The link between landscape pattern and vegetation naturalness on a regional scale |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics, University of Szeged, Egyetem u. 2–6, H-6722 Szeged, Hungary;2. Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformation Systems, University of Debrecen, Egyetemtée 1. H-4032, Hungary;3. Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Alkotmány u. 2-4, H-2163, Vácrátót, Hungary;1. Faculty of Biology, University of Salamanca, C. U. Miguel de Unamuno, E-37007 Salamanca, Spain;2. Department of Geography, University of Bergen, PB 7802, N-5020 Bergen, Norway;1. Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Economics and Society, Silmäjärventie 2, FI-69100 Kannus, Finland;2. Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), New Business Opportunities, Jokiniemenkuja 1, FI-01370 Vantaa, Finland;3. Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Economics and Society, Yliopistonkatu 6, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland;4. Finnish Environment Institute, P.O. Box 111, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland;5. Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Economics and Society, Eteläranta 55, FI-96300 Rovaniemi, Finland;1. Acrida Conservational Research L.P., Tapolca, Hungary;2. Hungarian Natural History Museum, Department of Botany, Budapest, Hungary;3. Balaton Uplands National Park Directorate, Csopak, Hungary;4. University of Debrecen, Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics, Debrecen, Hungary;1. Institute of Research of University of Bucharest, ICUB, Transdisciplinary Research Centre Landscape-Territory-Information Systems, CeLTIS, Splaiul Independentei nr. 91-95, 050095 Bucharest, Romania;2. Department of Regional Geography and Environment, Faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, Bd. N. Bălcescu, 1, 010041 Bucharest, Romania;3. University of Bucharest, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Str. Academiei, 14, 010014 Bucharest, Romania;4. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL, School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering ENAC, Laboratory of Ecological Systems ECOS, Station 2, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;5. Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Site Lausanne, Station 2, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;6. Université de Franche-Comté – CNRS, UMR 6249 Chrono-environnement, 16 route de Gray, 25030 Besançon cedex, France;7. Institute for Geoscience and Geography, Chair for Sustainable Landscape Development, Martin Luther University Halle, Germany;8. Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research, Atmospheric Environmental Research, Germany |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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| Keywords: | Landscape metrics CORINE Scale sensitivity Landscape pattern Vegetation based natural capital index Hemeroby |
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