Springer Science and Business Media LLC

This paper presents a method to quantify cultural ecosystem services (ES) and their spatial distribution in the landscape based on ecological structure and social evaluation approaches. The method aims to provide quantified assessments of ES to support land use planning decisions. A GIS-based approach was used to estimate and map the provision of recreation and aesthetic services supplied by ecosystems in a peri-urban area located in the Basque Country, northern Spain. Data of two different public participation processes (frequency of visits to 25 different sites within the study area and aesthetic value of different landscape units) were used to validate the maps. Three maps were obtained as results: a map showing the provision of recreation services, an aesthetic value map and a map of the correspondences and differences between both services. The data obtained in the participation processes were found useful for the validation of the maps. A weak spatial correlation was found between aesthetic quality and recreation provision services, with an overlap of the highest values for both services only in 7.2 % of the area. A consultation with decision-makers indicated that the results were considered useful to identify areas that can be targeted for improvement of landscape and recreation management.

A simple regional habitat model founded on the relation between vertical habitat complexity and species richness has been used to describe wildlife habitat in response to macroscale patterns in land use and land cover. While the model has a basis in ecological theory, it has not been subjected to rigorous testing. We evaluated the model's fundamental assumption on landscapes in the eastern forested region of the United States and found the model to be supported when we used a measure of avian community integrity during the breeding season. The model was improved by incorporating measures of horizontal heterogeneity, indicating that the vertical and horizontal structure of habitats should be considered in analyzing the response of wildlife to land resource policies that can affect broad land use patterns.

This paper explores green volunteering in Denmark from the perspective of nature managers in municipalities and state nature agencies. The aim is to explore and establish, for the first time, an understanding of the nature and extent of volunteering in Danish nature management from a mosaic governance perspective. The objective was to understand how patterns of volunteerism in Denmark align with the theoretical planning of mosaic governance. The study employed a questionnaire survey, conducted in 2018, covering all Danish municipalities and Nature Agency units designed to investigate topics such as: the extent of volunteering, the types of volunteers, the areas and tasks the volunteers engage in, and the benefits and challenges of the collaboration. Our results show that nature managers collaborate with a variety of volunteers, involved in maintenance, construction and operation activities in both urban and rural areas. Most projects are bottom-up initiatives started by volunteers. The main reason for engaging volunteers is to acknowledge volunteers’ enthusiasm and heighten their interest in nature, although the engagement of volunteers can be time-consuming. In most municipalities, engaging volunteers is not formalized through strategies. It is handled as an “add-on” to an already demanding work burden. There is considerable variation in the way municipalities and the Nature Agency units engage volunteers. Some embrace volunteering, while others are skeptical about it. The engagement of volunteers supports nature that is both more accessible and better managed. Further, volunteerism increases the number of outdoor recreation facilities by supplementing the capacity of baseline nature management.

Prior studies exploring the quantitative relationship between landscape structure metrics and the ecological condition of receiving waters have used a variety of sampling units (e.g., a watershed, or a buffer around a sampling station) at a variety of spatial scales to generate landscape metrics resulting in little consensus on which scales best describe land-water relationships. Additionally, the majority of these studies have focused on freshwater systems and it is not clear whether results are transferable to estuarine and marine systems. We examined how sampling unit scale controls the relationship between landscape structure and sediment metal concentrations in small estuarine systems in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. We varied the spatial extent of the contributing watersheds used to calculate landscape structure and assessed linear relationships between estuarine sediment metal concentrations and the total area of developed and agricultural lands at each scale. Area of developed lands was consistently related to sediment metals while total agricultural land was not. Developed land had strongest associations with lead and copper; weakest with arsenic and chromium; and moderate associations with cadmium, mercury, and zinc. Local (i.e., less than 15−20 km from a sampling station) land uses have a greater impact than more distant land uses on the amount of toxic metals reaching estuarine sediments.

Internet-based street-view greenery (SG) is a new tool for evaluating urban green infrastructure, with proved vital services for residents, while until now, no report is on SG-aimed management from forest structure and landscape patterns. To find out plant composition, tree size, and landscape pattern’s contribution to inter-and intra-city SG variations, and implication for SG-maximization management. The SG was quantified by upper green view index (sky GVI), middle GVI, and ground GVI by using Baidu Street View in Harbin and Changchun; forest structure and landscape metrics were also measured in field survey, street-view picture, and remote sensing, then matched to 2 km × 2 km grids. Sampling density was 0.25–3 plots/km2, securing uncertainty < 10%. Both mean GVI, sky GVI, middle GVI, and ground GVI in Harbin were higher than those in Changchun. SG was mainly driven by landscape patterns, and their explaining power decreased from intra-city to inter-city level. In Harbin, the major driving factors for GVI were patch density (PD), tree height, and total green space area (TA), and in Changchun, tree height (TH), edge density (ED), and aggregation index were the main ones. Pooled two cities' data showed that GVI was affected by TH, TA, and ED. Our findings highlighted that SG could be regulated by landscape configuration and large tree conservation, rather than species richness. Utilization of internet big data, field survey, and remote sensing could provide a new basis for urban green infrastructure management from SG regulation, and our data is an example for this.

The urban heat island (UHI) is a well-documented pattern of warming in cities relative to rural areas. Most UHI research utilizes remote sensing methods at large scales, or climate sensors in single cities surrounded by standardized land cover. Relatively few studies have explored continental-scale climatic patterns within common urban microenvironments such as residential landscapes that may affect human comfort. We tested the urban homogenization hypothesis which states that structure and function in cities exhibit ecological “sameness” across diverse regions relative to the native ecosystems they replaced. We deployed portable micrometeorological sensors to compare air temperature and humidity in residential yards and native landscapes across six U.S. cities that span a range of climates (Phoenix, AZ; Los Angeles, CA; Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN; Boston, MA; Baltimore, MD; and Miami, FL). Microclimate in residential ecosystems was more similar among cities than among native ecosystems, particularly during the calm morning hours. Maximum regional actual evapotranspiration (AET) was related to the morning residential microclimate effect. Residential yards in cities with maximum AET <50–65 cm/year (Phoenix and Los Angeles) were generally cooler and more humid than nearby native shrublands during summer mornings, while yards in cities above this threshold were generally warmer (Baltimore and Miami) and drier (Miami) than native forests. On average, temperature and absolute humidity were ~6 % less variable among residential ecosystems than among native ecosystems from diverse regions. These data suggest that common residential land cover and structural characteristics lead to microclimatic convergence across diverse regions at the continental scale.

The rapid urbanization in China has led to acute land use conflicts between urban expansion and the protection of cropland and ecological land, which have also threatened the sustainable use of land resources and regional sustainable development. However, most current land management policies for solving these conflicts focus on short-term economic benefits, neglecting sustainable land management. The goal is to propose sustainable land management strategies for balancing the coordinated relationships among urban expansion, cropland protection, and ecological protection in the Yangtze River Delta region (YRDR). We used a newly proposed patch-generating land use simulation model to determine the key driving factors and to simulate future land use changes under multiple development scenarios in the YRDR. Additionally, we analysed the evolution process of land use dynamics in the YRDR from 2000 to 2050. Future urban expansion was projected to be spatially unevenly distributed under different topographic conditions and among different economic development regions, indicating that more consideration should be given to platform regions and less economically developed areas to meet the demand for future construction activities. Additionally, driving factor analysis suggested that governments should take measures to guide the population to economically underdeveloped areas and that the governments of newly developed areas should focus on extending the local road network first. The methodological framework for integrating future land use simulations with analyses of driving forces and land use evolution processes can alleviate or eliminate land use conflicts to achieve sustainable land management in rapid urbanization regions.

Habitat loss and fragmentation of natural and semi-natural habitats are considered as major threats to plant species richness. Recently several studies have pinpointed the need to analyse past landscape patterns to understand effects of fragmentation, as the response to landscape change may be slow in many organisms, plants in particular. We compared species richness in continuously grazed and abandoned grasslands in different commonplace rural landscapes in Sweden, and analysed effects of isolation and area in three time-steps (100 and 50 years ago and today). Old cadastral maps and aerial photographs were used to analyse past and present landscape patterns in 25 sites. Two plant diversity measures were investigated; total species richness and species density. During the last 100 years grassland area and connectivity have been reduced by about 90%. Present-day habitat area was positively related to total species richness in both habitats. There was also a relationship to habitat area 50 years ago for continuously grazed grasslands. Only present management was related to species density: continuously grazed grasslands had the highest species density. There were no relationships between grassland connectivity, present or past, and any diversity measure. We conclude that landscape history is not directly important for present-day plant diversity patterns in ordinary landscapes, although past grassland management is a prerequisite for the grassland habitats that can be found there today. It is important that studies are conducted, not only in very diverse landscapes, but also in managed landscapes in order to assess the effects of fragmentation on species.

Conceptual frameworks of dryland degradation commonly include ecohydrological feedbacks between landscape spatial organization and resource loss, so that decreasing cover and size of vegetation patches result in higher water and soil losses, which lead to further vegetation loss. However, the impacts of these feedbacks on dryland dynamics in response to external stress have barely been tested. Using a spatially-explicit model, we represented feedbacks between vegetation pattern and landscape resource loss by establishing a negative dependence of plant establishment on the connectivity of runoff-source areas (e.g., bare soils). We assessed the impact of various feedback strengths on the response of dryland ecosystems to changing external conditions. In general, for a given external pressure, these connectivity-mediated feedbacks decrease vegetation cover at equilibrium, which indicates a decrease in ecosystem resistance. Along a gradient of gradual increase of environmental pressure (e.g., aridity), the connectivity-mediated feedbacks decrease the amount of pressure required to cause a critical shift to a degraded state (ecosystem resilience). If environmental conditions improve, these feedbacks increase the pressure release needed to achieve the ecosystem recovery (restoration potential). The impact of these feedbacks on dryland response to external stress is markedly non-linear, which relies on the non-linear negative relationship between bare-soil connectivity and vegetation cover. Modelling studies on dryland vegetation dynamics not accounting for the connectivity-mediated feedbacks studied here may overestimate the resistance, resilience and restoration potential of drylands in response to environmental and human pressures. Our results also suggest that changes in vegetation pattern and associated hydrological connectivity may be more informative early-warning indicators of dryland degradation than changes in vegetation cover.