What can studies of woodland fragmentation and creation tell us about ecological networks? A literature review and synthesis

Humphrey, J.; Watts, Kevin; Fuentes‐Montemayor, Elisa; Macgregor, Nicholas A.; Peace, Andrew; Park, Kirsty

doi:10.1007/s10980-014-0107-y

Cited by 44 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 133 publications

(111 reference statements)

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“…Reserve size does not always reflect population size nor species diversity, which is an argument in favour of increasing the number of small reserves, especially where key habitat features and rare species or structures occur [18,153], as is the case in the projected conservation zones ( Figure 5). As recently reviewed by Humphrey et al [154], forest patch characteristics (stand structure, species composition and habitat heterogeneity) are of overriding importance for the conservation of all species groups. In that perspective, land zoning should not be restricted to large forest territories, where the possibility to create a reserve network at the landscape and regional scale is far less complicated than in a mosaic of small private landowners with different perceptions of forest and agricultural land management.…”

Section: Management Considerations and Limitations Of Applying Forestmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multiple-Use Zoning Model for Private Forest Owners in Agricultural Landscapes: A Case Study

Truax

Gagnon²,

Fortier³

2015

Forests

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Many small-scale private forest owners increasingly focus their management on amenity functions rather than on wood production functions. This paradigm shift is an opportunity to implement novel forestry management approaches, such as forested land zoning. Forest zoning consists in separating the land base in three zones that have different management objectives: (1) conservation zones; (2) ecosystem management zones; and (3) intensive production zones, which locally increase productivity, as a trade off to increase the land area dedicated to conservation and ecosystem management. We evaluate the ecological feasibility of implementing forest zoning on a private property (216 ha) at St-Benoî t-du-Lac, Qué bec (Canada) characterised by agricultural and forest land uses. As a basis for delineating conservation and ecosystem management zones, historical and contemporary data and facts on forest composition and dynamics were reviewed, followed by a detailed forest vegetation analysis of forest communities. Delineating intensive production zones was straightforward, as fertile agricultural field margins located downslope were used to establish multifunctional hybrid poplar buffers. At St-Benoî t-du-Lac, a realistic zoning scenario would consist of (1) conservation zones covering 25% of the forestland (37 ha); (2) ecosystem management zones covering 75% of the forestland (113 ha, including restoration zones on 24 ha); and (3) intensive production zones on 2.8 ha. Based on a yield projection of 13 t/ha/year for hybrid OPEN ACCESSForests 2015, 6 3615 poplars, only 5.6% of agricultural field areas would need to be converted into agroforestry systems to allow for the loss of wood production in a conservation zone of 37 ha of forest. Ecosystem services provision following the implementation of zoning would include increased habitat quality, biodiversity protection and enhancement (by restoration of some tree species), carbon storage, non-point source aquatic pollution control, local biomass production for heating, and increased forest economic value.

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Section: Management Considerations and Limitations Of Applying Forestmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such cooperative cross-boundary projects are unavoidable for efficient conservation [144], as ecological networks development in temperate agricultural areas needs to focus on enhancing the size of existing habitat patches and reducing isolation between patches [154].…”

Section: Management Considerations and Limitations Of Applying Forestmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple-Use Zoning Model for Private Forest Owners in Agricultural Landscapes: A Case Study

Truax

Gagnon²,

Fortier³

2015

Forests

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“…Indeed, several studies have found patch characteristics to be more important than patch area (Benton et al 2003, Heikkinen et al 2004, Wretenberg et al 2010, Galitsky and Lawler 2015, Humphrey et al 2015. Even where the landscape structure was similar, there could be differences in the quality of habitat (the amount and diversity of structures and processes characteristic of each habitat) for birds within patches that were ostensibly the same.…”

Section: Structural Elements Gradient Lengths Spatial Scales and Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Breeding bird species diversity across gradients of land use from forest to agriculture in Europe

et al. 2017

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Loss, fragmentation and decreasing quality of habitats have been proposed as major threats to biodiversity world-wide, but relatively little is known about biodiversity responses to multiple pressures, particularly at very large spatial scales. We evaluated the relative contributions of four landscape variables (habitat cover, diversity, fragmentation and productivity) in determining different components of avian diversity across Europe. We sampled breeding birds in multiple 1-km 2 landscapes, from high forest cover to intensive agricultural land, in eight countries during 2001−2002. We predicted that the total diversity would peak at intermediate levels of forest cover and fragmentation, and respond positively to increasing habitat diversity and productivity; forest and open-habitat specialists would show threshold conditions along gradients of forest cover and fragmentation, and respond positively to increasing habitat diversity and productivity; resident species would be more strongly impacted by forest cover and fragmentation than migratory species; and generalists and urban species would show weak responses. Measures of total diversity did not peak at intermediate levels of forest cover or fragmentation. Rarefaction-standardized species richness decreased marginally and linearly with increasing forest cover and increased non-linearly with productivity, whereas all measures increased linearly with increasing fragmentation and landscape diversity. Forest and open-habitat specialists responded approximately linearly to forest cover and also weakly to habitat diversity, fragmentation and productivity. Generalists and urban species responded weakly to the landscape variables, but some groups responded non-linearly to productivity and marginally to habitat diversity. Resident species were not consistently more sensitive than migratory species to any of the landscape variables. These findings are relevant to landscapes with relatively long histories of human land-use, and they highlight that habitat loss, fragmentation and habitat-type diversity must all be considered in land-use planning and landscape modeling of avian communities.

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“…Aars and Ims, 1999;Fischer and Lindenmayer, 2002;Haddad et al, 2003;Haddad and Tewksbury, 2005;Robertson and Radford, 2009), but their effectiveness is variable and species-specific (Baum et al, 2004;Humphrey et al, 2014;Prevedello and Vieira, 2010). In addition, it is important to distinguish between foraging behaviour and dispersal behaviour, and between individual movements and population level benefits (which is not necessarily an implied result -Gilbert- Norton et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi-species modelling approach to examine the impact of alternative climate change adaptation strategies on range shifting ability in a fragmented landscape

Synes

Watts

Palmer

et al. 2015

Ecological Informatics

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A multispecies modelling approach to examine the impact of alternative climate change adaptation strategies on range shifting ability in a fragmented landscape, Ecological Informatics (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2015.06.004 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT AbstractAn individual-based model of animal dispersal and population dynamics was used to test the effects of different climate change adaptation strategies on species range shifting ability, namely the improvement of existing habitat, restoration of low quality habitat and creation of new habitat. These strategies were implemented on a landscape typical of fragmentation in the United Kingdom using spatial rules to differentiate between the allocation of strategies adjacent to or away from existing habitat patches. The total area being managed in the landscape was set at realistic levels based on recent habitat management trends.Eight species were parameterised to broadly represent different stage structure, population densities and modes of dispersal. Simulations were initialised with the species occupying 20% of the landscape and run for 100 years. As would be expected for a range of real taxa, range shifting abilities were dramatically different. This translated into large differences in their responses to the adaptation strategies. With conservative (0.5%) estimates of the area prescribed for climate change adaptation, few species display noticeable improvements in their range shifting, demonstrating the need for greater investment in future adaptation.With a larger (1%) prescribed area, greater range shifting improvements were found, although results were still species-specific. It was found that increasing the size of small existing habitat patches was the best way to promote range shifting, and that the creation of new stepping stone features, whilst beneficial to some species, did not have such broad effect across different species.

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What can studies of woodland fragmentation and creation tell us about ecological networks? A literature review and synthesis

Cited by 44 publications

References 133 publications

Multiple-Use Zoning Model for Private Forest Owners in Agricultural Landscapes: A Case Study

Multiple-Use Zoning Model for Private Forest Owners in Agricultural Landscapes: A Case Study

Breeding bird species diversity across gradients of land use from forest to agriculture in Europe

A multi-species modelling approach to examine the impact of alternative climate change adaptation strategies on range shifting ability in a fragmented landscape

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