Abstract:Landscape metrics have been of game changing importance in the analysis of ecosystems' composition and landscape cohesion. With the increasing urban and agricultural expansion, the natural flora and fauna of many highly diverse areas have been degraded. Fragmentation of ecosystems and habitats have stressed the biodiversity of Belize. To understand the dynamics of this change, a study was conducted using three moderately separate years of ecosystem landscape data. The metrics used for the analysis were area-we… Show more
“…This was true in the afro-alpine landcover class. Conversely, the higher value of ED, particularly the forestland in this study, indicates little to no central tendency in the ecosystem (Flowers et al 2020) and resulted invasions and disturbances of the class (Daye and Healey 2015).…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 52%
“…Over the study period, SHAPE_AM increased by 63.40% for farmland, 47.18% for forestland, 20.66% for Erica and 4.15% for grassland while it decreased by 4.33% for afro-alpine. Generally, a higher perimeter-area relationship characterizes the rapid rate of fragmentation in the landscape (Flowers, Huang, and Aldana 2020). In contrary, there was inconsistency amongst the value of ED across all land cover classes throughout the study period (Fig.…”
BackgroundThe changes of landscape structure and function due to human interference is hastening worldwide, and it is compulsory to preserve biological resources in a protected system. This study aims to measure the landscape ecological structure and the extent of habitat fragmentation in the Bale mountains national park. The land use/land cover change was determined by interpreting the 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2017 Landsat images with ArcGIS 10.3, and the selected landscape structural metrics was analyzed using FRAGSTATS 4.2.1. ResultsAll land cover classes showed a declining trend, except the farmland, and grassland depicted the highest area reduction. From 1985 to 2017 grassland, Erica, forestland, and afro-alpine were decreased by 9.36%, 0.26%, 0.06%, and 0.01%, respectively. Whereas, farmland was increased by 43.67%. The study area was characterized as progressively fragmented since it was signified by the escalated value of patch number (40.22%), area-weighted mean shape index (18.84%), and edge density (22.27%) and a declined value of mean patch size (28.68%) and core area (10.60%) over the study period. Considering this result, there was a high loss in area available for core dependent species, particularly for Mountain nyala in the grasslands and woodlands, Ethiopian wolf in afro-alpine regions, and Bale monkey in the bamboo forest. ConclusionBoth forestland and grassland need a conservation priority since these habitats were the most fragmented and habitat lost area.
“…This was true in the afro-alpine landcover class. Conversely, the higher value of ED, particularly the forestland in this study, indicates little to no central tendency in the ecosystem (Flowers et al 2020) and resulted invasions and disturbances of the class (Daye and Healey 2015).…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 52%
“…Over the study period, SHAPE_AM increased by 63.40% for farmland, 47.18% for forestland, 20.66% for Erica and 4.15% for grassland while it decreased by 4.33% for afro-alpine. Generally, a higher perimeter-area relationship characterizes the rapid rate of fragmentation in the landscape (Flowers, Huang, and Aldana 2020). In contrary, there was inconsistency amongst the value of ED across all land cover classes throughout the study period (Fig.…”
BackgroundThe changes of landscape structure and function due to human interference is hastening worldwide, and it is compulsory to preserve biological resources in a protected system. This study aims to measure the landscape ecological structure and the extent of habitat fragmentation in the Bale mountains national park. The land use/land cover change was determined by interpreting the 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2017 Landsat images with ArcGIS 10.3, and the selected landscape structural metrics was analyzed using FRAGSTATS 4.2.1. ResultsAll land cover classes showed a declining trend, except the farmland, and grassland depicted the highest area reduction. From 1985 to 2017 grassland, Erica, forestland, and afro-alpine were decreased by 9.36%, 0.26%, 0.06%, and 0.01%, respectively. Whereas, farmland was increased by 43.67%. The study area was characterized as progressively fragmented since it was signified by the escalated value of patch number (40.22%), area-weighted mean shape index (18.84%), and edge density (22.27%) and a declined value of mean patch size (28.68%) and core area (10.60%) over the study period. Considering this result, there was a high loss in area available for core dependent species, particularly for Mountain nyala in the grasslands and woodlands, Ethiopian wolf in afro-alpine regions, and Bale monkey in the bamboo forest. ConclusionBoth forestland and grassland need a conservation priority since these habitats were the most fragmented and habitat lost area.
“…This was true in the afro-alpine landcover class. Conversely, the higher value of ED, particularly the forestland in this study, indicates little to no central tendency in the ecosystem ( Flowers et al, 2020 ) and resulted invasions and disturbances of the class ( Daye and Healey, 2015 ). Figure 8 The change in area-weighted mean shape index (SHAPE_AM) (a) and edge density (ED) (b) of each land cover classes from 1985 to 2017.…”
Section: Resultscontrasting
confidence: 57%
“…Across the entire study period SHAPE_AM increased by 63.40 % for farmland, 47.18 % for forestland, 20.66 % for Erica and 4.15 % for grassland while it decreased by 4.33 % for afro-alpine. Generally, a higher perimeter–area relationship characterizes the rapid rate of fragmentation in the landscape ( Flowers et al, 2020 ). In contrary, there was inconsistency amongst the value of ED across all land cover classes throughout the study period ( Figure 8 b).…”
BackgroundThe changes of landscape structure and function due to human interference is hastening worldwide, and it is compulsory to preserve biological resources in a protected system. This study aims to measure the landscape ecological structure and the extent of habitat fragmentation in the Bale mountains national park. The land use/land cover change was determined by interpreting the 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2017 Landsat images with ArcGIS 10.3, and the selected landscape structural metrics was analyzed using FRAGSTATS 4.2.1.
ResultsAll land cover classes showed a declining trend, except the farmland, and grassland depicted the highest area reduction. From 1985 to 2017 grassland, Erica, forestland, and afro-alpine were decreased by 9.36%, 0.26%, 0.06%, and 0.01%, respectively. Whereas, farmland was increased by 43.67%. The study area was characterized as progressively fragmented since it was signi ed by the escalated value of patch number (40.22%), area-weighted mean shape index (18.84%), and edge density (22.27%) and a declined value of mean patch size (28.68%) and core area (10.60%) over the study period. Considering this result, there was a high loss in area available for core dependent species, particularly for Mountain nyala in the grasslands and woodlands, Ethiopian wolf in afro-alpine regions, and Bale monkey in the bamboo forest.
ConclusionBoth forestland and grassland need a conservation priority since these habitats were the most fragmented and habitat lost area.
“…Across the entire study period, SHAPE_AM, which indicates the complexity of patch shape, increased by 18.8%. A higher perimeter-area relationship characterizes the rapid rate of fragmentation in the landscape [40]. Moreover, there was inconsistency in the values of ED; however, it was increased by 22.3% over the study period.…”
Bale Mountains National Park is one of the protected areas in Ethiopia that holds the largest area of Afroalpine habitat in Africa and the second largest stand of moist tropical forest. Nevertheless, human settlements, overgrazing, and recurrent fire are the main problems in the park. This study aimed to determine the effects of human-induced landscape change in floristic composition and structure in the park. The vegetation data were collected systematically from 96 sample plots laid along 24 line transects in the edge and interior habitats of the six land cover types. Vegetation composition and landscape structural analysis were made using R software version 3.5.2 and FRAGSTATS version 4.2.1, respectively. Patch number was strong and positively affected species richness (r = −0.90,
p
<
0.05
), diversity (r = −0.96,
p
<
0.01
), and basal area (r = −0.96,
p
<
0.001
), whereas mean patch size was strong and negatively influenced species richness (r = 0.95,
p
<
0.05
), diversity (r = 0.87,
p
<
0.05
), and basal area (r = 0.82,
p
<
0.05
). The overall species richness, Shannon diversity index, and Margalef index were significantly higher in the edge habitat; however, the mean basal area of woody species was significantly higher in the interior habitat at
p
<
0.05
. This study uncovered that the park is floristically rich and diverse, and it provides a variety of ecological and economic benefits to the surrounding community and to the nation at large. However, these benefits are gradually declining due to the high level of anthropogenic activities in the park. Thus, integrated environmental management strategy that blends with sustainable use of natural resources should be implemented to minimize the threats.
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