Springer Science and Business Media LLC

The river valley of the French upper Meuse and its floodplain, constitutes a relatively natural ecosystem which still contains many endangered species of high conservation value. For example, several birds (Crex crex, Numenius arquata) as well as plant species (Gratiola officinalis, Inula britannica, Teucrium scordium, Ranunculus lingua and Mentha pulegium) which have declined seriously in France in recent times are found in the upper Meuse floodplain. Phytosociological studies and water level measurements have shown that the floristic diversity is mainly influenced by hydrological fluctuations and agricultural practices. The plant communities are structured along a topographical gradient in the high water bed reflecting the duration of floods and the ground water table depth. Agricultural practices have influenced the vegetation changes by selecting species adapted to particular management practices (e.g., fertiliser use, grazing, cutting regime). The data collected in this study from the upper Meuse as enabled 13 grassland and wetland ecotopes to be defined which are correlated with different environmental factors. Fertiliser use, grazing and reduction in the frequency of the cutting lead to a lower species richness because they encourage competitive species. However, it is also demonstrated, that maximum biodiversity is not always synonymous with high conservation value because some impoverished ecosystems, e.g., sedges and tall forb formations, may contain endangered plant and bird species. Knowledge of the boundaries between the different plant communities enables likely changes in floristic composition after modification of one or more site factors to be forecasted. Such factors include, water table depth and flood frequency, cutting regime, fertiliser use and grazing pressure. Thus, the definition of these ecotopes, corresponding to correlations between water regime, agricultural practice and vegetation composition, could lead to the establishment of guidelines for water and agricultural managements that could be involved in restoration projects.

In Finland, management of biological diversity at the landscape level is complicated by the relatively small size of the holdings. To alleviate this problem, this study presents a hierarchical planning model that aims at combining spatial landscape-level ecological goals with holding-level owner-specific goals. The influence of ecological objectives extends across holding borders, but their impact is greatest in areas where they are least in conflict with the owners’ goals. This feature, which results in minimum losses to individual landowners, can be called ecological efficiency. In the case study, the ecological objective was to cluster the breeding and foraging areas of flying squirrel (Pteromys volans). Other sets of objectives were related to individual holdings according to the various preferences of the forest owners. The forest plan produced by the presented planning model was compared with two other forest plans: 1) a combination of independent forest holding level plans, which were assumed to represent the outcome of the current planning tradition, and 2) an area-level plan, where the holding borders and holding-specific objectives were not taken into account. The same objective variables and objective weights were used in all plans. All the plans were produced for six planning areas (ranging from 404.6 to 984.9 ha) and 110 forest holdings (ranging from 0.6 to 449.8 ha) within these areas. The case-study results were promising: with the model presented here, the spatial structure of flying squirrel breeding and foraging areas could be improved with only minor losses in holding-level objectives. The spatial structure of the landscape after the 60-year planning period was very close to the area-level plan. This outcome was made possible by synchronizing the treatment proposals across forest-holding borders. The outcome of the model seems promising also from the practical standpoint: because the variation in the objectives of forest owners is efficiently taken into account in optimization, only rarely do the solutions suggest that the holding-level targets be compromised.

Functional connectivity is assumed to play a critical role in population dynamics in fragmented landscapes. Although it is generally summarized as an isotropic metric, functional connectivity may be anisotropic, i.e. may vary as a function of movement axis and direction. In addition, variation in functional connectivity among species within the same landscape has rarely been examined. Here, we asked to what extent the functional connectivity of managed forest landscapes is species-specific, and whether there is evidence for directional anisotropy in functional connectivity for two species of forest songbirds. We performed 6-km reciprocal translocations between two pairs of sites and we monitored return times of territorial male Ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla; n = 47) and Black-throated Green Warblers (Setophaga virens; n = 37) in northwestern New Brunswick, Canada. Each landscape was dominated by deciduous forest and comprised a 500- to 900-m wide strip of conifer plantation perpendicular to the movement axis. Homing time was shorter for Black-throated Green Warbler than for Ovenbird and anisotropy in functional connectivity was detected in the Ovenbird in one of the landscapes. Differences between species may reflect the Ovenbird’s narrower habitat and foraging niche. Our results indicate that spatially-explicit population models should account for variability in functional connectivity among species, even when they are closely related. Our findings also suggest that anisotropy can be present under specific conditions.

Most current methods for describing animal home range assume that it may be represented as a Euclidean type shape such as a bell shaped curve or a closed polygon. Landscape ecology has increasingly shown that ecological objects are more often highly fragmented and irregular. A fractal approach to description of animal home range was thus developed. For each point where the animal was observed, a circle centered on this point was first laid down to represent the area searched for prey by the animal during a short time interval. In this way the behavior of the animal and differences between species can be represented. Next, a fine grid is laid over the map and the height of each grid square computed by the number of circles that overlap that square. Then, the fractal dimension of the resultant 3-D surface is calculated at several scales. From an analysis of data from a hawk, the existence of perching behavior can be inferred, as well as the observation that at coarse scales the hawk behavior is self-similar and resembles a random walk. The home range thus analyzed in no way resembles a closed figure such as a polygon because it is highly fragmented. Further analysis showed that the fractal measures are relatively insensitive to sample size and to measurement error. Code is included for performing the analyses.

Land use change is a major factor influencing biodiversity, but the mechanisms that drive species losses require further examination. Habitat loss often reduces biodiversity, but habitat fragmentation can increase biodiversity when examined independently. Processes driving this pattern remain largely unclear. We aimed to determine the effects of habitat fragmentation on bumble bee populations after controlling for habitat amount, and to examine possible mechanisms behind observed effects. We sampled 22 species of bumble bees (Bombus sp.) across 50 unique sites located throughout the Canadian Rockies using a sampling design that minimized correlations between amount and spatial arrangement of land covers that may represent important habitat for bees. We modeled bumble bee abundance, species richness and diversity as a function of land cover metrics. Effects of land cover fragmentation were dependent on both the measure of fragmentation used, and landscape scale. Bumble bee abundance was higher where nesting habitat (forest) and foraging habitat (grassland) were found adjacent to each other within 300 m, suggesting a landscape complementation effect where bees benefit from having access to both land cover types in proximity to one another. Having available habitat split into a greater number of patches was detrimental when considering the immediate area (0–300 m), but beneficial when quantified in more distant areas (300–600 m). Landscape complementation may be an important component behind positive fragmentation effects. Estimates of multiple measures of fragmentation are important when testing the impacts of land cover and landscape changes on species abundance and biodiversity.

European policies and instruments such as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and many instruments for nature and landscape conservation in Europe have for some decades been dominated by centralisation and standardisation. This paper shows that this has led to the neglect of contextual and place-related approaches and an unnecessarily high degree of over-simplification. Recently, as a reaction to this over-simplification, diversity and specific character has been particularly stressed in many European and national strategies for rural landscapes and conservation, but the processes of simplification still continue. Using examples from mixed agriculture and forestry landscapes in Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden, this paper aims to contribute to understanding the gap between centrally defined strategies for rural landscapes and awareness and management practices at local level. The three countries are situated at the outer fringes of Europe, and are complementary with their different degrees of urbanisation, forest distribution and tree-richness in the agricultural landscapes. Furthermore, the aim is to show how local landscape management is driven and to identify factors contributing to a better use of public policies through a participatory process with visions for the future. Systems of landscape classifications such as landscape character assessment often recognise the specific character of these landscapes, but have so far achieved very little for the preservation of their locally specific values, nor have they contributed to the development and the creation of new visions for future management. Such systems could contribute much more if they could be opened to adaptation on a more local scale in communication-led management planning.