Forest habitat loss and fragmentation in Central Poland during the last 100 years

Abstract

The process of habitat fragmentation consists of two components – habitat loss and fragmentation per se. Both are thought to be among the most important threats to biodiversity. However, the biological consequences of this process such as species occurrence, abundance, or genetic structure of population are driven by current, as well as previous, landscape configurations. Therefore, historical analyses of habitat distribution are of great importance in explaining the current species distribution. In our analysis, we describe the forest fragmentation process for an area of 178 km in the northern part of Mazowsze region of central Poland. Topographical maps from the years 1890, 1957 and 1989 were used. Over the 100-year period, forest coverage in this area changed from 17% to 5.6%, the number of patches increased from 19 to 42, while the area of the forest interior decreased from 1933 ha to 371 ha. The two components of fragmentation were clearly separated in time. Habitat loss occurred mainly during the first period (1890–1957) and fragmentation per se in the second (1957–1989). Moreover, we recorded that only 47.7% of all the currently (in 1989) afforested areas constitute sites where forests previously occurred (in 1890 and 1957). For forest dwelling organisms characterized by low dispersal abilities, the effective forest coverage seems to be a half of the real forest area in the studied landscape. New afforestations should be planned especially to increase those patches which contain ancient forest, where various plants and animals sensitive to fragmentation may have survived.2

Long-term forest cover changes, within an agricultural region, in relation to environmental variables, Lubelskie province, Eastern Poland

“…This process commonly occurs around the world and is associated with human activity. Similar patterns were found in Canada (Fuller 2001), Turkey (Ç akır et al 2008) and in central Poland (Mazgajski et al 2010). Our studies proved that slopes also impact the spatial structure of forest cover.…”

“…The important role of forests in the landscape is reflected in the large number of recently published studies concerning various aspects of the problem: (1) the prehistoric deforestation of Europe (Kaplan et al 2009); (2) changes in forest cover in Central European countries (Orczewska 2009;Wulf et al 2010); (3) contemporary changes in forest cover (Southworth et al 2002;Kozak et al 2007a, b;Feranec et al 2010;Mazgajski et al 2010). Socio-economic factors are commonly identified as the main driving forces behind changes in land use and land cover (Iverson 1988;Liu et al 2011;Kumar et al 2013).…”

Distribution modelling of the garden dormouse Eliomys quercinus (Linnaeus, 1766) with novel climate change indicators

“…The earth is undergoing its 6th mass extinction, with countless species of flora and fauna lost and many at risk of extinction in the near future (Ceballos et al 2017). Many anthropogenic drivers have been identified behind these losses such as climate change (Morrison et al 2018), habitat loss and fragmentation (Staude et al 2018;Mazgajski et al 2010), direct human-wildlife conflict (Buchner et al 2018), the introduction of invasive alien species (Václavík and Meentemeyer 2012;MacDonald and Harrington 2003), agricultural intensification (Bertolino 2017) and pollution such as pesticide use (Schreinemachers and Tipraqsa 2012). These anthropogenic pressures (particularly habitat fragmentation) have also effected small mammals in many cases (Bertolini 2017;Palmeirim et al 2018) and invasive species (Zozzoli et al 2018), although climate change is an emerging concern (Williams et al 2015).…”

Complex species distribution models of Goldcrests and Firecrests densities in Poland: are remote sensing‐based predictors sufficient?

“…The alteration of forest landscapes, driven by agriculture and the needs of economy, has been identified as a primary factor affecting populations of forest-dwelling species at regional and local scales (Saunders et al 1991;Fahrig 2002;Ewers and Didham 2006;Mazgajski et al 2010;Bennett et al 2014). Certain key forest birds species e.g.…”

“…Certain key forest birds species e.g. Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs and/or Tree pipit Anthus trivialis, (Kuczyn´ski and Chylarecki 2012) have already suffered a long-term population decline as a result of habitat loss, fragmentation and increased isolation of woodland patches (Fahrig 2003;Mazgajski et al 2010;Kajtoch et al 2012;_ Zmihorski 2012). Further declines of other bird species are very probable, because increasing timber production is connected with the intensification of forest management (Sallabanks et al 2000;Perry and Thill 2013).…”