in the Greater London Area,United Kingdom: Relationships with Land Cover

This paper explores species richness of insects of the order Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, etc.) along spatial gradients defined using remotely sensed land cover data for an area of 5600?km² centred on the city of London. The number of species within grid-squares of a national atlas, controlled for recording effort, declined along composite multivariate spatial gradients representing landscapes with increasing dominance of arable and urban land uses, yet was uncorrelated with the area of an individual land cover representing cultivated land, and only weakly correlated with a second land cover representing urban development. Few orthopteran species reside directly within either arable crops or non-vegetated urban land covers. Thus, whilst the areas of the individual land covers are intuitively sensible (and simple) measures of agricultural and urban cover respectively, their areas do not capture ecologically relevant information about variation in the composition of the uncultivated and non-urban land cover matrices within which the species actually reside. The results illustrate the advantages of using multivariate data reduction techniques (such as the Principle Components Analysis applied here) to describe spatial gradients in the extent of agricultural and urban influence. Relatively few landscape scale studies have focused on insects and the present study illustrates a) the potential for using Orthoptera to explore issues of biodiversity in the landscape and to monitor impacts of land use via analysis of large-scale spatial patterns from national species distribution atlases combined with remotely sensed land cover, and b) the importance of selecting appropriate measures of land use which incorporate information on the complex mix of land cover types utilised by the species under investigation.     

Set-aside landscapes: farmer perceptions and practices in England

Set-aside was introduced in the European Community in 1988 on a voluntary basis and, under the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in 1992, it was a condition for the receipt of area payments for most arable farms in England. The areas of set-aside land reached around 527 000 ha in England in 1994-95, falling to 253 000 ha in 1996-97. The implications of set-aside for landscape and biodiversity are discussed, drawbig on farm questionnaire surveys, supplemented by field studies of biodiversity. The majority of farmers adopted rotational set-aside, and while crop yield and economic factors were the most important factors in selecting land to set-aside, there were few signs of substantial differences between set-aside and other areas of arable land. Most rotational set-aside was under natural regeneration, sprayed with non-selective herbicides in the spring. For the much less frequent non-rotational set-aside, there were similar areas of natural regeneration and sown grass covers. Other forms of cover, including industrial crops, were much less frequent. The farmer perception was that set-aside caused few agronomic problems. The farmers felt that set-aside did not improve the look of the landscape and felt that the benefits to wildlife were greatest from non-rotational set-aside, while field studies suggest that the benefits are typically greater for rotational set-aside, especially for farmland birds. Under Agenda 2000, it is proposed to set the set-aside rate at 0% (voluntary set-aside will still be allowed), and to rely on agri-environment schemes to generate environmental benefits from agricultural landscapes. While this may be appropriate for plants and landscape quality, it will be hard to replace the resources made available to farmland birds by the large areas of set-aside land which may be lost.     

The development of epigeic fauna in new hedges — a comparison of spatial and temporal trends

The colonisation of a linear sequence of nine young hedge plantations (each 400 m²) within an intensely cultivated landscape about 30 km to the west of Bonn has been studied to compare spatial and temporal distribution patterns of epigeic arthropods in order to consider differences obtained concerning an assessment of colonisation characteristics and dispersal trends. The investigation was started in 1982, the year in which the new hedges were planted and continued until 1991. Pitfall traps—usually six as a standard set—were installed in young hedges and in old wooded habitats of an adjacent semi-natural habitat complex, as well as in surrounding arable fields and in meadow strips connecting the hedge plantations. But only in 1990 nearly all the habitats were sampled at the same time. Between 1982 and 1989 catches were continuously performed only in two habitats, since 1986 in four young habitats.Results on species of the taxonomical groups of Carabidae, Opilionida and Araneida show that the analysis of spatial only or temporal only patterns can lead to different interpretations and sometimes wrong conclusions about the colonisation of new hedge habitats. Both types of data, comprehensive spatial and long-term temporal, are complementary and a combination of both is recommended for properly assessing dispersal of species and other dynamic processes in the landscape. As far as the colonisation of new hedges is concerned it is shown that despite high temporal dynamics in species abundances and remarkable differences between the three taxa considered, the development towards a typical hedge fauna progresses very slowly. Small, 9-year-old hedges do not function well as stepping stones for the dispersal of epigeic forest and forest-edge arthropods, and only a small corridor effect could be established for the linear plantation strip. Remarkable differences in colonisation trends between beetle and spider species of similar ecological preferences are discussed.     

Carabid communities in the spatio-temporal mosaic of a rural landscape

The effect of landscape dynamics on carabid communities was investigated using a chronosequence of managed grassland sites. A total of 52 carabid species was found. Species richness was significantly higher in early than in later stages of grassland succession. The change from an arable land to a grassland carabid community was almost complete 10 years after the conversion to grassland. The accompanying change in the dominant feeding mode indicates a marked shift in the functional structure of the carabid community from arable land to grassland. Correlation analysis revealed a positive response of phytophagous species to dense and species-rich grassland vegetation that was only loosely related to grassland age.Invasion of grassland species was largely confined to the early stages of carabid succession. On the other hand, loss of species continued until the latest stage of the chronosequence, though many species preferring arable land had already vanished a short time after the conversion to grassland. The species turnover was independent of the dispersal abilities of the carabid species involved. This is probably due to the high spatial connectivity of suitable habitats in the small-scale landscape mosaic of the Lahn-Dill-Bergland.It is concluded that the variety of land use (arable land versus grassland) contributes considerably more to the species richness of carabids at the landscape level than the simultaneous availability of grassland sites of different age, provided that areas converted to grassland are allowed to persist for at least 10 years. The missing invasion of additional species into later stages of grassland succession can partly be explained by the premature state that is maintained at the older sites by management.     

Designing Whole Landscapes

A whole-landscape approach is critical to ensuring conservation and enhancement of biodiversity in farmed landscapes. Although existing agri-environmental schemes are constrained by property boundaries and voluntary take up, the potential for adopting a whole-landscape approach to planned countryside management is currently favoured by a number of factors. These include economic uncertainty in some agricultural sectors; the introduction of a reformulated rural development policy; increased understanding of relationships between biodiversity and management; and the introduction of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology that allows future landscapes to be visualized by stakeholders. Ecological and socio-economic aspects of whole-landscape planning in a study covering 31 neighbouring farms in west Oxfordshire are reported. A baseline was first compiled that included information on: property boundaries; land cover; relationships between hedge and field margin management and key taxa; and farmer socio-economics and attitudes towards agri-environmental measures, conservation and sustainable agriculture. Future scenarios of integrated wholelandscape management were then developed, designed to deliver amenity, environmental and biodiversity benefits. These scenarios were presented and interpreted to farmers and conservation and amenity stakeholders with the aid of GIS-based maps and three-dimensional virtual reality visualizations. Farmers' responses are reported and the potential for implementing whole-landscape planning is discussed.     

Designing Whole Landscapes

A whole-landscape approach is critical to ensuring conservation and enhancement of biodiversity in farmed landscapes. Although existing agri-environmental schemes are constrained by property boundaries and voluntary take up, the potential for adopting a whole-landscape approach to planned countryside management is currently favoured by a number of factors. These include economic uncertainty in some agricultural sectors; the introduction of a reformulated rural development policy; increased understanding of relationships between biodiversity and management; and the introduction of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology that allows future landscapes to be visualized by stakeholders. Ecological and socio-economic aspects of whole-landscape planning in a study covering 31 neighbouring farms in west Oxfordshire are reported. A baseline was first compiled that included information on: property boundaries; land cover; relationships between hedge and field margin management and key taxa; and farmer socio-economics and attitudes towards agri-environmental measures, conservation and sustainable agriculture. Future scenarios of integrated wholelandscape management were then developed, designed to deliver amenity, environmental and biodiversity benefits. These scenarios were presented and interpreted to farmers and conservation and amenity stakeholders with the aid of GIS-based maps and three-dimensional virtual reality visualizations. Farmers' responses are reported and the potential for implementing whole-landscape planning is discussed .     

Biotope patterns and amphibian distribution as assessment tools in urban landscape planning

We investigated how information on biotope patterns over time and spatio-temporal distribution patterns of focal species (amphibians) in Stockholm, can assist in identifying landscape-ecological zones and give support to urban planning. Species data were combined with biotope patterns interpreted from aerial photographs (1998 and 1945/1950). These were then compared with information on roads with heavy traffic (1998 and 1950), with anticipated serious isolation effects. Spatial analyses were conducted using GIS (ArcView). We found that temporal distribution of amphibians is negatively related to increased fragmentation of valuable biotope configurations. Our use of context sensitive data on biotopes and species, provided insight into the ability of ecosystems to buffer land cover changes. We identified a time-lag of several decades between changes in urban land and road traffic intensity, and the response in species occurrence. This time-lag is not recognised in present-day planning and, therefore, the view of the status of wetland biodiversity in Stockholm’s natural and semi-natural areas remains too optimistic. To maintain the resilience of biotopes in urban areas, we argue that organisations responsible for implementing any active plan regarding biodiversity should more fully consider comprehensive reference data in their analysis programme, i.e. biotope and species data with a time-span that covers all land and waters in the given municipality. This is to develop a greater capacity to adapt physical planning work to the different risk of biodiversity loss in specifically chosen areas.     

Study on Land Use Changes in the Yellow River Delta from 1980 to 2010

Taking the Yellow River Delta for example, this paper applied remote sensing and GIS to explore land use changes in the local area from 1980 to 2010. The results showed that arable land, and urban and rural construction land were major land use types in the Yellow River Delta, unused land also took a large ratio; land use changes occurred mainly in coastal regions, in terms of change matrix, 25.46% of the grassland was reclaimed as arable land, unused land also witnessed great changes, specifi cally, 11.14% turned to arable land, 23.25% to construction land. This study provided references for the land use planning and development of the local area.     

Agricultural land monitoring using a linear mixture model

Intensive and mixed land cover areas, the complexity of vegetation stand structure, abundant vegetation species, and the smooth transition between different vegetation covers are critical problems facing the classification process of satellite images when using traditional approaches such as the maximum likelihood classifier. Most of the time, classification distinguishes only between cultivated/non‐cultivated. It has been difficult to accurately distinguish the different types of vegetation covers in areas that are within one pixel of satellite images. In this study, a linear mixture model (LMM) approach is applied to classify land covers in the eastern Nile delta of Egypt. Four endmembers (desert land, urban, cultivated land, water bodies) were identified based on the image itself and a constrained least‐square solution was used to unmix the image. Same method was applied on other three endmembers representing the main vegetation covers in the study area. Relationship between fraction images and NDVI was determined and the fraction images were compared with ground truth data for validation. This study indicates that the LMM is a promising approach for distinguishing the different land cover types and to classify the different vegetation types using Landsat ETM+ data.     

Relationships between visual landscape preferences and map-based indicators of landscape structure

There is increasing awareness of the need to monitor trends in our constantly changing agricultural landscapes. Monitoring programmes often use remote sensing data and focus on changes in land cover/land use in relation to values such as biodiversity, cultural heritage and recreation. Although a wide range of indicators is in use, landscape aesthetics is a topic that is frequently neglected. Our aim was to determine whether aspects of landscape content and configuration could be used as surrogate measures for visual landscape quality in monitoring programmes based on remote sensing. In this paper, we test whether map-derived indicators of landscape structure from the Norwegian monitoring programme for agricultural landscapes are correlated with visual landscape preferences. Two groups of people participated: (1) locals and (2) non-local students. Using the total dataset, we found significant positive correlations between preferences and spatial metrics, including number of land types, number of patches and land type diversity. In addition, preference scores were high where water was present within the mapped image area, even if the water itself was not visible in the images. When the dataset was split into two groups, we found no significant correlation between the preference scores of the students and locals. Whilst the student group preferred images portraying diverse and heterogeneous landscapes, neither diversity nor heterogeneity was correlated with the preference scores of the locals. We conclude that certain indicators based on spatial structure also have relevance in relation to landscape preferences in agricultural landscapes. However, the finding that different groups of people prefer different types of landscape underlines the need for care when interpreting indicator values.     

英语语言类学术期刊论文中模糊限制语的语用分析

模糊限制语在学术写作中频繁出现。本文先就模糊限制语的定义和分类作了简单的介绍，然后主要是结合语用学中的合作原则对英语语言类学术期刊论文中模糊限制语的语用功能进行分析。模糊限制语在学术写作中起到非常重要的作用，在学术文章的撰写过程中应该得到足够的重视。     

Relationships between visual landscape preferences and map-based indicators of landscape structure

There is increasing awareness of the need to monitor trends in our constantly changing agricultural landscapes. Monitoring programmes often use remote sensing data and focus on changes in land cover/land use in relation to values such as biodiversity, cultural heritage and recreation. Although a wide range of indicators is in use, landscape aesthetics is a topic that is frequently neglected. Our aim was to determine whether aspects of landscape content and configuration could be used as surrogate measures for visual landscape quality in monitoring programmes based on remote sensing. In this paper, we test whether map-derived indicators of landscape structure from the Norwegian monitoring programme for agricultural landscapes are correlated with visual landscape preferences. Two groups of people participated: (1) locals and (2) non-local students. Using the total dataset, we found significant positive correlations between preferences and spatial metrics, including number of land types, number of patches and land type diversity. In addition, preference scores were high where water was present within the mapped image area, even if the water itself was not visible in the images. When the dataset was split into two groups, we found no significant correlation between the preference scores of the students and locals. Whilst the student group preferred images portraying diverse and heterogeneous landscapes, neither diversity nor heterogeneity was correlated with the preference scores of the locals. We conclude that certain indicators based on spatial structure also have relevance in relation to landscape preferences in agricultural landscapes. However, the finding that different groups of people prefer different types of landscape underlines the need for care when interpreting indicator values.     

Development of agro-environmental scenarios to support pesticide risk assessment in Europe

This paper describes work carried out within the EU-funded FOOTPRINT project to characterize the diversity of European agricultural and environmental conditions with respect to parameters which most influence the environmental fate of pesticides. Pan-European datasets for soils, climate, land cover and cropping were intersected, using GIS, to identify the full range of unique combinations of climate, soil and crop types which characterize European agriculture. The resulting FOOTPRINT European agro-environmental dataset constitutes a large number of polygons (approximately 1,700,000) with attribute data files for i) area fractions of annual crops related to each arable-type polygon (as an indicator of its probability of occurrence); and, ii) area fractions of each soil type in each polygon (as an indicator of its probability of occurrence). A total of 25,044 unique combinations of climate zones, agricultural land cover classes, administrative units and soil map units were identified. The same soil/crop combinations occur in many polygons which have the same climate while the fractions of the soils and arable crops are different. The number of unique combinations of climate, soil and agricultural land cover class is therefore only 7961. 26-year daily meteorological data, soil profile characteristics and crop management features were associated with each unique combination. The agro-environmental scenarios developed can be used to underpin the parameterization of environmental fate models for pesticides and should also have relevance for other agricultural pollutants. The implications for the improvement and further development of risk assessment procedures for pesticides are discussed.     

Projecting transition probabilities for regular public roads at the ecoregion scale: A Northern Appalachian/Acadian case study

Existing roads have far-reaching effects on biodiversity, and therefore road network expansion is of critical concern to conservation planning. Road density trend analysis is often too coarse and assumes homogeneous landscapes, whereas spatial transition probability analysis captures landscape variability typical of ecoregions. Simple models for projecting road network growth will assist planning agencies and conservation organizations to guide protection efforts. We investigate growth of regular public roads in the State of Maine over a 17-year historical period, and then use the best-selected (AIC) logistic regression model to validate and then project spatial probability of future roads to the Northern Appalachian/Acadian ecoregion. Nearly 2000 km of new roads were constructed in settled landscapes in Maine 1986–2003, influencing 37,000 ha of adjacent habitats. The majority (93.5%) of the new roads performed local functions and were short (<1/3 km in length), characterized as residential roads typical of sprawl. The best-selected logit model [dwelling density (+), elevation (−), distance to urban area (−), distance to existing primary/secondary highway (−)] captured 84% of reserved new road points in Maine, and only 27% of random points at the >0.5 probability level. The projected model forecasts 0.5 million km of new residential public roads in the Northern Appalachian/Acadian ecoregion for the next two decades, suggesting that cumulative effects of residential road network expansion are a serious region-scale biodiversity threat.     

Wildfires as a major driver of landscape dynamics in three fire-prone areas of Portugal

Wildfires are a common event in Mediterranean landscapes. We assessed the implications of wildfires on the landscape dynamics of three fire-prone areas of Central and Northern Portugal during a time period of 13–15 years, starting in 1990. Using an information-theoretical approach and probability analysis, we assessed the relative importance of fire and initial land cover on the overall landscape dynamics. We further explored the role of fire on specific land cover dynamics by building transition matrices separately for burned and unburned areas. Finally we simulated future landscapes using the transition matrices to project landscape composition, according to a Markovian process. Fire had a determinant role in the landscape changes observed in the three study areas, as it favored shrubland persistence and the conversion of other land cover types to shrublands and mixed forests. The effect of fire on land cover dynamics could be explained mainly by post-fire vegetation responses due to land abandonment, but human-driven changes were also an important influence on land cover dynamics. In the long term, the current landscape dynamics would result in an increase in landscape diversity. When compared with this projection, either a scenario without fire or a complete periodic burn of the study areas, would result in lower landscape diversity. Comparing the two opposite scenarios, the latter would reduce the proportion of agriculture, while increasing the proportion of shrublands and unmanaged mixed forests of exotic and native species, therefore leading to an increase of fire hazard and to less sustainable landscapes.     

Semi-natural grassland continuity, long-term land-use change and plant species richness in an agricultural landscape on Öland, Sweden

The study characterizes historical land-use change and the development of semi-natural grassland habitats, over 274 years, within a mosaic agricultural landscape (22 km²) on the island of Öland (Sweden). We also explore the relationship between previous land-use, habitat continuity and present-day vascular plant species richness in grassland patches. Land-cover maps, based on cadastral maps and aerial photographs, were produced for six time-periods between 1723/1733 and 1994/1997. In 1723/1733, the landscape was dominated by grasslands, with arable land surrounding the villages. The grassland area decreased throughout the study period and grassland patches became progressively more fragmented. Present-day grasslands represent 18% of the grassland area in 1723/1733. The land-use structure of the early 18th century is still evident in the modern landscape. The majority of the present-day grasslands are situated on former common grazing land and have had a continuity of at least 274 years: the remaining grasslands are younger and developed during the 20th century on arable or forested land. The proportion of plant species that depend on grazing and are characteristic of semi-natural grasslands significantly reflects the continuity and previous land-use of grassland sites. The study illustrates the way in which information on historical land-use and habitat continuity can help to explain the structuring of plant assemblages in semi-natural grasslands within the modern landscape.     

APPLICATION OF RESEARCH ON ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN LA NDSCAPE PLANNING

Landscape planning adjusts spatial structures and functions by altering the types of land use / land cover and the patterns of landscapes, and thus further impacts ecosystem services. This paper examines the impacts of landscape planning on ecosystem services and draws the conclusion that the control over the types of land use / land cover, the altering of landscape patterns, and the adjustment of landscape functional characteristics could change the type, quality, and performance of ecosystem services, respectively. Through an overall review on the application of ecosystem service evaluation, spatial mapping, and scenario simulation, this paper further concludes their roles in landscape planning: ecosystem service evaluation provides means to ensure scientific landscape planning; spatial mapping serves as a basis to the decision making; and scenario simulation visualizes all kinds of possibilities for an optimal choice. At the same time, such applications in landscape planning practices, ranging from green space planning, ecological conservation redline planning, land use planning to biodiversity protection planning, are exemplified. Finally, this paper summarizes existing research findings and limitations and proposes that future research is expected to study the relationship between landscape planning and ecosystem services, to build a dynamic composite planning framework that can improve ecosystem services, and to propel the research on the tradeoff-and-synergy among ecosystem services in landscape planning.     

Assessing landscape change and biodiversity values of the Middle Vistula river valley, Poland, using BIO-SAFE

This paper deals with the relation between legally protected biodiversity and riverine ecotopes and with the assessment of biodiversity values of the Middle Vistula river valley (Poland). Furthermore, it describes the effects of landscape change on spatial distribution of ecotope patches and biodiversity values in Kazimierski Landscape Park. Biodiversity values were calculated using BIO-SAFE, a model meant to quantify biodiversity and to value ecotopes based on legally protected species. Dissimilarity indices depict high uniqueness of ecotope types regarding their species assemblages (e.g., river dunes, banks and bars). The actual biodiversity values of the river valley in Kazimierski Landscape Park are high in comparison with floodplains of lowland rivers in Western Europe. GIS analyses of remotely sensed ecotope maps show remarkable differences in number, acreage and patchiness of ecotopes for the years 1953 and 2003. The total number of patches increased by almost 44%. Side channels and floodplain lakes became fragmented. The average and total surface area of bush, forest and arable land increased, but decreased for bare soil, pioneer vegetation and grassland. These landscape changes indicate natural vegetation succession, intensification of agriculture and progressive impacts of river regulation. The Vistula river valley still represents high biodiversity values for higher plants, birds, herpetofauna and fish. However, current landscape changes negatively affect potential values for protected and endangered species. Assessments with BIO-SAFE can help to balance biodiversity conservation, river management and landscape planning.     

Landscapes, land covers and linear features in a river catchment in Northern England

A national land classification developed by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) was used to stratify a sample-based survey of land cover and linear boundary features within the catchment of the River Tyne, Northern England. A total of 115 1-km grid-squares from four land classes representative of Lowland Pastoral, Lowland Arable, Marginal Upland and Upland landscapes were surveyed in the field. The land classes are described with an emphasis on the variability of land cover types and linear features. Considerable variation between squares of the same land class was observed, but statistically significant differences between the land classes were identified. Variation in the lengths of linear features was related to the land cover compositions of sample squares. The origins of the intra-land class variation and the application of the ITE land classification in large-scale surveys are discussed.