Landscape Ecology

The earthquake in central Italy in 2016 led to a profound urban and natural landscape transformation. The role of territorial planning in this kind of situation is extremely important because it allows the orientation of future settlement choices through appropriate interpretative keys of the existing territorial dynamics. This work aims to analyze the effects of the planning choices made in the post-earthquake period in the seismic crater municipalities of the Umbria region. Using the InVEST models, these studies regard the comparison of the effects of in-force plans on ecosystem services such as habitat quality and carbon storage. The data about the mosaic of the municipal urban planning tools are derived from specific actions produced under two LIFE projects (SUNLIFE and IMAGINE). The comparison makes it possible to identify how and to what extent the transformative scenarios, linked to the new condition, change the spatial planning compared to the previous one and the effects on...

Our phytosociological study in Montenegro (Ćemovsko polje) deals with the syntaxonomy of arid grasslands in the Adriatic region and, in particular, different interpretations of plant communities dominated by Asphodelus ramosus. The main aims of this study were to contribute to knowledge of the composition of dry grasslands dominated by Asphodelus ramosus in Montenegro and to compare instances of Asphodelus ramosus dominated vegetation along the Adriatic. Our vegetation dataset included 82 phytosociological relevés: 17 from our recent field work and 72 relevés of South European Asphodelus ramosus communities. Ordination analysis (NMDS) was used for comparison of Asphodelus ramosus dominated communities in the Adriatic region. The Asphodelus ramosus community from Montenegro was classified into Bromo erecti-Chrysopogonetum grylli . The analysis revealed two distinct vegetation groups: grassland communities of the vegetation class Festuco-Brometea from Montenegro, Croatia and Albania, ...

Weed–crop competition and reduced soil fertility are some of the main reasons for decreased crop yields in Pakistan. Allelopathy can be applied to combat the problems of environmental degradation by reducing pesticide use and through reduction of herbicide-resistant weeds. A two-year field experiment (2014–2015) was conducted to assess the impact of incorporation of various levels of brassica residues and brassica water extract on the growth of mung bean and soil attributes. Two brassica water extract levels (10, 20 L/ha) and two residue levels (4, 6 t/ha) were tested, and a treatment with no water extract and residue incorporation was used as the control. The results showed that the water extract and residue incorporation had diverse impacts on soil fertility indices and weed dynamics, where treatment with 6 t/ha had more significant impacts. Compared with the control, reductions of 61% in dry weight of weeds and 52% in weed density were observed. After cropping, improved soil prop...

Resultado do 1o Simposio sobre Reforma Agraria, Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento (SARADAM), organizado em 2012, Conflito, territorialidade e desenvolvimento congrega os trabalhos desenvolvidos por um grupo de pesquisadores, servidores publicos e membros de sindicatos visando atender aos anseios da sociedade rural. Os artigos que compoem o livro apresentam debates sobre a realidade do campo, modos de vida, desenvolvimento e conflitos relacionados a apropriacao da terra especialmente existentes no Estado do Amapa. Nele, os autores apresentam os cenarios e desafios impostos pelos conflitos fundiarios que envolvem desde o acesso a terra e a manutencao dos modos de vida das “maiorias desprivilegiadas” ate as politicas de garantia de direitos, destacando a situacao vivida pelas comunidades quilombolas, assentados da reforma agraria e posseiros. Trata-se de um livro capaz de contribuir para a compreensao das realidades do campo e do papel do campesinato frente a expansao do capital, retoman...

Dendroarchaeology is under-represented in the Gulf Coastal Plain region of the United States (US), and at present, only three published studies have precision dated a collection of 18th–19th-century structures. In this study, we examined the tree-ring data from pine, poplar, and oak timbers used in the Walker House in Tupelo, Mississippi. The Walker House was constructed ca. the mid-1800s with timbers that appeared to be recycled from previous structures. In total, we examined 30 samples (16 pines, 8 oaks, and 6 poplars) from the attic and crawlspace. We cross-dated latewood ring growth from the attic pine samples to the period 1541–1734 (r = 0.52, t = 8.43, p < 0.0001) using a 514-year longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) latewood reference chronology from southern Mississippi. The crawlspace oak samples produced a 57-year chronology that we dated against a white oak (Quercus alba L.) reference chronology from northeast Alabama to the period 1765–1822 (r = 0.36, t = 2.83, p &lt...

The paper seeks the historical roots of the b ackwardness of those areas on the Great Hungarian Plain where, despite their peripheric position and unfavourable agroecological features, monocultural grain production still dominates. Behind the arguments that justified the advance of grain (flood prevention, security of supply, surplus revenue), it explores those underlying but real forces (climate, overpopulation, price trends, land speculation) that, along with to waterway regulation, resulted in the shrinking of animal husbandry and the long-term emergence of an unprofitable economic system. Using historical statistical methods, the authors explore the features of the area in terms of demography, land use, and agricultural yields in the eighteenth century, how these justified the consequent transformations, and the ways in which such features changed due to the regulations. They analyse the advantages of grain production versus cattle breeding, as well as the impact of the monocultural turn, generated by outside forces, on the well-being, inequalities, and demographic relations of the local society and on the
ecological carrying capacity of the land, during the cereal boom and in the long run. After all, who paid the bills for the regulation of the Tisza river?

Climate change and water scarcity increase the vulnerability of crop production and other ecosystem services (ES) in flood-protected lowlands under a continental climate. Restoration of wetlands leads to a higher water-buffering capacity of the landscape, strengthening various ecosystem services, and fostering adaptation to climatic, ecological, and agricultural challenges. Such restoration efforts require extensive land-use change, leading to trade-offs in provisioning and regulating ES. However, knowledge is limited about these situations, especially in the case of lowland areas. Here, we introduce a hydrological analysis in a 243 km2 flood-protected catchment in the Great Hungarian Plain, mapping the potential hydrological effects of water-retention scenarios on groundwater levels. We point out how the simulated groundwater levels will be used for estimating the changes in crop yields and tree growth (provisioning services). The introduced hydrological analysis and preliminary results for crop-yield estimates suggest a significant and scalable capacity for a nature-based hydrological adaptation: the extent of inundated areas could be increased stepwise and water retention could locally compensate dry periods due to the buffering effect of inundated meanders.

Physical urban growth has the most significant impact on the vegetation of surrounding areas; the assessment and analysis of these changes are essential in geography and use different mechanisms. Here, remote sensing is the main technology for assessing expansion and the rate of change of land cover. Accordingly, the present study has been conducted with the aim of evaluating the physical growth of the city of Yazd in the years 1986–2016 and its impact on the trend of urban green space changes through the use of satellite images. This is an exploratory-descriptive research and it is cognitive in terms of the objective. To achieve this objective, the data from remote sensing and geographic information systems are used. The calculation of the trend of physical growth changes indicates that the city area was 3,118.25 hectares in 1986 and it increased to 15,232.47 hectares during a 30-year period; 52 percent of the urban growth was related to the horizontal and sprawl growth of the city...

Floodplains include unique environments shaped over a long time horizon along rivers and smaller streams and formed by alluvial sediments. As floodplains are flat, often with highly fertile and well‐accessible land, they have become the intrinsic focus of human society—while providing a variety of goods and ecosystem services. Intensive land use of floodplains is degrading their natural values and significantly reducing their ecosystem functions and services. A significant part of these key services is related with the ability of floodplains to retain water and nutrients, which can be understood as a flood control and a water‐retention function. Although these ecosystems serve a number of other basic functions, the importance of floodplains as a place for water retention during extreme discharges caused by intense rainfall or snowmelt and the supply of water in times of drought are essential under conditions of global change. In order to increase the ability of floodplains to perfor...

Globally, Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) is gaining widespread recognition from governments and policymakers for its potential to restore key ecosystem services and to improve human wellbeing. We organized an international conference on FLR, titled—Forest and Landscape Restoration: Making it Happen, between 25–27 February 2019 in Manila, the Philippines with 139 participants from 22 countries. The Forest and Landscape Restoration Standards (FLoRES) task force also met prior to the conference, which included a field visit to a pilot community-based forest reforestation site in Biliran Island, the Philippines. Based on the three-day conference, case study presentations, and FLoRES task force meeting, we prepared the Manila Declaration on Forest and Landscape Restoration to highlight the need to support quality of FLR efforts and outcomes in the tropics. Here we provide a synthesis of the main messages of the conference, with key outcomes including the Manila Declaration on For...

Forest and landscape restoration (FLR) is being carried out across the world to meet ambitious global goals. However, the scale of these efforts combined with the timeframe in which they are supposed to take place may compromise the quality of restoration, and thus limit the persistence of restoration on the landscape. This paper presents a synthesis of ten case studies identified as FLR to critically analyse implemented initiatives, their outcomes, and main challenges, with an eye to improving future efforts. The identified FLR projects are diverse in terms of their spatial coverage, objectives; types of interventions; and initial socioeconomic, institutional, and environmental conditions. The six principles of FLR—which have been widely adopted in theory by large global organisations—are inadequately addressed across the initiatives presented here. The identified FLR project or interventions, although expected to offer diverse benefits, face many challenges including the lack of l...

Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) is considered worldwide as a powerful approach to recover ecological functionality and to improve human well-being in degraded and deforested landscapes. The literature produced by FLR programs could be a valuable tool to understand how they align with the existing principles of FLR. We conducted a systematic qualitative review to identify the main FLR concepts and definitions adopted in the literature from 1980 to 2017 and the underlying actions commonly suggested to enable FLR implementation. We identified three domains and 12 main associated principles—(i) Project management and governance domain contains five principles: (a) Landscape scale, (b) Prioritization, (c) Legal and normative compliance, (d) Participation, (e) Adaptive management; (ii) Human aspect domain with four principles: (a) Enhance livelihoods, (b) Inclusiveness and equity, (c) Economic diversification, (d) Capacity building; (iii) Ecological Aspects domain with three princi...

Tropical forests store large amounts of carbon in tree biomass, although the environmental controls on forest carbon stocks remain poorly resolved. Emerging airborne remote sensing techniques offer a powerful approach to understand how aboveground carbon density (ACD) varies across tropical landscapes. In this study, we evaluate the accuracy of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) system to detect top-of-canopy tree height (TCH) and ACD across the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. LiDAR and field-estimated TCH and ACD were highly correlated across a wide range of forest ages and types. Top-of-canopy height (TCH) reached 67 m, and ACD surpassed 225 Mg C ha-1, indicating both that airborne CAO LiDAR-based estimates of ACD are accurate in tall, high-biomass forests and that the Osa Peninsula harbors some of the most carbon-rich forests in the Neotropics. We also examined the relative influence of lithologic, topoedaphic and climatic factors on regional p...

Context Minimizing negative impacts of wildfire is a major societal objective in fire-prone landscapes. Models of fire connectivity can aid in understanding and managing wildfires by analyzing potential fire spread and conductance patterns. We define ‘fire connectivity’ as the landscape’s capacity to facilitate fire transmission from one point on the landscape to another. Objectives Our objective was to develop an approach for modeling fire connectivity patterns representing potential fire spread and relative flow across a broad landscape extent, particularly in the management-relevant context of fuel breaks. Methods We applied an omnidirectional circuit theory algorithm to model fire connectivity in the Great Basin of the western United States. We used predicted rates of fire spread to approximate conductance and calculated current densities to identify connections among areas with high spread rates. We compared existing and planned fuel breaks with fire connectivity patterns. Resu...

La presente edición recoge una selección de investigaciones y trabajos, presentados en la primera versión del seminario “Catálogos del Paisaje del Agua. Investigaciones en Proceso”, realizada en mayo del año 2022. El seminario desde sus inicios, se enmarca en la investigación vigente “Catálogos del Paisaje del Agua. Nuevos Imaginarios Resilientes”(Inv. Responsable Gloria Saravia Ortiz), propuesta que reconoce primeramente a estos particulares paisajes, a partir del elemento ‘agua’ que juega un rol protagónico en sus orígenes y también en su configuración actual, reflejado tanto en sus dinámicas, procesos y funcionamiento, como también en la percepción cultural del territorio. Se presentan las propuestas enfocadas en casos nacionales de la arquitecta Angela Cassanelli, la agrónoma Ma Alejandra Espinoza, y los arquitectos Pablo Brito y Benjamín Santander; y la propuesta localizada en Colombia del arquitecto Carlos Martínez. A estos cinco artículos se suman las propuestas de tres arqui...

Este trabalho centra-se no cluster Engineering & Tooling (E&T), apresentando três análises complementares: (i) a concentração geográfica e avaliação da sua importância económica, do ponto de vista regional e nacional, suportada nos quocientes de localização baseados no volume de negócios e análise shift-share para compreender a evolução do emprego; (ii) as interdependências intersetoriais, analisando a evolução dos indicadores das Contas Nacionais do INE; e (iii) a integração do cluster no contexto do comércio internacional e das cadeias de valor global através da análise multirregional Input-Output com base na World Input-Output Database. Conclui-se que o E&T apresenta relevância especial na Região Centro, mas também no contexto da economia nacional e respetiva integração internacional, devido à elevada especialização da Região (destacando-se as NUTS-III Regiões de Leiria e de Aveiro) e à componente diferencial ou regional, que estimulou um aumento do emprego nestes setores na Regi...

Novel assemblages of biotic, abiotic, and social components resulting from human-induced actions (e.g., climate change, land-use change, species movement) have been labeled as “Novel Ecosystems”, or “Novel Urban Ecosystems” when emerging in urban contexts. This concept has been shifting perspectives among some scientists and making them question traditional values about human-nature interactions in a rapidly changing era dominated by anthropogenic actions (Anthropocene). Controversial dimensions surrounding the Novel Ecosystems and Novel Urban Ecosystems terms may be preventing the evolution and further research of these concepts. The environmental problems that our society will soon face support a search for innovative solutions and transdisciplinary efforts. For that reason, this discussion should not cease, rather should expand to other fields of knowledge that can contribute with pertinent insights and collaborations. This way, this short communication aims to reflect on the opp...