Agricultural intensification and loss of matrix habitat over 23 years in the West Wimmera, south-eastern Australia

Maron, Martine; Fitzsimons, James

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2006.10.051

Cited by 67 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…This is the case, for example, when natural vegetation cover changes to cropland [72], when plot size increases [73], when irrigated cropland increases [35], or when the number of cropping cycles increases [34]. However, this study shows that when agricultural intensification manifests itself in land use system changes, an assessment at the landscape level may be better suited to capture these processes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…More recently, scholars have begun to explore phenological profiles from Landsat time series, which has led to more accurate and more detailed cropland identification and change assessments [30][31][32]. Some studies have successfully assessed agricultural intensification in areas where it manifested itself in a change of land cover [33], a greater number of cropping cycles [34], or an increase in center-pivot irrigation areas [35]. However, most of these studies focus on pixel-level land cover and land use changes [32,36] rather than landscape-level changes towards more intense land use systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Agricultural Expansion and Intensification in the Foothills of Mount Kenya: A Landscape Perspective

et al. 2017

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This study spatially assesses, quantifies, and visualizes the agricultural expansion and land use intensification in the northwestern foothills of Mount Kenya over the last 30 years: processes triggered by population growth, and, more recently, by large-scale commercial investments. We made use of Google Earth Engine to access the USGS Landsat data archive and to generate cloud-free seasonal composites. These enabled us to accurately differentiate between rainfed and irrigated cropland, which was important for assessing agricultural intensification. We developed three land cover and land use classifications using the random forest classifier, and assessed land cover and land use change by creating cross-tabulation matrices for the intervals from 1987 to 2002, 2002 to 2016, and 1987 to 2016 and calculating the net change. We then applied a landscape mosaic approach to each classification to identify landscape types categorized by land use intensity. We discuss the impacts of landscape changes on natural habitats, biodiversity, and water. Kappa accuracies for the three classifications lay between 78.3% and 82.1%. Our study confirms that rainfed and irrigated cropland expanded at the expense of natural habitats, including protected areas. Agricultural expansion took place mainly in the 1980s and 1990s, whereas agricultural intensification largely happened after 2000. Since then, not only large-scale producers, but also many smallholders have begun to practice irrigated farming. The spatial pattern of agricultural expansion and intensification in the study area is defined by water availability. Agricultural intensification and the expansion of horticulture agribusinesses increase pressure on water. Furthermore, the observed changes have heightened pressure on pasture and idle land due to the decrease in natural and agropastoral landscapes. Conflicts between pastoralists, smallholder farmers, large-scale ranches, and wildlife might further increase, particularly during the dry seasons and in years of extreme drought.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural Expansion and Intensification in the Foothills of Mount Kenya: A Landscape Perspective

et al. 2017

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“…Interviews with farmers in our study area indicated that some of them planned to intensify their operations, using methods that would require clearing stepping stones to remove obstructions for the use of machinery (C. Gillies, unpublished data). Agricultural intensification in Australia, which also occurred to facilitate mechanization, resulted in the loss of up to 70% of stepping stones (Maron and Fitzsimons 2007). Furthermore, because the understory of these trees is now cattle pasture, some of which is regularly burned, new stepping stones do not appear to be recruiting to replace the loss of large trees.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-scale movement decisions of tropical forest birds in a fragmented landscape

Gillies

Beyer

Clair

2011

Ecological Applications

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Abstract. The persistence of forest-dependent species in fragmented landscapes is fundamentally linked to the movement of individuals among subpopulations. The paths taken by dispersing individuals can be considered a series of steps built from individual route choices. Despite the importance of these fine-scale movement decisions, it has proved difficult to collect such data that reveal how forest birds move in novel landscapes. We collected unprecedented route information about the movement of translocated forest birds from two species in the highly fragmented tropical dry forest of Costa Rica. In this pasture-dominated landscape, forest remains in patches or riparian corridors, with lesser amounts of living fencerows and individual trees or ''stepping stones.'' We used step selection functions to quantify how route choice was influenced by these habitat elements. We found that the amount of risk these birds were willing to take by crossing open habitat was context dependent. The forest-specialist Barred Antshrike (Thamnophilus doliatus) exhibited stronger selection for forested routes when moving in novel landscapes distant from its territory relative to locations closer to its territory. It also selected forested routes when its step originated in forest habitat. It preferred steps ending in stepping stones when the available routes had little forest cover, but avoided them when routes had greater forest cover. The forest-generalist Rufous-naped Wren (Campylorhynchus rufinucha) preferred steps that contained more pasture, but only when starting from non-forest habitats. Our results showed that forested corridors (i.e., riparian corridors) best facilitated the movement of a sensitive forest specialist through this fragmented landscape. They also suggested that stepping stones can be important in highly fragmented forests with little remaining forest cover. We expect that naturally dispersing birds and species with greater forest dependence would exhibit even stronger selection for forested routes than did the birds in our experiments.

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“…In a drier future, adaptive risk management of an individual farming enterprise may include increased water security through larger dams on the property or by using ground water in pivot irrigation (Garnaut 2008). However, such individual risk management multiplied over many enterprises may increase the vulnerability of ecosystem function and services over the region, such as environmental flows and keystone remnant vegetation (Maron & Fitzsimmons 2007). In adaptation across landscapes, particularly those with a large percentage of private property, as in the NCCMA, individual risk mitigation action must be balanced with long-term landscape and social vulnerability and resilience (e,g, Ker 2010).…”

Section: Climate -Water -Irrigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

North central Victoria – climate change and land-use: potentials for third century in a timeless land

Mansergh¹

2010

Proc. R. Soc. Vic.

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For the 21st century, scenarios of future climate under global warming suggest that Bassian-Eyrean bioclimatic region of northern Victoria, centred on the North Central Catchment Management Authority (NCCMA), will become markedly warmer and drier. Significant climate change is a real possibility midcentury and some basic bio-physical attributes underpinning the current ecology, land-use and management will be altered. Societal adaptation to climate change will include enhancing landscape resilience and changes to the mix of inter-related ecosystem services. The increasing understanding of these inter-relationships will allow for the creation of a more holistic quantification and production of landscape services. In combination, these challenge the past land-use paradigm on the driest, inhabited continent. Following the mid-19th century gold rushes, land-use in the NCCMA represented the epitome of the colonial land-use paradigm through clearing for agriculture and pastoralism. Victoria has long had the highest percentage private land of any Australian state. The NCCMA catchment is the most denuded of native vegetation, with the smallest percentage of public land and conservation reserves, and is now the centre of a continental concentration of bioregions under high environmental stress. The original primacy of agriculture was fulfilled, sometimes under adverse circumstances, but resultant landscape legacies persist within the relative economic decline of Australian agriculture. The amelioration of these within a future land stewardship that is water-stressed, carbon constrained and prone to extreme weather events is a major challenge. Exploring landscape adaptation, the simple questions arise: From what? To what? This contribution examines broad land-use in the NCCMA in the long term context of climate change and adaptation, land-use and the perceived valuation of ecosystem services from the landscape. The increasing realisation of the interconnectedness of these phenomena and the necessity for ecologically sustainable agriculture provide enhanced drivers for the evolution of new landscape meanings in the context of an inter-generational equity and climate change response.

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Agricultural intensification and loss of matrix habitat over 23 years in the West Wimmera, south-eastern Australia

Cited by 67 publications

References 30 publications

Agricultural Expansion and Intensification in the Foothills of Mount Kenya: A Landscape Perspective

Agricultural Expansion and Intensification in the Foothills of Mount Kenya: A Landscape Perspective

Fine-scale movement decisions of tropical forest birds in a fragmented landscape

North central Victoria – climate change and land-use: potentials for third century in a timeless land

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