Evaluation of forest fragmentation with particular reference to landscape-based ecological assessment and wildlife conservation

Abstract

Landscapes are composed of diverse units that associate with each other, and these units have different functions both in ecology and physiognomy. Thus, evaluating landscape character plays an important role for conserving bio-diversity, as well as spatial planning and management of habitats and landscapes. Determining and analyzing environmental factors is an important part of assessing the conservation value of landscape types. For its ecological value, stone pine, botanical name Pinus pinea L. was chosen to be evaluated according to the environmental parameters in this research, because of its scattered distribution around the Mediterranean basin. Although P. pinea L. does not have a widespread distribution, it is naturally found in five regions of Turkey. This research was conducted in three provinces (Muğla, Denizli, and Aydın), located in western Anatolia. Maps representing different classes of soil, geology, aspect, and slope were overlaid in ArcMap 10.5, and characterized by Landscape Character Assessment (LCA). A total of 309 character types were determined, according to tree species composition, represented by 4 variants of the P. pinea L. community. To assess fragmentation among 34 different stands, landscape metrics were calculated using Fragstats v4.2 software. Potential range for regenerating stone pine stands was suggested in this paper, which can be considered as habitat corridors providing connectivity between mature stands. Spatial variation in bird species composition, reflecting wildlife richness, was evaluated as evidence for forest fragmentation.

Keywords

• peyzaj ekolojisi
• peyzaj karakter analizi
• peyzaj metrikleri
• çevresel faktörler
• yaban hayatı zenginliği
• landscape ecology
• landscape character assessment
• landscape metrics
• environmental factors
• wildlife richness