Forestland connectivity in Romania—Implications for policy and management

Stăncioiu, Petru Tudor; Niţă, M. D.; Lazăr, Gabriel

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.02.028

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…In our study, land cover did not significantly correlate with gene flow. This is likely to be due to a lack of fragmentation of forest regions at a national level in Romania 40 . Similarly, other studies have reported a lack of correlation with land cover 34 , thus we infer that bear preferences for slope and specifically eastern facing slopes could be determined by forest type and food availability (as with the giant panda) 41 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent study carried out in the eastern Romanian Carpathians using telemetry showed that during hyperphagia bears seeking food were capable of moving along altitudinal gradients of high variability 42 , moreover, when analysing an extensive telemetry dataset of 70964 GPS locations collected from 32 brown bears (from which 9 were males) across Romania (INCDS Marin Dracea research projects, unpublished results) a high preference for the forest (especially mixed Norway spruce-silver-fir-beech and beech dominant forest) was revealed (Figs S5 and S6). In Romania, European beech and Norway spruce are found in large stands and high intrapatch/interpatch connectivity has been observed 40 suggesting that bears benefit from these favorable conditions in terms of food availability, shelter and movement. Slope aspect in beech forests seems to be an extremely important for herbaceous composition: a lower number of species but with more mature vegetation are present on north-eastern aspects from April to August, suggesting that north-eastern slopes could have higher biomass production due to more humid soil and competition for light 43 , facilitating thus bear movement in accordance with food availability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inferring fine-scale spatial structure of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) population in the Carpathians prior to infrastructure development

Fedorca

Russo

Ionescu

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Landscape genetics is increasingly being used in landscape planning for biodiversity conservation by assessing habitat connectivity and identifying landscape barriers, using intraspecific genetic data and quantification of landscape heterogeneity to statistically test the link between genetic variation and landscape variability. In this study we used genetic data to understand how landscape features and environmental factors influence demographic connectedness in Europe’s largest brown bear population and to assist in mitigating planned infrastructure development in Romania. Model-based clustering inferred one large and continuous bear population across the Carpathians suggesting that suitable bear habitat has not become sufficiently fragmented to restrict movement of individuals. However, at a finer scale, large rivers, often located alongside large roads with heavy traffic, were found to restrict gene flow significantly, while eastern facing slopes promoted genetic exchange. Since the proposed highway infrastructure development threatens to fragment regions of the Carpathians where brown bears occur, we develop a decision support tool based on models that assess the landscape configuration needed for brown bear conservation using wildlife corridor parameters. Critical brown bear corridors were identified through spatial mapping and connectivity models, which may be negatively influenced by infrastructure development and which therefore require mitigation. We recommend that current and proposed infrastructure developments incorporate these findings into their design and where possible avoid construction measures that may further fragment Romania’s brown bear population or include mitigation measures where alternative routes are not feasible.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferring fine-scale spatial structure of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) population in the Carpathians prior to infrastructure development

Fedorca

Russo

Ionescu

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Veen et al 2010). In the same time, the connectivity of the forests around the Carpathian Mountains is considered high (Stăncioiu et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Litter-dwelling invertebrates in natural and plantation forests in the southern Carpathians, Romania

et al. 2020

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Forest plantations usually have a poorer fauna than native forests of the same region. Exceptions seem to appear in colder areas of Europe with few native forests. The Jiu Gorge National Park (JGNP) is situated in the Southern Romanian Carpathians, where numerous native, especially beech, forests are present. However, in the southern part of JGNP there are plantations with non-native species, like pine or black locust, where previous studies had reported a poor fauna. Based on this information, we supposed that this fauna poverty in plantations will be obvious also in the case of the litter macrofauna. This was verified by analyzing the litter macrofauna from 15 forests in the JGNP (10 natural forests and five forest plantations). We collected 12,950 individuals belonging to 28 invertebrate groups. The highest number of taxa was registered in the sessile oak forest, while the highest individual number and taxa diversity was observed in two beech forests. In the beech and birch reforestation areas the fauna was poorer than in old mature forests of the same tree species. In contrast to native forests, the fauna in plantations was much poorer, especially in the pine plantations. Detritiphagous taxa were the most affected by factors of the plantations. In the plantations, more mobile groups with various trophic regimes prevail. The plantations that are present in the southern areas of JGNP, replaced the original sessile oak forests, compared to which they have a much poorer fauna. Forest plantations from JGNP have low value for biodiversity, compared to the northern European areas where natural forests became very rare and the fauna is recent. JGNP is not in the same situation, having extended native forests, which are present in the area since the glacial periods. Therefore, these forests shelter the native fauna of the region. There are few plantations, present only in the disturbed part of JGNP, but even there they have only a very low importance for biodiversity. The data from JGNP confirms the fact that zones with high biodiversity and native forests should be conserved. Key words: Carpathians, beech, forest plantations, past, native, invertebrates, leaf litter, forestry.

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“…These types of data have been used to study our surroundings [1], stratify the terrestrial environment [2,3], and build a wide range of data products depicting terrestrial characteristics, such as topography [4], land use and cover [5], vegetative indices [6], vegetation communities [7,8], fire severity [9], land cover change [10], and temperature [11]. Due to the success and relatively low cost of using remotely sensed data to depict landscape patterns and changes in those patterns, fields like landscape ecology [12] and concepts like spatial connectivity and the relationships between patterns and processes are now at the forefront of many land management and planning endeavors [13][14][15][16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating the Impact of Field and Image Registration Errors through Spatial Aggregation

Hogland

Affleck

2019

Remote Sensing

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Remotely sensed data are commonly used as predictor variables in spatially explicit models depicting landscape characteristics of interest (response) across broad extents, at relatively fine resolution. To create these models, variables are spatially registered to a known coordinate system and used to link responses with predictor variable values. Inherently, this linking process introduces measurement error into the response and predictors, which in the latter case causes attenuation bias. Through simulations, our findings indicate that the spatial correlation of response and predictor variables and their corresponding spatial registration (co-registration) errors can have a substantial impact on the bias and accuracy of linear models. Additionally, in this study we evaluate spatial aggregation as a mechanism to minimize the impact of co-registration errors, assess the impact of subsampling within the extent of sample units, and provide a technique that can be used to both determine the extent of an observational unit needed to minimize the impact of co-registration and quantify the amount of error potentially introduced into predictive models.

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Forestland connectivity in Romania—Implications for policy and management

Cited by 14 publications

References 29 publications

Inferring fine-scale spatial structure of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) population in the Carpathians prior to infrastructure development

Inferring fine-scale spatial structure of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) population in the Carpathians prior to infrastructure development

Litter-dwelling invertebrates in natural and plantation forests in the southern Carpathians, Romania

Mitigating the Impact of Field and Image Registration Errors through Spatial Aggregation

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