LSM 2251

Lecture 12 Landscape Ecology

Summary of Lecture 10:

1. An ecosystem consists of a community and its physical environment. 2. Ecosystem ecologists mostly study energy and nutrient flows. 3. Energy cannot be recycled, nutrients must be. 4. Trophic levels are relative positions in the food web. The number of trophic levels is higher in ectotherm food webs, since less energy is lost at each stage. 5. On a global scale, terrestrial Net Primary Production is controlled by temperature and rainfall. Nutrients are locally important. Marine NPP is largely controlled by nutrients. Consumers can have a positive or negative influence. 6. Carbon follows the same pathway as energy through ecosystems. Carbon is recycled globally but not locally.

Summary of Lecture 10:

7. Plant growth is limited by the nutrient with the least favorable supply, i.e. lowest availability relative to needs. This is thought to be usually N or P in terrestrial systems, but can be a micronutrient, such as Mo. 8. Decomposition has a key role in the supply of nutrients for plant growth, so factors that slow decomposition (drought, cold, tough or chemically defended plant materials) reduce the rate of supply of nutrients. 9. P tightly cycled, K less so. N is lost as oxides in fires. Leakage is mostly replaced by weathering of soil minerals, except C & N. 10. Small catchment studies show the key role of plant uptake in minimizing nutrient losses. 11. Human activities have a huge impact on C, N and other cycles.

Human carbon dioxide emissions

Natural cycle because is more forest in northern hemisphere than southern

NPP estimate from satellite June Red>yellow > green> blue>black> grey

December

From NASA
- data from MODIS satellite

Climate change projections for Singapore by 2100:

From downscaling of the IPCC global results:

Temperature 2.7 4.2oC higher than today Rainfall trends uncertain some models predict higher overall, some lower, but most agree that wet periods will be wetter and dry periods drier. i.e. more floods and droughts

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Different ways of looking at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve:

Single species Species-species interactions Entire guilds/communities relative abundance species richness evenness diversity Food webs Other interaction webs Keystone species Succession and stability Energy and nutrient fluxes As a patch of forest in a larger landscape this week!

Alex Yee: Honours Project 2009-10

Reading:

Molles - Chapter 21
Smith & Smith Chapter 19 See also the article in Wikipedia. This has been built up by many authors, so it is not very consistent, but it gives a better overview than Molles. There is also an excellent on-line publication by TG Barnes Landscape Ecology and Ecosystems Management at: www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/for/for76/for76.htm

Note: this lecture will necessarily be a fairly superficial summary of a huge topic.

A landscape is:
A heterogeneous area consisting of distinctive patches, or landscape elements, organized into a mosaic pattern. Molles A heterogeneous landscape composed of interacting ecosystems. Smith & Smith A spatially heterogeneous area characterized by diverse interacting patches or ecosystems. Wikipedia. A heterogeneous area consisting of distinct patches. Me

A landscape is:
A heterogeneous area consisting of distinctive patches, or landscape elements, organized into a mosaic pattern. Molles A heterogeneous landscape composed of interacting ecosystems. Smith & Smith A spatially heterogeneous area characterized by diverse interacting patches or ecosystems. Wikipedia. A heterogeneous area consisting of distinct patches. Me Key feature: heterogeneity vs. most of ecology deals with relatively homogeneous areas

A landscape is:
A heterogeneous area consisting of distinctive patches, or landscape elements, organized into a mosaic pattern. Molles A heterogeneous landscape composed of interacting ecosystems. Smith & Smith A spatially heterogeneous area characterized by diverse interacting patches or ecosystems. Wikipedia. A heterogeneous area consisting of distinct patches. Me Key feature: heterogeneity vs. most of ecology deals with relatively homogeneous areas Arguably, this is the best approach for studying Singapore.

Landscapes are made up of patches or landscape elements - relatively homogeneous areas that are distinct from their surroundings. Note1: landscape ecology usually deals with the human scale, i.e. metres to kilometres, and the terminology and methods are rarely applied at much larger or smaller scales. Sometimes, however, a bird, mammal or butterfly (etc.) scale makes more sense.

Landscapes are made up of patches or landscape elements - relatively homogeneous areas that are distinct from their surroundings. Note1: landscape ecology usually deals with the human scale, i.e. metres to kilometres, and the terminology and methods are rarely applied at much larger or smaller scales. Sometimes, however, a bird, mammal or butterfly (etc.) scale makes more sense. Note2: two technical developments over recent decades remote sensing from satellites and geographical information systems (GIS) have contributed greatly to the development of landscape ecology.

Satellite images invite a landscape perspective

Deforestation in Brazil

GIS makes quantification of landscapes easy.

Land cover surrounding Madison, WI. Fields are colored yellow and brown, water is colored blue, and urban surfaces are colored red. From the Wikipedia article.

With a GIS you can abstract particular landscape elements and study them separately.

This is forest.
This view of the landscape is particularly relevant for forestdependent species.

This is impervious surfaces. This view of the landscape is particularly relevant for urban species. Note that the impervious surfaces in the landscape are more connected than the forest

Alex Yee: Honours Project 2009-10

Vegetation Types
Non-vegetated Managed Vegetation Scrubland Young Secondary F. Old Secondary Forest Primary Forest Mangrove Forest Freshwater Marsh Freshwater Swamp F.

Area (ha)
28,270.43 19,972.96 4,307.54 14,288.48 994.68 118.34 662.43 76.6 283.12

Proportion (%) 38.85 27.45 5.92 19.64 1.37 0.16 0.91 0.11 0.39

Number of Patches 22275 29075 8340 2920 42 15 491 227 125

Landscape ecology includes: 1. Describing landscapes, often quantitatively 2. Understanding the history and spatial dynamics of landscapes. 3. Measuring interactions and exchanges across landscapes. 4. Understanding the influences of landscapes on biotic and abiotic processes.

5. Learning to manage landscapes.

Landscape ecologists: study the effects of spatial pattern on ecological processes. Most professional landscape ecologists are paid as wildlife managers, so their focus is on understanding and then managing the effects of landscapes on one or more target species, e.g. giant pandas, tigers, urban birds.

Landscape ecology includes: 1. Describing landscapes, often quantitatively Landscape structure:

Size Shape Composition Number Position

of patches

Each square is 10 x 10km a typical scale for landscape studies. Only two elements are shown: forest and deforested areas.

The human brain is surprisingly poor at dealing with this sort of heterogeneous pattern, so quantitative measures of landscape structure are very important.
This is % forest in the whole landscape.

This is patch shape, defined here as the ratio of the perimeter of the patch to the perimeter of a circle of the same area, i.e. it varies from 1, for a perfect circle, upwards. Median values are:

1.16
1.60

Many real landscapes have > 2 elements, but the number considered is fairly arbitrary, e.g., for Singapore, we could use green/non-green, forest/non-forest, or forest/shrubland/grassland/urban..

But note that ignoring the differences within particular elements/patch types (i.e. assuming they are homogenous) oversimplifies the real situation and is a weakness of the landscape approach.

patch patch patch

patch

matrix

Another concept: the matrix is the most continuous and/or most connected landscape element. Most, but not all, landscapes have a matrix in which the other elements are embedded as patches.

Landscape ecology includes: 1. Describing landscapes, often quantitatively 2. Understanding the history and spatial dynamics of landscapes. What creates the patchiness? geological processes biological processes human impacts (most emphasis in landscape ecology)

The Yukon, Canada. Association between vegetation elements (green) and surface geology (white) in a natural landscape.

Some animals, such as beavers and elephants, act as landscape engineers, creating patchiness in an otherwise homogenous landscape

Beavers reinvaded 300 km2 of Minnesota in 1925, after extirpation, subsequently transforming the landscape.

They're back! Beavers return to Scotland for first time in 500 years! Mail Online In May, 2009, 11 beavers from Norway were released in Scotland, where they had been extirpated by hunting 500 years ago.

They're back! Beavers return to Scotland for first time in 500 years! Mail Online The hope is that beaver reintroduction will restore natural habitat heterogeneity and benefit other species

African elephant pushing over a tree.

Many landscapes are the product of human influences. This graph and the previous one show the change in the total area of each major landscape element, but not patch number, size, shape etc.

1819 1900 1990 Land-use changes in Singapore 1819-1990: primary forest; cultivated land; secondary grassland, shrubland and forest; urban areas (including parks and gardens). Again, this graph lacks information on other aspects of landscape structure (which would make it a lot more useful!)

1819 1900 1990 The graph also simplifies the landscape by recognizing only four elements. The secondary vegetation in the 19th century was mostly grassland, maintained by frequent fires, while today it is mostly forest. The main crops in the 19th century were gambier and pepper, but in the first half of the 20th century rubber trees.

Landscape ecology includes: 1. Describing landscapes, often quantitatively 2. Understanding the history and spatial dynamics of landscapes. 3. Measuring interactions and exchanges across landscapes. Interactions and exchanges can involve energy, materials (water, nutrients etc.) or organisms, but most work has been on organisms. A lot of recent work has focused on fragments of the original habitat in a human-modified matrix.

fragment

fragment

matrix

Deforestation in Brazil

Rainforest patch

Agricultural matrix

This study used experimental patches to study the influence of landscape structure on small mammal movements in prairie in the USA

Small mammals in small patches were less likely to move, but when they did move they moved further than those in large patches.

These graphs show the influence of patch size on population size and density of a butterfly species. The study also showed that more isolated patches supported fewer butterflies and that the populations in small patches were more likely to go extinct. Note: these patterns depend on the movements of butterflies between patches but, unlike the previous study, these movements were not directly studied.

Fig. 21.13

Another butterfly study showed the importance of connectivity, which is a major theme in landscape ecology. Such studies have obvious implications for conservation

10 ha

100 ha 1 ha

The Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments project in Amazonia created 1, 10, and 100 hectare forest patches in a pasture matrix and has been studying changes in the organisms in the patches for 30 years. Species have been lost from all patch sizes, but much faster from the smaller ones.

Many studies have shown the importance of natural habitat connectivity for wildlife survival in agricultural landscapes.

Landscape ecology includes: 1. Describing landscapes, often quantitatively 2. Understanding the history and spatial dynamics of landscapes. 3. Measuring interactions and exchanges across landscapes. 4. Understanding the influences of landscapes on biotic and abiotic processes.

Not much progress yet, but there are on-going studies that look at how landscape structure influences carbon dioxide uptake and release.

Landscape ecology includes: 1. Describing landscapes, often quantitatively 2. Understanding the history and spatial dynamics of landscapes. 3. Measuring interactions and exchanges across landscapes. 4. Understanding the influences of landscapes on biotic and abiotic processes.

5. Learning to manage landscapes.

Landscape management is very often about restoring connections. This is the Bukit Timah Expressway, which has divided BTNR from the Central Catchment Nature reserve since 1986

The proposed Eco-link will provide (by 2014) a forested connection between BTNR and CCNR: but will wild species use it? Note: it is not just for animals: plants can cross as seeds in the guts of dispersal agents.

Different ways of looking at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve:

Single species Species-interactions Entire guilds/communities relative abundance species richness evenness diversity Food webs Other interaction webs Keystone species Energy and nutrient fluxes Succession and stability As a patch of forest in a larger landscape this week!

The same principal on a bigger scale:

This forest management plan in British Columbia, Canada, uses landscape ecology principals to protect biodiversity by ensuring that core ecosystems are connected by landscape corridors

And bigger: an on-going effort to link up existing and planned conservation areas in northern SE Asia and SW China with biodiversity conservation corridors. Note: the major problems in such plans are usually socioeconomic not scientific.

Giant panda distribution has become highly fragmented in the last 2-3 centuries. How does this influence their chances of survival?

Community or Ecosystem

Community

Community

Community

Landscape

Community

Landscape

Community

A regional scale is particularly appropriate for looking at problems like the extinction of species.

Other problems need a global view

Summary of Lecture 11:

1. A landscape is a heterogeneous area consisting of distinct patches 2. Patches or landscape elements are distinct, relatively homogenous areas. 3. Usually applied at the human scale, although the scale of the organism(s) of interest may be more appropriate. 4. Landscapes can be described by the types, sizes, shapes, numbers and positions of the patches. 5. Patchiness can arise from the physical environment or the action of landscape engineers, but most studied examples are a result of human impacts. 6. The most connected landscape element is the matrix. 7. Understanding and managing landscapes often involves consideration of connectivity.