Article
Environmental Sciences
Anne Jungandreas, Stephanie Roilo, Michael Strauch, Tomas Vaclavik, Martin Volk, Anna F. Cord
Summary: Land-use intensification in agroecosystems has led to population declines in many taxonomic groups, especially farmland birds. Two contrasting conservation strategies have therefore been proposed: land sharing and land sparing. This study modeled the effects of these strategies on the habitat area of endangered bird species in Germany and found that land sharing provided the largest breeding habitat area, making it a promising strategy for bird conservation in agricultural landscapes.
REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
(2022)
Article
Food Science & Technology
Katherine S. Nelson, Emily K. Burchfield
Summary: Increasing landscape complexity in the United States from 2008 to 2018 has been associated with higher yields of crops such as corn, soy, and winter wheat. The number and diversity of landcover categories on a landscape have a stronger influence on yields than the arrangement of these categories. Specifically, landscapes that are moderately complex and highly diverse are linked to significant yield increases for corn and wheat.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Hanni Jin, Jing Xu, Yu Peng, Jiaxun Xin, Nanyi Peng, Yanyi Li, Jijiao Huang, Ruiqiang Zhang, Chen Li, Yimeng Wu, Bingzhang Gong, Ronghui Wang
Summary: This study examines the relationship between plant species diversity and landscape patterns using a global standardized plant community database and land use and land cover maps. The results show that landscape patterns have a significant impact on plant diversity, particularly in terms of species richness and heterogeneity. It also found that plants adapt to landscape patterns through variations in functional traits. Therefore, the study recommends balancing the spatial structure of patch- and landscape-level patterns to enhance variation in functional traits and maintain global plant diversity.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jennifer L. Wall, Brent Loken, Jedediah F. Brodie
Summary: This study assessed the short-term impact of selective logging on species assemblages in tropical forests and found no significant difference in estimated species richness between unlogged forests, previously logged forests, and recently logged sites. The findings suggest that properly managed selective logging has short-term impacts comparable to longer-term impacts assessed in prior studies.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Lukasz Mikolajczyk, Ryszard Laskowski, Elzbieta Ziolkowska, Agnieszka J. Bednarska
Summary: The study proposes a methodological approach to describe agricultural landscape properties tailored for specific species, simplifying complex landscape descriptions into a few main shaping factors for further analysis. The results suggest that for pollinators with a home range radius above ca. 100 m, both local habitat counts and large-scale landscape properties are important for biodiversity management.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2021)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Xiaoqian Xu, Oskar Englund, Ioannis Dimitriou, Hakan Rosenqvist, Guangzhe Liu, Blas Mola-Yudego
Summary: Energy crops in Sweden have different spatial characteristics compared to traditional agricultural crops, which may result in different impacts. This study provides a basis for energy policy and planning.
BIOENERGY RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Mark Vellend, Jonathan R. Thompson, Victor Danneyrolles, Francois Rousseu
Summary: Despite global biodiversity losses, trends at local and regional scales are context dependent. The study aimed to quantify temporal trends in landscape-scale tree diversity during a period of massively increased anthropogenic disturbance and to test the hypothesis that land use can increase landscape-scale diversity via increased environmental heterogeneity. The results suggest that increased landscape-scale environmental heterogeneity, attributable to land use, can increase tree diversity.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Katherina Ng, Somayeh Nowrouzi, Kyran M. Staunton, Philip Barton, Don A. Driscoll
Summary: The study found that remnant native vegetation provides crucial habitat resources for many ant species that are not provided by farmlands, and that in some cases native plantings can ameliorate negative effects of farmland clearing. Agricultural intensification involving loss of remnant native vegetation will contribute to ongoing losses and changes to ant biodiversity in farming landscapes. However, replanting native vegetation can lead to rapid restoration, offering a possible simple remedy to insect declines.
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Saskia Droege, Dominic Andreas Martin, Rouvah Andriafanomezantsoa, Zuzana Burivalova, Thio Rosin Fulgence, Kristina Osen, Eric Rakotomalala, Dominik Schwab, Annemarie Wurz, Torsten Richter, Holger Kreft
Summary: The study evaluated the efficacy of four acoustic indices in northeastern Madagascar's forest and agricultural mosaic landscape, showing that all investigated indices (except the Acoustic Complexity Index) were suitable biodiversity indicators for tropical agricultural landscapes. The diversity of soundscape was positively affected by vegetation structure, highlighting the importance of forests for conservation efforts.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Studies
Ana Margarida Coelho, Adelia M. O. Sousa, Ana Cristina Goncalves
Summary: This study analyzed the spatial variation of forest species in Alto Alentejo, Portugal, using remote sensing data and landscape metrics. The results showed that the study area had high forest diversity in both composition and configuration.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Aman Arora, Manish Pandey, Varun Narayan Mishra, Ritesh Kumar, Praveen Kumar Rai, Romulus Costache, Milap Punia, Liping Di
Summary: This study conducted in Varanasi, India introduced a landscape metrics approach to evaluate the performance of different simulation models, with the multi-layer perceptron-Markov chain (MLP_Markov) performing the best, followed by cellular automata-Markov chain (CA_Markov) and stochastic-Markov chain (ST_Markov). The results showed that landscape metrics can provide valuable information in the process of selecting simulation models.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Xiaolong Jin, Penghui Jiang, Manchun Li, Yu Gao, Lin Yang
Summary: This study presents an integrated land system classification based on multisource datasets to represent the regional human-environment system (HES) in China. The self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm is used to identify 40 land system types (LSTs) in China. The results reveal significant east-west differentiation in land use intensity, with high-intensive LSTs mostly occurring in eastern provinces and natural and seminatural LSTs dominating in central and western regions. The multifunctional LSTs, which host food production, biodiversity conservation, and cultural heritage, cover approximately 32% of China's terrestrial area.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Rajeev Pillay, Michelle Venter, Jose Aragon-Osejo, Pamela Gonzalez-del-Pliego, Andrew J. Hansen, James Em Watson, Oscar Venter
Summary: Tropical forests are home to the majority of terrestrial vertebrate species on Earth, with a significant proportion being endemic and at risk of extinction. Conservation efforts are crucial to protect these ecosystems from deforestation and other anthropogenic threats in order to safeguard the biodiversity that supports essential ecosystem functions and services.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Fatemeh Jahanishakib, Malihe Erfani, Abdolrassoul Salmanmahiny
Summary: The north of Iran is experiencing frequent floods and significant economic and natural losses, despite being the greenest region in the country. A study was conducted in the Gharesou Watershed of Golestan Province, Iran to understand the hydrological response to changes in land cover and land use. Using landscape metrics, changes in land cover and fragmentation were analyzed for the years 1984, 1994, 2014, and 2030. The study found that the annual average runoff in the watershed increased from 6.15 to 6.78 m(3)/0.09 ha/yr from 1984 to 2014, and is predicted to continue increasing to above 6.98 m(3)/0.09 ha/yr by 2030. It was also found that certain land cover types, such as industrial and high-density residential areas, contribute more to runoff generation compared to forest and grassland areas.
ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Zhi Wen, Hua Zheng, He Zhao, Zhiyun Ouyang
Summary: The study shows that land-use intensification leads to increased soil erosion, impacting ecosystem properties through changes in species compositional and structural diversity. High species diversity and tree height diversity can reduce soil erosion by promoting root length density, with tree height diversity playing a more important role in mediating the indirect effects of land-use intensity (LUI) on soil erosion.
LAND DEGRADATION & DEVELOPMENT
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Karsten Grunwald, Hendrik Herold, Stefan Marzelli, Gotthard Meinel, Benjamin Richter, Ralf-Uwe Syrbe, Ulrich Walz
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2016)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ulrich Walz, Jochen Jaeger
GAIA-ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES FOR SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
(2016)
Article
Ecology
Wei Hou, Marco Neubert, Ulrich Walz
LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING
(2017)
Editorial Material
Biodiversity Conservation
Ulrich Walz, Ralf-Uwe Syrbe
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2018)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Justice Nana Inkoom, Susanne Frank, Klaus Greve, Ulrich Walz, Christine Fuerst
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2018)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Ulrich Walz, Christian Stein
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2018)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Rainer Schliep, Ulrich Walz, Ulrich Sukopp, Stefan Heiland
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Wei Hou, Liang Zhai, Qinghua Qiao, Ulrich Walz
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2019)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Ulrich Walz, Benjamin Richter, Karsten Grunewald
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2019)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Wei Hou, Liang Zhai, Shanshan Feng, Ulrich Walz
Summary: The research proposes an approach to assess the restoration priority of brownfields from the perspective of enhancing the structural connectivity of green infrastructure network, with a case study in the Fenhe River Basin in China. The results show that 67% of brownfields are of high or very high priority for restoration, indicating the approach can provide a valuable tool for flexible brownfield restoration planning and guidance for on-site redevelopment.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Michael Roth, Silvio Hildebrandt, Ulrich Walz, Wolfgang Wende
Summary: By comparing two different modeling approaches, it has been proven feasible to conduct scenic quality evaluation at the national level using geodata. The main differences lie in the different relative weights given to terrain and water indicators.
Article
Geography
Ulrich Walz, Jochen A. G. Jaeger, Wolfgang Haber
Summary: This paper discusses the technical prerequisites for monitoring differentiated land use, as well as the necessary indicators and reference data. It proposes conceptual steps for implementing differentiated land use and emphasizes the importance of monitoring for preserving biodiversity and landscape structure.
RAUMFORSCHUNG UND RAUMORDNUNG-SPATIAL RESEARCH AND PLANNING
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Wei Hou, Liang Zhai, Ulrich Walz
Summary: Building ecological networks is crucial for both biodiversity conservation and sustainable urban development. Using the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region as an example, the study simulates ecological networks at a regional scale using the Least Cost Path (LCP) model. The results identify potential ecological corridors, as well as key areas for restoration and conservation, highlighting the need to adapt the current regional development strategy to protect the integrity of the networks.
ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Environmental Studies
Wolfgang Wende, Ulrich Walz, Christian Stein
Article
Environmental Studies
Ulrich Walz, Sebastian Hoechstetter, Lucian Dragut, Thomas Blaschke
LANDSCAPE RESEARCH
(2016)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Yongcui Lan, Jinliang Wang, Qianwei Liu, Fang Liu, Lanfang Liu, Jie Li, Mengjia Luo
Summary: This study focuses on the five major plateau lake basins in central Yunnan, China, and constructs an ecological security pattern using the source-resistance surface-corridor-pinch point framework. The study simulates land use/cover change in the region and identifies early warning regions where future urban expansion poses a threat to current ecological source areas and corridors.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2024)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Pingping Huang, Feng Zhao, Bailing Zhou, Kuidong Xu
Summary: This study investigates the distribution of benthic microeukaryotes in the China Seas and finds that they can stride over the ecological barrier of 32 degrees N. The study also highlights the significant influence of depth, temperature, and latitude on communities in the China Seas.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2024)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Federico Morelli, Yanina Benedetti, Jesse Stanford, Leszek Jerzak, Piotr Tryjanowski, Paolo Perna, Riccardo Santolini
Summary: Species distribution models (SDMs) are numerical tools used for predicting species' spatial distribution. This study found that ecological characteristics, such as habitat specialization, play a role in improving the accuracy of SDMs.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2024)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Xiaoxuan Wu, Hang Liu, Wei Liu
Summary: Global climate change, urbanization, and economic development have increased the need for sustainable human development, urban ecological governance, and low-carbon energy transformation. This study analyzes the green ecological transition in Chengdu based on panel data from 2010 to 2020, exploring its spatiotemporal evolution and key factors. The results show an overall upward trend in Chengdu's green ecological development and positive spatial autocorrelation in certain districts.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2024)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Castaldi Simona, Formicola Nicola, Mastrocicco Micol, Morales Rodriguez Carmen, Morelli Raffaella, Prodorutti Daniele, Vannini Andrea, Zanzotti Roberto
Summary: Sustainable agricultural practices are increasingly important for global and national environmental policies and economy. This study compared the sustainability of grape production under integrated and organic management using multiple indicators. The results showed that organic management was more beneficial for most environmental aspects of the agroecosystem compared to integrated management, without affecting grape yield.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2024)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Gaia Vaglio Laurin, Alexander Cotrina-Sanchez, Luca Belelli-Marchesini, Enrico Tomelleri, Giovanna Battipaglia, Claudia Cocozza, Francesco Niccoli, Jerzy Piotr Kabala, Damiano Gianelle, Loris Vescovo, Luca Da Ros, Riccardo Valentini
Summary: Phenology monitoring is important for understanding forest functioning and climate impacts. This research compares the phenological behavior of European beech forests using Tree-Talker (TT+) and Sentinel 2 satellite data. The study finds differences in the information derived by the two sensor types, particularly in terms of season length, phenology changepoints, and leaf period variability. TT+ with its higher temporal resolution demonstrates precision in capturing the phenological changepoints, especially when satellite image availability is limited.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2024)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Huanhuan Pan, Ziqiang Du, Zhitao Wu, Hong Zhang, Keming Ma
Summary: The land use and cover changes resulting from coal mining activities and ecological restoration have had a significant impact on ecosystem services in mining areas. This study investigates the relationship between ecosystem services and land use intensity in coal mining areas, emphasizing the importance of understanding this interdependence for balanced human-land system development. The research examines the evolving relationship across different reclamation stages in Shanxi, China, using a coupling coordination degree model. The findings suggest the need for timely and judicious reclamation of coalfields, considering the land's bearing capacity.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2024)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jingjuan He, Yijun Shi, Lihua Xu, Zhangwei Lu, Mao Feng
Summary: This study examines the spatial interplay between changes in the blue-green spatial distribution and modifications in land surface temperature grades in Shanghai. The findings reveal that the transformation of the blue-green spatial pattern differs between different sectors of the city, and the impact on the thermal environment varies spatially.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2024)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Yi Xu, Di Zhang, Junqiang Lin, Qidong Peng, Xiaohui Lei, Tiantian Jin, Jia Wang, Ruifang Yuan
Summary: This study analyzed the response relationship between phytoplankton growth and water environmental parameters in the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China using long-term monitoring data and machine learning models. The results revealed the differences between monitoring sites and identified the key parameters that affect phytoplankton growth.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2024)
