A landscape ecology assessment of land-use change on the Great Plains-Denver (CO, USA)
Autors:
- Joan Marull (Institut d’Estudis Regionals i Metropolitans de Barcelona)
- Geoff Cunfer (University of Saskatchewan)
- Kenneth Sylvester (University of Michigan)
- Enric Tello (Universitat de Barcelona)
Any: 2018
The purpose of the article is to assess the potential contribution to bird biodiversity maintenance of Great Plain’s cropland-grassland mosaics kept as farmland green belts in the edge of metropolitan areas. The article presents a quantitative landscape ecology assessment of land-cover changes (1930–2010) experienced in five Great Plains counties in Colorado. Several landscape metrics assess the diversity of land-cover patterns and their impact on ecological connectivity indices. These metrics are applied to historical land-cover maps and datasets drawn from aerial photos and satellite imagery. The results show that the cropland-grassland mosaics that link the metropolitan edge with the surrounding habitats sheltered in less human-disturbed areas provide a heterogeneous land matrix were a high bird species richness exists.
Marull, J., Cunfer, G., Sylvester, K., & Tello, E. (2018). A landscape ecology assessment of land-use change on the Great Plains-Denver (CO, USA) metropolitan edge. Regional Environmental Change, On line: 6 March 2018, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1284-z
