Himalayan forests are undergoing rapid changes due to population growth and economic development and their associated bird communities are among the most threatened and least-studied on earth. In the Chinese Himalaya, traditionally managed Tibetan sacred forests are keystone structures for forest bird conservation. Yet, it remains unclear which fine-scale habitat characteristics of the sacred forests are best associated with Himalayan forest bird species. Our goal here was to quantify the relationship between forest habitat characteristics and bird communities in Tibetan sacred forests to understand habitat associations of common forest birds in the Chinese Himalaya. In 2010 and 2011, we conducted bird point counts and habitat surveys at 62, 50-m radius, sample points distributed within and adjacent to six Tibetan sacred forests in northwest Yunnan, China. From this data, we constructed habitat-occupancy relationship models for 35 bird species and documented tree-use patterns of 14 common arboreal foraging bird species. Our modeling results revealed that large diameter trees and heterogeneity in vertical vegetation structure were the most important habitat characteristics, and were positively associated with occupancy of 63 % of the study bird species. Furthermore, we found that occupancy of eight bird species of conservation concern was related to specific thresholds of forest integrity characteristics. For example, predicted occupancy of three of eight species was high in forested habitats with[15 % bamboo cover and was greatly reduced when bare ground cover exceeded 5 %. We found that bird species foraged on pine (Pinus densata, 58 % more than it was available) and poplar (Populus davidiana, 41 %) in higher proportion to their availability, but that foraging success was highest on fir (Abies spp.), oak (Quercus spp.), willow (Salix spp.) and Chinese Larch (Larix potaninii). Our findings suggest that, although conservation is not a primary management goal of Tibetan sacred forests, these lands harbor critical habitat features for forest breeding birds of the Chinese Himalaya.
File: Wood_etal_2015_Birds_TibetanSacredForests_0.pdf
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Forests are critically important for life on earth, prompting a variety of efforts to protect them. Protected areas and logging regulations are the most commonly used forest conservation strategies, but local traditions and religious beliefs can also protect natural resources by limiting exploitative use. We compared the effectiveness of protected areas, a logging ban, and sacred areas to protect forests from logging in Northwest Yunnan, China, a global biodiversity hotspot. We combined Mahalanobis matching and panel regression techniques to measure effectiveness of these three protection strategies paying special attention to old growth forest communities. We found that protected areas had no impact on total forest cover, but effectively conserved old-growth forests relative to non-protected areas. The implementation of the logging ban resulted in positive forest conservation outcomes over most of the landscape. The exception was that logging in old-growth forests inside sacred areas accelerated following the implementation of the logging ban, suggesting that local institutions may have been weakened by official policies. Our research finds little evidence that overlapping conservation policies decrease deforestation and suggests that the implementation of official policies may displace local forms of protection. Our results further highlight that relying on total forest cover as a single indicator of conservation outcomes can lead to misleading conclusions about the impacts of forest protection strategies.
File: Brandt_etal_BioCons_2015.pdf
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During the Soviet Virgin Lands Campaign, approximately 23 million hectares (Mha) of Eurasian stepp grassland were converted into cropland in Northern Kazakhstan from 1954 to 1963. As a resul Kazakhstan became an important breadbasket of the former Soviet Union. However, the collapse of th Soviet Union in 1991 triggered widespread agricultural abandonment, and much cropland reverted t grasslands. Our goal in this study was to reconstruct and analyze agricultural land-cover change since th eve of the Virgin Lands Campaign,from 1953 to 2010 in Kostanay Province, a region that is representativ of Northern Kazakhstan. Further, we assessed the potential of currently idle cropland for re-cultivation We reconstructed the cropland extent before and after the Virgin Lands Campaign using archival maps and we mapped the agricultural land cover in the late Soviet and post-Soviet period using multi-seasona Landsat TM/ETM+ images from circa 1990, 2000 and 2010. Cropland extent peaked at approximatel 3.1 Mha in our study area in 1990, 38% of which had been converted from grasslands from 1954 to 1961 After the collapse of the Soviet Union, 45% of the Soviet cropland was abandoned and had reverted t grassland by 2000. After 2000, cropland contraction and re-cultivation were balanced. Using spatia logistic regressions we found that cropland expansion during the Virgin Lands Campaign wa significantly associated with favorable agro-environmental conditions. In contrast, cropland expansio after the Campaign until 1990, as well as cropland contraction after 1990, occurred mainly in areas tha were less favorable for agriculture. Cropland re-cultivation after 2000 was occurring on lands wit relatively favorable agro-environmental conditions in comparison to remaining idle croplands, albei with much lower agro-environmental endowment compared to stable croplands from 1990 to 2010. I sum, we found that cropland production potentials of the currently uncultivated areas are much lowe than commonly believed, and further cropland expansion is only possible at the expense of margina lands. Our results suggest if increasing production is a goal, improving crop yields in currently cultivate lands should be a focus, whereas extensive livestock grazing as well as the conservation of nonprovisionin ecosystem services and biodiversity should be priority on more marginal lands.
File: Kraemer_etal_2015_EnvResLet.pdf
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Socioeconomic shocks can shape future landus trajectories. Armed conflicts are an extreme form of socioeconomic shock, but our understanding of how arme conflicts affect land-use change is limited. Our goal was t assess land-use changes related to the 1991–1994 NagornoKarabak conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in th Caucasus region. We classified multi-temporal Landsa imagery, mapped land-use changes during and after th conflict, and applied matching statistics to isolate the effec of the conflict from other potential drivers of land change In our study area, local land-use changes were dominate by high farmland abandonment rates of more than 60 % i the conflict zone. Concomitantly, we found a substantia displacement of agricultural activities into nearb Azerbaijani territory ([30 % of all abandoned land in th conflict zone was offset by new agricultural areas o Azerbaijani territory), likely as a consequence of refuge migrations. After the armed conflict ceased, only 17 % o the abandoned fields were re-cultivated, indicating that th land-use system may have transformed profoundly. Ou results showed that an armed conflict can have substantia impact on land use. Spatially, our results indicated tha armed conflicts may cause lasting land-use change in area distant from the actual battlegrounds, representing a example of a distant linkage in land systems, in our cas caused by refugee movements. Temporally, armed conflict appear to be able to cause a transition of the land-use syste into a new state, akin to other drastic socioeconomic shocks.
File: Bauman_etal_2015_RegEnvirCh.pdf
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Economic and social transition periods can have strong negative effects for the environment and for wildlife. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 provides a striking example of social turmoil and transition to a new society. It is unclear, however, how humans affected the environment in the course of the collapse, and if institutions designed to safeguard the environment continued to fulfill their intended role. Our goal was to assess the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union on forest canopy removal rates in protected areas, and how these rates varied by protected area status and over time. We monitored forest canopy removal within and outside of protected areas using a 1985-2010 time series of Landsat satellite images from the Western Caucasus. On average, we found surprisingly low annual forest canopy removal rates of only 0.03%. The highest canopy removal inside of protected areas of all types occurred after 2000. Among the protected areas, we found the highest canopy removal rates within Sochi National Park, attributable to construction for the Olympic Games and in spite of the Park's protected status. Overall, it is encouraging that forest canopy removal rates in protected areas in the Western Caucasus are far lower than in other Russian regions. Because many local endemic plant and animal species are found in the Caucasus region, clear cuts are prohibited, and this regulation appears to be effective. However, forest canopy removal within protected areas caused by major social and political events such as the Olympic Games is of concern.
File: Bragina_etal_BioCons_2015.pdf
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Detailed knowledge of forest cover dynamics is crucial for many applications fromresource management to ecosystemservice assessments. Landsat data provides the necessary spatial, temporal and spectral detail to map and analyze forest cover and forest change processes. With the opening of the Landsat archive, new opportunities arise to monitor forest dynamics on regional to continental scales. In this study we analyzed changes in forest types, forest disturbances, and forest recovery for the Carpathian ecoregion in Eastern Europe. We generated a series of image composites at five year intervals between 1985 and 2010 and utilized a hybrid analysis strategy consisting of radiometric change classification, post-classification comparison and continuous index- and segment-based post-disturbance recovery assessment. For validation of the disturbance map we used a pointbased accuracy assessment, and assessed the accuracy of our forest type maps using forest inventory data and statistically sampled ground truth data for 2010. Our Carpathian-wide disturbance map achieved an overall accuracy of 86% and the forest type maps up to 73% accuracy.While our results suggested a small net forest increase in the Carpathians, almost 20% of the forests experienced stand-replacing disturbances over the past 25 years. Forest recovery seemed to only partly counterbalance thewidespread natural disturbances and clear-cutting activities. Disturbanceswere mostwidespread during the late 1980s and early 1990s, but someareas also exhibited extensive forest disturbances after 2000, especially in the Polish, Czech and Romanian Carpathians. Considerable shifts in forest composition occurred in the Carpathians, with disturbances increasingly affecting coniferous forests, and a relative decrease in coniferous and mixed forests. Both aspects are likely connected to an increased vulnerability of spruce plantations to pests and pathogens in the Carpathians. Overall, our results exemplify the highly dynamic nature of forest cover during times of socio-economic and institutional change, and highlight the value of the Landsat archive for monitoring these dynamics.
File: Griffith_etal_2014_RSE_0.pdf
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Applications of remote sensing for biodiversity conservation typically rely on image classifications that do not capture variability within coarse land cover classes. Here, we compare two measures derived from unclassified remotely sensed data, a measure of habitat heterogeneity and a measure of habitat composition, for explaining bird species richness and the spatial distribution of 10 species in a semi-arid landscape of New Mexico.We surveyed bird abundance from 1996 to 1998 at 42 plots located in the McGregor Range of Fort Bliss Army Reserve. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index values of two May 1997 Landsat scenes were the basis for among-pixel habitat heterogeneity (image texture), and we used the raw imagery to decompose each pixel into different habitat components (spectral mixture analysis). We used model averaging to relate measures of avian biodiversity to measures of image texture and spectral mixture analysis fractions. Measures of habitat heterogeneity, particularly angular second moment and standard deviation, provide higher explanatory power for bird species richness and the abundance of most species than measures of habitat composition. Using image texture, alone or in combination with other classified imagery-based approaches, for monitoring statuses and trends in biological diversity can greatly improve conservation efforts and habitat management.
File: StLouis_etal_PhilTrns_2014_0.pdf
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Knowing if a forest disturbance is caused by timber harvest or a natural event is crucial for carbon cycle assessments, econometric analyses of timber harvesting, and other research questions. However, while remote sensing of forest disturbance in general is very well developed, discerning between different types of forest disturbances remains challenging. In this work, we developed an algorithm to separate windfall disturbance from clear-cut harvesting using Landsat data. The method first extracts training data primarily based on Tasseled Cap transformed bands and histogram thresholds with minimal user input. We then used a support-vector machine classifier to separate disturbed areas into 'windfall' and 'clear-cut harvests'.Wetested our algorithmin the temperate forest zone of European Russia and the southern boreal forest zone of the United States. The forest-cover change classifications were highly accurate (~90%) and windfall classification accuracies were greater than 75% in both study areas. Accuracieswere generally higher for larger disturbance patches. At the Russia study site about 60% of all disturbances were caused by windfall, versus 40% at the U.S. study site. Given the similar levels of accuracy in both locations and the ease of application, the algorithm has the potential to fill a research gap in mapping wind disturbance using Landsat data in both temperate and boreal forests that are subject to frequent wind events.
File: Baumann_etal_2014_RSE.pdf
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Old-growth forests around the world are vanishing rapidly and have been lost almost completely from the European temperate forest region. Poor management practices, often triggered by socioeconomic and institutional change, are the main causes of loss. Recent trends in old-growth forest cover in Romania, where some of the last remaining tracts of these forests within Europe are located, are revealed by satellite image analysis. Forest cover declined by 1.3 % from 2000 to 2010. Romania's protected area network has been expanded substantially since the country's accession to the European Union in 2007, and most of the remaining old-growth forests now are located within protected areas. Surprisingly though, 72% of the old-growth forest disturbances are found within protected areas, highlighting the threats still facing these forests. It appears that logging in old-growth forests is, at least in part, related to institutional reforms, insuf?cient protection and ownership changes since the collapse of communism in 1989. The majority of harvesting activities in old-growth forest areas are in accordance with the law. Without improvements to their governance, the future of Romania's old-growth forests and the important
File: Knorn_EnvCons_2013_0.pdf
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The breakdown of socialismcausedmassive socio-economic and institutional changes thatled to substantial agricultural land abandonment. The goal of our study was to identify the determinants of agricultural land abandonment in post-Soviet Russia during the ?rst decade of transition from a state-controlled economy to a market-driven economy (1990-2000). We analyzed the determinants of agricultural land abandonment for approximately 150,550 km2 of land area in the provinces (oblasts) of Kaluga, Rjazan, Smolensk, Tula and Vladimir in European Russia. Based on the economic assumptions of pro?t maximization, we integrated maps of abandoned agricultural land from ?ve ?185 kmx 185 km Landsat TM/ETM+ footprints with socio-economic, environmental and geographic variables, and we estimated logistic regressions at the pixel level to identify the determinants of agricultural land abandonment. Our results showed that a higher likelihood of agricultural land abandonment was signi?cantly associated with lower average grain yields in the late 1980s and with higher distances from the nearest settlements, municipality centers, and settlements withmore than 500 citizens. Hierarchical partitioning showed that the average grain yields in the late 1980s had the greatest power to explain agricultural land abandonment in our models, followed by the locational attributes of the agricultural land. We hypothesize that the termination of 90% of state subsidies for agriculture from 1990 to 2000 was an important underlying cause for the decrease of cultivation in economically and environmentally marginal agriculture areas. Thus, whereas the spatial patterns corresponded to the land rent theory of von Thuenen, it was primarily the macro-scale driving forces that fostered agricultural abandonment. Our study highlighted the value of spatially explicit statistical models for studying the determinants of land-use and land-cover change in large areas.
File: Prishchepov2.pdf
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