In densely populated northwestern Europe, native large mammals are confronted with a very fragmented landscape, and most of the areas they inhabit are island‐like reserves threatened with total isolation from other reserves. The only way to counteract the threat of further decline in the numbers of large‐mammal species is to restore their habitats. The appropriate size of future reserves could be estimated from the habitat requirements of wild ungulates that are considered key species for ecosystem functioning. The species selected to guide the design of large nature reserves in northwestern Europe is the red deer ( Cervus elaphus) because of its widespread distribution, key role in ecosystem functioning, and home‐range size. We describe a network analysis of the Netherlands, Belgium, and adjacent parts of France and Germany, performed with the LARCH landscape ecology model, that was conducted in order to identify the structure of the ecological network for red deer and the spatial connectivity of the landscape. The resulting maps show areas that could support viable populations and indicate habitat areas that will support persistent populations only if they are in a network of linked habitats. The gaps and barriers that prevent connectivity in such networks guide the design of effective corridors to increase spatial connectivity. The results of our analysis can be used for policy decisions on nature conservation and spatial planning, and the method is applicable to other regions and species.
In highly developed regions, ecosystems are often severely fragmented, whereas the conservation of biodiversity is highly rated. Regional and local actor groups are often involved in the regional planning, but when making decisions they make insufficient use of scientific knowledge of the ecological system that is being changed. The ecological basis of regional landscape change would be improved if knowledge-based systems tailored to the cyclic process of planning and negotiation and to the expertise of planners, designers and local interest groups were available. If regional development is to be sustainable, goals for biodiversity must be set in relation to the actual and demanded patterns of ecosystems. We infer a set of prerequisites for the effective use of biodiversity goal-setting methods in multi-stakeholder decision making. Among these prerequisites are the requirements that ecosystem patterns are set central and that methods integrate the demands of a suite of species, are spatially explicit, and allow the aspiration level to be modified during the planning process. The decision making must also be enriched with local ecological knowledge. The current methods for setting biodiversity targets lack crucial characteristicsin particular, flexibility-and often require too high a level of ecological expertise. The ecoprofile method we designed combines an ecosystem base with spatial conditions for species metapopulations. We report experiences with this approach in two case studies, showing that the method was understood by policy makers, planners, and stakeholders, and was useful in negotiation processes. We recommend experimenting with applying this approach in a variety of circumstances, to further improve its ecological basis.
Context Road infrastructure construction is integral to economic development, but negatively affects biodiversity. To mitigate the negative impacts of Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (
Question:To assess the acidification process, nationwide information about soil pH on a site level is called for. Measurements of soil pH may be used, however there are not sufficient measurements available to map soil pH nationwide on site level. Instead we developed a soil pH map based on vegetation data. Location: Natural terrestrial areas in The Netherlands. Methods: 271,693 vegetation plots were used to estimate average soil pH per plot with indicator values, based on field measurements, of plant species. By spatial interpolation average pH values between the plots, with the soil type, groundwater table and vegetation management type as ancillary explanatory variables we created a soil pH map. The map covers all terrestrial nature areas (all areas that are not built up areas, agricultural areas and infrastructural areas) in the Netherlands with a map resolution of 25 × 25 m 2 raster cells.
Results:The predicted pH of the map varied between 3.0 and 8.6 with standard errors between 0.13 and 0.93. Most of the standard errors range from 0.4 to 0.55, with an average just below 0.5 pH unit. Cross-validation shows that for 33% the difference between observed and predicted is between −0.1 and 0.1 pH-unit and for 83% the difference is between −0.5 and 0.5 pH-unit. Validation shows that the pH map is unbiased (mean error is almost zero), accurate (root mean squared error is 0.64) and nicely captures spatial patterns (r = 0.77). We applied the pH map to assess the impact of acidification on the abiotic quality of nature areas in the Netherlands.
Conclusions:The model fit in the predicted soil pH is in good resulting in a low standard error and a high correlation. The measures taken to prevent acidic deposition causing further acidifying of nature areas can be considered as successful. K E Y W O R D S acidity, kriging, pH, relevé, soil type, vegetation 190 | Applied Vegetation Science WAMELINK Et AL.
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