Borders without barriers – Structural functionality and green infrastructure in the Austrian–Hungarian transboundary region of Lake Neusiedl

Can we combine structural functionality and landscape services assessments in order to estimate the impact of landscape structure on landscape services?

“…Stepping stones are important parts in the landscape, Brought to you by | MIT Libraries Authenticated Download Date | 5/11/18 6:15 PM because they support species dispersal by decreasing inter-patch distances and providing habitat shelter (Kuttner et al, 2013).…”

“…1: Relationships between functionality groups and landscape metrics in terms of structural functionality (Kuttner et al, 2013 regulation, habitat, provision, information, and carrier. Regulation services relate to the capacity of natural and semi-natural ecosystems to regulate essential ecological processes and life-supporting systems through biogeochemical cycles, and maintain a healthy ecosystem at different scale levels (de Groot, 2006).…”

“…Relevant metrics for structural functionality assessment were selected in several steps (for more detail, see Kuttner et al, 2013): first, highly correlated metrics (correlation coefficients of ± 0.8) were selected using the Kendall-Tau method. These were then transformed in order to approximate a Gaussian distribution, and were pooled into six functionality groups reflecting different ecological processes: connecting corridors, dissecting corridors, valuable matrix, disturbed matrix, artificial matrix, and stepping stones (Kuttner et al, 2013;Skokanová and Eremiášová, 2013). Connecting corridors are represented by linear landscape elements that provide connectivity for organisms between other landscape elements (e.g.…”

“…Tischendorf, 2001;Tscharntke et al, 2002;Dauber et al, 2003) and its key role in the assessment of landscape quality, especially biodiversity and visual quality, has been pointed out in many studies (Kuiper, 1998;Hokit et al, 1999;Weinstoerffer and Girardin, 2000;Bock et al, 2005;Dramstad et al, 2006). In recent decades, landscape structure has very often been a topic of scientific research, which yielded a large amount of papers (Kuttner et al, 2013). Many indices were proposed for the analysis of landscape structure to capture landscape patterns in relation to their function (Forman and Godron, 1986).…”

“…Many indices were proposed for the analysis of landscape structure to capture landscape patterns in relation to their function (Forman and Godron, 1986). The spatial configuration of landscape elements expressed by landscape metrics indirectly reflects structural functionality, which can be interpreted as a degree of connectivity of landscape elements, and is also referred to as landscape functionality (Kuttner et al, 2013;Skokanová, Eremiášová, 2013).…”