scholarly journals Land use change in the high mountain belts of the central Apennines led to marked changes of the grassland mosaic

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Malatesta ◽  
Federico Maria Tardella ◽  
Marco Tavoloni ◽  
Nicola Postiglione ◽  
Karina Piermarteri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Central Apennines ◽  
Mountain Belts

Soil microbial diversity drops with land‐use change in a high mountain temperate forest: a metagenomics survey

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ligia C. Muñoz‐Arenas ◽  
Carmine Fusaro ◽  
Mario Hernández‐Guzmán ◽  
Luc Dendooven ◽  
Arturo Estrada‐Torres ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Microbial Diversity ◽  
Temperate Forest ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Soil Microbial Diversity ◽  
Soil Microbial

scholarly journals Land-Use Change Related to Topography and Societal Drivers in High-Mountains – A Case Study in the Upper Watershed of the Tergi (Kazbegi Region), Greater Caucasus

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Theissen ◽  
Annette Otte ◽  
Rainer Waldhardt
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Development Trends ◽  
Greater Caucasus

Abstract High mountain ecosystems, with strong topographic and climatic gradients, are fragile and particularly sensitive to changes in land use. The abandonment of historic cultural landscapes has often led to changes in the pattern of land cover and thus, to a shift in the functions of high mountain landscapes, like fresh water supply, productivity or erosion control. In order to understand the effects of land-use change on the land-cover pattern at the local and regional scale, we analyzed and classified the mountainous landscape structure in the Kazbegi region in Georgia, located in the Central Greater Caucasus. For 13 settlements, we determined the land cover as present in 1987 and 2015, and quantified the changes over time to detect land-cover development trends for each settlement. Using a cluster analysis, the study area was analyzed regarding to topography (altitude, aspect, slope) and distance to settlements at the regional scale to gain six groups with separating conditions. Furthermore, each settlement was classified according to topography and land-cover change to obtain site-specific, comparative development trends. Our results show that this Caucasian high-mountain landscape is characterized by open grassland (67%) used as pasture and hay meadow, and natural birch forests (7%) in patches in the upper half of the subalpine belt. Within the settlements but also in their surroundings, field vegetables are cultivated in home gardens (1%). Land-cover change during the observation period mainly affected the cultural grassland with hay meadow abandonment. Moreover, shrubbery and forest expanded considerably on abandoned pastures. We further detected a strong relationship to topography that considerably varied between settlements resulting in specific trends in land-use change. Hay-making and arable land cultivation are focused today on sun-exposed and gentle slopes near the settlements. Shrub encroachment and reforestations were localized on farther distances and mostly on north-exposed slopes. Besides providing basic information about the historic and current land-use and land-cover patterns, our results quantify the landscape change during almost 30 years. A spatio-temporal analysis revealed an understanding of how land-use decisions influence the landscape pattern. In the context of societal development, regional socioeconomic processes, like shifts in the agricultural structure and population outmigration, seem to be societal drivers of changes. Our findings reveal linkages and interrelationships between natural, human-induced environmental and socioeconomic processes within high-mountain socio-ecological systems. Moreover, we suggest that sustainable land-use strategies for spatial development on sub-regional level, especially in marginal high-mountain regions, should consider topography and its influence on land-use change.

Land cover and land use change in the Italian central Apennines: A comparison of assessment methods

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffaele Pelorosso ◽  
Antonio Leone ◽  
Lorenzo Boccia
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Assessment Methods ◽  
Central Apennines

scholarly journals Diagnostic Species Diversity Pattern Can Provide Key Information on Vegetation Change: An Insight into High Mountain Habitats in Central Apennines

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-472
Author(s):  
Marco Varricchione ◽  
Valter Di Cecco ◽  
Lucia A. Santoianni ◽  
Angela Stanisci ◽  
Mirko Di Febbraro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Ex Situ Conservation ◽  
Ex Situ ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Diagnostic Species ◽  
Mountain Habitats ◽  
Over Time

High mountain ecosystems are hotspots of biodiversity that are highly vulnerable to climate warming and land use change. In Europe, high mountain habitats are included in the EC Directive 92/43/EEC (Habitats Directive) and the identification of practices facilitating effective monitoring is crucial for meeting HD goals. We analyzed the temporal changes in species composition and diversity on high mountain EU habitats and explored if the subgroup of diagnostic species was able to summarize the comprehensive information on plant community variations. We performed a re-visitation study, using a set of 30 georeferenced historical plots newly collected after 20 years on two EU habitats (Galium magellense community growing on screes (8120 EU) and Trifolium thalii community of snowbeds (6170 EU)) in the Maiella National Park (MNP), which is one of the most threatened Mediterranean mountains in Europe. The presence of several endangered species and the availability of a botanical garden, a seed bank, and a nursery, make the MNP an excellent training ground to explore in situ and ex situ conservation strategies. We compared overall and diagnostic species richness patterns over time by rarefaction curves and described the singular aspects of species diversity (e.g., richness, Shannon index, Simpson index, and Berger–Parker index), by Rènyi’s diversity profiles. Diversity values consistently varied over time and across EU habitat types, with increasing values on scree communities and decreasing values on snowbeds. These changes could be associated with both land use change, through the increase of grazing pressure of Apennine chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica ornata), which determined a rise of nitrophilous species in the scree community, and an increase of grasses at the expense of forbs in snowbeds, and to climate change, which promoted a general expansion of thermophilous species. Despite the two opposite, ongoing processes on the two plant communities studied, our results evidenced that diagnostic species and overall species followed the same trend of variation, demonstrating the potential of diagnostics for EU habitat monitoring. Our observations suggested that the re-visitation of historical plots and the implementation of frequent monitoring campaigns on diagnostic species can provide important data on species abundance and distribution patterns in these vulnerable ecosystems, supporting optimized in situ and ex situ conservation actions.

scholarly journals Land use is the main driver of soil organic carbon spatial distribution in a high mountain ecosystem

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmine Fusaro ◽  
Yohanna Sarria-Guzmán ◽  
Yosef A. Chávez-Romero ◽  
Marco Luna-Guido ◽  
Ligia C. Muñoz-Arenas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Organic C ◽  
Mountain Ecosystem ◽  
Soc Stock ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Soc Stocks

Background Terrestrial ecosystems play a significant role in carbon (C) storage. Human activities, such as urbanization, infrastructure, and land use change, can reduce significantly the C stored in the soil. The aim of this research was to measure the spatial variability of soil organic C (SOC) in the national park La Malinche (NPLM) in the central highlands of Mexico as an example of highland ecosystems and to determine the impact of land use change on the SOC stocks through deterministic and geostatistical geographic information system (GIS) based methods. Methods The soil was collected from different landscapes, that is, pine, fir, oak and mixed forests, natural grassland, moor and arable land, and organic C content determined. Different GIS-based deterministic (inverse distance weighting, local polynomial interpolation and radial basis function) and geostatistical interpolation techniques (ordinary kriging, cokriging and empirical Bayes kriging) were used to map the SOC stocks and other environmental variables of the top soil layer. Results All interpolation GIS-based methods described the spatial distribution of SOC of the NPLM satisfactorily. The total SOC stock of the NPLM was 2.45 Tg C with 85.3% in the forest (1.26 Tg C in the A horizon and 0.83 Tg C in the O horizon), 11.4% in the arable soil (0.23 Tg in the A horizon and only 0.05 Tg C in the O horizon) and 3.3% in the high moor (0.07 Tg C in the A horizon and <0.01 Tg C in the O horizon). The estimated total SOC stock in a preserved part of the forest in NPLM was 4.98 Tg C in 1938 and has nearly halved since then. Continuing this trend of converting all the remaining forest to arable land will decrease the total SOC stock to 0.52 Tg C. Discussion Different factors explain the large variations in SOC stocks found in this study but the change in land use (conversion of forests into agricultural lands) was the major reason for the reduction of the SOC stocks in the high mountain ecosystem of the NPLM. Large amounts of C, however, could be stored potentially in this ecosystem if the area was used more sustainable. The information derived from this study could be used to recommend strategies to reverse the SOC loss in NPLM and other high-altitude temperate forests and sequester larger quantities of C. This research can serve as a reference for the analysis of SOC distribution in similar mountain ecosystems in central part of Mexico and in other parts of the world.

Climate and land use change impacts on Mediterranean high-mountain vegetation in the Apennines since the 1950s

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludovico Frate ◽  
Maria L. Carranza ◽  
Alberto Evangelista ◽  
Adriano Stinca ◽  
Joop H. J. Schaminée ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Mountain Vegetation

Assessment of land-use change in coastal areas through geographical information systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Verónica Lango-Reynoso ◽  
Karla Teresa González-Figueroa ◽  
Fabiola Lango-Reynoso ◽  
María del Refugio Castañeda-Chávez ◽  
Jesús Montoya-Mendoza
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Coastal Ecosystems ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Coastal Zones ◽  
Computer Based

Objective: This article describes and analyzes the main concepts of coastal ecosystems, these as a result of research concerning land-use change assessments in coastal areas. Design/Methodology/Approach: Scientific articles were searched using keywords in English and Spanish. Articles regarding land-use change assessment in coastal areas were selected, discarding those that although being on coastal zones and geographic and soil identification did not use Geographic Information System (GIS). Results: A GIS is a computer-based tool for evaluating the land-use change in coastal areas by quantifying variations. It is analyzed through GIS and its contributions; highlighting its importance and constant monitoring. Limitations of the study/Implications: This research analyzes national and international scientific information, published from 2007 to 2019, regarding the land-use change in coastal areas quantified with the digital GIS tool. Findings/Conclusions: GIS are useful tools in the identification and quantitative evaluation of changes in land-use in coastal ecosystems; which require constant evaluation due to their high dynamism.

Monitoring land use change in the Lake Taupo catchment between 1975, 1990 and 2002 using satellite remote sensing data

2007 ◽  
pp. 17-22
Author(s):  
H. Lilienthal ◽  
A. Brauer ◽  
K. Betteridge ◽  
E. Schnug
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Satellite Remote Sensing ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Native Vegetation ◽  
Lake Water Quality ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
Slow Decline

Conversion of native vegetation into farmed grassland in the Lake Taupo catchment commenced in the late 1950s. The lake's iconic value is being threatened by the slow decline in lake water quality that has become apparent since the 1970s. Keywords: satellite remote sensing, nitrate leaching, land use change, livestock farming, land management

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