Landscape structure and management regime as indicators of calcareous grassland habitat condition and species diversity

This study investigates the importance of spatial landscape characteristics and habitat management on the condition of calcareous grassland in the North Down Natural Area, Kent UK. We used a digitised map of the study area containing shapefiles of all the habitats including 82 patches of calcareous grassland together with management information for each patch and data on the presence and abundance of a range of calcareous grassland indicator plant species. We defined habitat condition by presence of indicator species and used classification trees to generate models with rules for predicting habitat condition from the landscape spatial characteristics and management information. We also applied the same method to investigate the factors affecting presence or diversity of three ecological groups of positive indicator species and dominance of a negative indicator species. All the models except one showed good classification accuracy and high kappa statistic. Favourable habitat condition was predicted by presence of different types of grazing management, presence of woodland around patches of calcareous grassland and shape complexity. These results indicate that calcareous grassland in favourable condition is management-dependent but also located in less intensively managed landscapes. Unfavourable habitat condition was predicted by threat factors such as lack of management and high incidence of arable or improved grassland around patches of calcareous grassland, indicating nutrient enrichment and habitat degradation. Some of these factors also predicted high diversity of the different ecological species groups. The value of this method for predicting habitat condition and species diversity from baseline ecological data for conservation monitoring at the landscape level is emphasised.     

景观规划：概念、起源与发展

对目前地理学、景观生态学等领域中所存在的关于景观概念的多种不同解释进行了分析和总结,并将景观与土地、环境和风景等经常引起混乱的概念术语也做了分析对比．在此基础上,讨论了景观规划的概念内涵和它所基于的景观概念,并通过对景观规划的起源与发展过程的总结和分析,将景观规划的起源与发展归纳为３个阶段：１９世纪中后期到２０世纪初期的的起源阶段;５０、６０年代景观规划领域的形成阶段和７０年代以后的景观规划与景观生态学融合发展阶段     

The interaction between nonmetric and metric cranial variation.

Cranial discrete or 'epigenetic" traits have been analyzed for interrelationships with measurements of the skull in a sample of American Negro males. Univariate t and multivariate T2 tests are used. It has been the previous consensus view that nonmetric and metric characters are unrelated. Statistically significant associations between the total of 50 discrete and 23 metrical characters, however, are much more frequent than would be expected through random distribution. Multivariate analysis supplements simpler statistics by synthesizing patterns of variation within regions of the skull, identifying many interrelations of skull size and shape with discrete traits. A low but observable general influence is exerted upon nonmetric morphology by metrical variation of the human skull (or vice versa).     

常见棕榈科植物在园林绿化中的应用

棕榈科植物形状优美,在园林绿化中应用广泛,可以作为道路、公园的风景树,也可用于庭院、厂区的绿化,又能盆栽观赏。本文对进一步开展棕榈科植物应用途径的研究作了探讨。     

Emplacement and Displacement: Perceiving the Landscape Through Aboriginal Australian Acrylic Painting

Aboriginal Australian acrylic paintings have long been considered representations of mythologically invested landscape. This understanding has been made problematic by recent writings on ‘dwelling’. As common usage of the term ‘landscape’ seems to prioritize vision, to suggest that the acrylic paintings are landscapes only strengthens the suspicion that they are artifacts of displacement or distancing, rather than examples of the emplacement emphasized in this ‘dwelling perspective’. However, this paper will demonstrate that the relationship between acrylic painting and the land is more complex than such an interpretation. It will argue that the Aboriginal objectification of their relationship to the land is not inherently a distancing of the land.     

欧洲景观条约与景观生态学研究

1　性质和由来近十多年来 ,欧洲土地利用变化迅速 ,西北欧农业利用加剧和过度发展 ,南欧则出现农业毁弃和贫瘠化 ,城市化与日益增长的交通设施建设都使原有的景观受到威胁 ,其自然特性与社会文化特性发生退化。出于提高生活质量的考虑 ,欧洲人普遍关心景观的保护和管理 ,他们认识到景观在文化、生态、环境以及社会领域具有重大作用 ,构成了有利于经济活动的一种资源 ,景观的管理和保护可以创造就业机会。景观有助于地方文化的构成 ,同时它也是自然与文化遗产的基本组成部分 ,有利于欧洲特色的巩固及人们的欢乐与健康。景观是任何地方人们生…     

Landscape dynamics and their effect on the functional connectivity of a Mediterranean landscape in Chile

Land use and cover changes have been identified as a major factor contributing to shape landscape structure and biodiversity patterns, particulary in areas with a long history of human occupation and habitat fragmentation, such as the Mediterranean landscapes. However, the existing studies on landscape change indicators for Mediterranean areas have mostly focused in Europe, while for other Mediterranean zones, and especially for South America, there is a serious lack of knowledge concerning the impact of landscape dynamics on ecological processes. Further research on this topic is urgently needed, given the high biodiversity levels and the rapidly increasing rates of human modification in the Mediterranean landscapes of South America. For this purpose, we investigated the dynamics of a landscape in the semiarid region of the Mediterranean zone of Chile, and measured the effect of those dynamics on functional connectivity, during a period of about four decades (1975–2011). Landscape connectivity indicators were extracted from a series of Landsat images. The Equivalent Connnected Area index (ECA) was used as indicator of connectivity trends, and was evaluated for three representative distances of seed dispersal in the study area (150 m, 500 m and 1000 m). In addition, the patches that most contribute to maintain the present connectivity, and their roles as connectivity providers, were identified through a set of commensurable indicators: betweenness centrality and the fractions (intra, flux connector) of the Integral Index of Connectivity. We found that these indicators were useful to detect and summarize a number of previously unreported trends in these Mediterranean landscapes. First, population growth and economic development were compatible with an increase in functional connectivity for forest habitats, mainly because the abandonment of marginal agricultural lands and their subsequent conversion to espinals (Acacia caven) triggered vegetation succession towards secondary forests. Second, increased forest connectivity was not associated to a decrease in the characteristic heterogeneity of Mediterranean landscapes. Third, many patches of espinal, despite being commonly regarded as of poor conservation value, were crucial to promote connectivity by acting as stepping stones among other patches with higher habitat quality. The approach here presented provides a combined assessment of landscape structure, function and change that should be valuable and applicable to deliver operational indicators in dynamic landscapes in South America and other Mediterranean regions.     

The link between landscape pattern and vegetation naturalness on a regional scale

The land use and land cover pattern of landscapes are key elements of basic landscape structure; accordingly, this pattern has an important role in landscape management, nature conservation and preservation. In Hungary, the naturalness of the vegetation was surveyed between 2003 and 2006, and the vegetation-based Natural Capital Index (NCI) was calculated for almost the entire area of the country. This field-based database gave us the unique opportunity to analyse the statistical connection between the naturalness of the vegetation and the landscape (land cover) pattern on a regional scale. In our study, we analysed the efficiency of the regional-level CORINE Land Cover (CLC) database for the estimation of the naturalness of the vegetation. This connection was analysed at the country scale using every (2272) Flora Mapping Unit (FMU), or 5.5 × 6.5 km quadrate, of Hungary. We calculated the shape-, edge- and size-related landscape indices for all FMUs on a landscape level (including all CLC patches) and a class level (the land cover polygons were classified according to their land cover characteristics and their level of hemeroby). We determined the Spearman’s correlations to reveal the statistical connections between the landscape metric parameters and the NCI values. All of the investigated area-weighted landscape indices: Main Patch Size, (MPS), Main Fractal Dimension Index, (MFDI), Total Edge (TE), Main Shape Index (MSI) and Number of Shape Characteristic Points (NSCP) on the landscape level showed a significant statistical connection with the NCI, but the sign of its correlation with the NCI contrasted with the findings from previous studies on a larger scale. Our study shows that scale has a strong impact on the sign of the correlation between the naturalness of the vegetation and the landscape structure. On a class level, particularly the shape-related landscape indices of the “Forest and semi-natural areas” showed statistically significant correlations with the NCI. The correlation strongly depended on the method of classification of the CLC polygons. Furthermore, the spatial pattern of the land-cover-type-based CLC polygon categories showed higher correlation values with the NCI than CLC polygon classes, which were categorized according to their hemeroby state. These results show that although the sign of the spatial pattern change in the main land cover classes is scale-dependent, they can be used to estimate the increase or decrease in the naturalness of the vegetation better than the spatial changes of the hemeroby-level-based landscape pattern. We can predict the change in the naturalness of vegetation based on the spatial changes in the land cover pattern.     

武夷山风景名胜区景观格局与环境因子的多尺度响应研究

在3S技术平台支撑下,用典范对应分析排序方法对武夷山风景区景观格局与环境因子的关系及其尺度效应进行了分析。结果表明,在6个取样尺度上(粒度分别为30 m、90 m、150 m、210 m、300 m和450 m),排序轴总特征值呈递减趋势,依次为9.626、7.814、5.708、4.019、3.386、2.310;前4轴累积景观环境解释量变化程度小(97.3%~98.8%),前2轴各尺度平均累积解释量为89.4%,景观-环境的相关系数呈先减后增趋势。6个尺度中环境因子与景观格局的平均相关系数依次为郁闭度(0.7989^**)>腐殖质层厚度(0.7248^**)>海拔(0.6083^**)>坡度(0.6132^**)>经度(-0.4064^**)>土层厚度(0.3696^**)>纬度(0.0614)>坡向(0.0295)。风景区景观类型可划分为3类,即与海拔因子密切相关的裸地、河流、建设用地、农田景观,与土壤因子密切相关的杉木林、马尾松林、阔叶林景观,以及受人类活动密切相关的茶园、经济林、竹林、灌草丛景观。因此,风景区景观格局与环境因子间的关系具有尺度效应,各环境因子对排序轴相关系数的影响规律在6个取样尺度内可尺度推绎。     

Landscape ecology as a bridge from ecosystems to human ecology

Landscape as a subject of (terrestrial) ecology can be interpreted: first, as a piece of land composed of different ecosystems; and second, as a holistic entity of aesthetic perception derived from landscape paintings and parks of the 18th and 19th century. Such entities display a characteristic arrangement of landscape elements regarded as a whole and taking them apart for specific investigation will break up and virtually destroy it (e.g. a symphony dissociated into single notes). Landscape as a holistic entity satisfies emotional human needs like identification with regions, and explains the attraction of tourists. Entity features are land-use and land cover combined with openness and a certain naturalness. A key question is whether you call a piece of the earths surface just land or landscape– and why. Such questions touch the interface between landscape ecology and human ecology. But human ecology must not dismiss landscape functions. The most beautiful landscape will be reduced to a mere picture if it does not also provide basic life-support. Therefore, energy and matter flows and transformations between the ecosystems of a landscape have to be determined along with its climate, geomorphology (relief), soils, hydrology, species and ecosystem diversity. These different approaches, however, may never be combined into a unified whole. There is no superscience, and incidentally, its complexity would by far exceed human brain capacity. What we can achieve is bridge-building by approximation of selected facts. A conscious spatial arrangement of diversified land-use units (ecotopes) will promote (bio)diversity and may be perceived as an integral landscape pattern. A spatially and temporally differentiated energy input into land-use units will result in a gradient of utilization intensity and allow more species to thrive, again enhancing both diversity and landscape beauty. Modern humans have deliberately chosen artificial surroundings to achieve complete environmental control, even in rural lifestyles. But as far as emotional needs are concerned, this artificiality seems to be neither human nor ecological. Something natural is lacking, and landscape in its holistic sense can provide it – be it a landscaped open space in a city, a rural scene, a seashore or a mountain range. Maintaining and managing such naturalness requires sound ecological knowledge – not as an aim in itself, but to provide a bridge for humans.     

The Role of Landscape Patterns of Habitat Types on Plant Species Diversity of a Tropical Forest in Mexico

The relationships among landscape characteristics and plant diversity in tropical forests may be used to predict biodiversity. To identify and characterize them, the number of species, as well as Shannon and Simpson diversity indices were calculated from 157 sampling quadrats (17,941 individuals sampled) while the vegetation classes were obtained from multi-spectral satellite image classification in four landscapes located in the southeast of Quintana Roo, Mexico. The mean number of species of trees, shrubs and vines as well as the mean value of the total number of species and the other two diversity indices were calculated for four vegetation classes in every one of the four landscapes. In addition, the relationships between landscape patterns metrics of patch types and diversity indices were explored. The multiple statistical analyses revealed significant predictor variables for the three diversity indices. Moreover, the shape, similarity and edge contrast metrics of patch types might serve as useful indicators for the number of species and the other two diversity variables at the landscape scale. Although the association between the three diversity indices and patch types metrics showed similar behavior, some differences were appreciated. The Shannon diversity index, with its greater sensitivity to rare species, should be considered as having a greater importance in interpretation analysis than Simpson index.     

The confusion between scale-defined levels and conventional levels of organization in ecology

Abstract. Conventional levels of organization in ecology can be hierarchically ordered, but there is not necessarily a time or space scale-dependent difference between the classes: cell, organism, population, community, ecosystem, landscape, biome and biosphere. The physical processes that ecological systems must obey are strictly scaled in time and space, but communities or ecosystems may be either large or small. Conventional levels of organization are not scale-dependent, but are criteria for telling foreground from background, or the object from its context. We erect a scheme that separates scale-ordered levels from the conventional levels of organization. By comparing landscapes, communities and ecosystems all at the same scale, we find that communities and ecosystems do not map onto places on the landscape. Rather, communities and ecosystems are wave interference patterns between processes and organisms interfering with and accomodating to each other, even though they occur at different scales on the landscape, and so have different periodicities in their waved behavior. Population members are usually commensurately scaled and so do not generally interact to give interference patterns. Populations are therefore tangible, oratleastcan be assigned a location at an instant in time.     

甘肃民勤绿洲的景观格局变化及驱动力分析

应用GIS、RS技术与景观格局分析软件FRAGSTATS研究了甘肃省民勤绿洲近14年间的景规格局变化．结果表明,该绿洲的各类景观拼块体在此期间发生了十分复杂的时空转换,荒漠化过程与开荒过程同时存在,绿洲毁林、毁草开荒过程主要发生在1994-1998年期间,并集中分布在绿洲南部水资源条件较好的地带,土地弃耕化过程主要发生在1998-2001年期间,集中分布在绿洲北部水资源条件较差地带;Shannon多样性指数、Shannon均匀度指数的下降与蔓延度指数的上升表明了人类对绿洲景观改造程度的不断加强,绿洲仍然维持着以耕地与居民地为主的强烈人为干扰的人工绿洲景观．人类不合理的土地利用方式改变了绿洲景观的空间格局,水资源条件的变化进一步促进了景观结构的演变．     

黑龙江省二龙山水库流域景观生态评价与规划研究

从景观生态学的基本理论出发,采用地理信息系统(GIS)技术,借助于大型统计分析软件包SPSS中的主成分分析和空间系统聚类分析方法,对黑龙江省二龙山水库流域的景观生态环境进行了定量分析与评价,获得了4个景观生态评价类型．其中,良好状态的景观生态类型占全流域面积的比重最大,为36％,一般状态次之,为31％;较差状态和理想状态分别为17％和16％．并按景观空间生态结构,将全流域规划与设计为3个景观功能区,即农业景观功能区,其景观过程以作物生产为主,发展方向为兼顾经济、生态和社会多种效益的生态农业、观光农业和高效农业;生态环境保护功能区,其景观过程以水土流失、植被覆盖减少等退化过程为主,主要执行生态环境保护功能,大力发展水土保持林,努力提高植被覆盖率,是本区发展利用的方向;森林景观功能区,森林资源的合理采伐利用、林种的空间优化配置、森林的抚育以及天然林的保护成为该区发展的主要方向．     

Stochastic Interdigitation as a Toughening Mechanism at the Interface between Tendon and Bone

Reattachment and healing of tendon to bone poses a persistent clinical challenge and often results in poor outcomes, in part because the mechanisms that imbue the uninjured tendon-to-bone attachment with toughness are not known. One feature of typical tendon-to-bone surgical repairs is direct attachment of tendon to smooth bone. The native tendon-to-bone attachment, however, presents a rough mineralized interface that might serve an important role in stress transfer between tendon and bone. In this study, we examined the effects of interfacial roughness and interdigital stochasticity on the strength and toughness of a bimaterial interface. Closed form linear approximations of the amplification of stresses at the rough interface were derived and applied in a two-dimensional unit-cell model. Results demonstrated that roughness may serve to increase the toughness of the tendon-to-bone insertion site at the expense of its strength. Results further suggested that the natural tendon-to-bone attachment presents roughness for which the gain in toughness outweighs the loss in strength. More generally, our results suggest a pathway for stochasticity to improve surgical reattachment strategies and structural engineering attachments.     

Landscape heterogeneity and farming practice alter the species composition and taxonomic breadth of pollinator communities

Effects of landscape heterogeneity and farming practice on species composition are less well known than those on species richness, in spite of the fact that community composition can be at least as important for ecosystem services, such as pollination. Here, we assessed the effect of organic farming and landscape heterogeneity on pollinator communities, focusing on multivariate patterns in species composition and the taxonomic breadth of communities. By relating our results to patterns observed for species richness we show that: (1) species richness generally declines with decreasing landscape heterogeneity, but taxonomic breadth only declines with landscape heterogeneity on conventionally managed farms. We further highlight the importance to provide results of species composition analyses as (2) primarily hoverfly species benefited from organic farming, but three bee species from different families were favoured by conventionally managed farms and (3) two hoverfly species with aphidophagous larvae showed contrasting responses to landscape heterogeneity. These results advance the understanding of how landscape heterogeneity and farming practices alter insect communities and further suggest that diversity patterns need to be analysed beyond species richness to fully uncover consequences of agricultural intensification.     

Science as a Way of Knowing--Evolution: The Biology of Whole Organisms1

Examples of current research of importance to the conceptualand informational bases of evolutionary biology in the areasof morphology, development, physiology, ecology, populationbiology, natural history, and systematics are discussed. A syntheticapproach to problems that utilizes ideas and techniques fromseveral areas of biology characterizes much current research,and it is providing new conceptual frameworks and new, testablehypotheses. Some of the possible problems with methods of presentationas we often teach in these areas of biology are considered.     

温带-亚热带过渡带的景观变迁及其生态意义

从景观生态的角度,讨论温带亚热带过渡带的历史变迁过程及其对我国农业和技术的发展、转移、交融等方面的影响.历史时期温带亚热带过渡带界限随气候变化南北移动,寒冷期一般南移1～2个纬度,温暖期北移1～2个纬度.过渡带环境条件复杂多样具有较强的敏感性,在我国南北方农业异质交融、农业技术和文化的异质创新等方面起了重要的景观通道和屏障作用.