Using landscape structure to develop quantitative baselines for protected area monitoring

Monitoring habitat change in protected areas is important for nature conservation. Changes in habitat extent as well as landscape and habitat configuration are often caused by human pressure within protected areas and at their boundaries, further impacting biodiversity and species distributions. Thus the availability of quantitative spatial information on landscape mosaic arrangements is critical for biodiversity-related monitoring. While measuring habitat extent is a relatively straightforward task, approaches for measuring habitat fragmentation are debated, and the selection of a relevant set of indices is contingent to both the landscape and the question being asked. This research aims to develop approaches to select a set of site-specific and scale-specific methods to assess human impact on landscape and habitat spatial patterns. Landscape pattern analysis, morphological pattern analysis, landscape mosaic analysis and discontinuities detection were employed to evaluate a Natura 2000 site in Southern Italy, Murgia Alta, partly designated and managed as a National Park. Quantitative landscape pattern analysis indicates that integrated information from multiple indices can provide a more complete understanding of landscape spatial pattern, especially as related to locations experiencing disturbance and pressure. A landscape- and observation-scale specific set of indices identified for this landscape generated insights on the relation between landscape heterogeneity and fragmentation. This facilitated the ranking of sample landscapes according to a fragmentation gradient in relation to matrix quality. Morphological spatial pattern analysis provided pixel based structural characterisation of the landscape. Conducted across a range of edge widths, this analysis enabled identification of baseline site-scale edge value. Landscape mosaic analysis characterised the structure of the landscape by means of landscape diversity profiling. All three approaches provided information on baseline spatial pattern and fragmentation which can be very useful for future change detection and monitoring. Discontinuities detection indicated “critical points” of transitions in management where threats to biodiversity and ecosystems integrity may be likely. Thus, the findings of the site- and scale-specific landscape quantitative revealed significant potential to capture information on major landscape structural features, i.e. provide a baseline picture that identifies problematic areas of increased fragmentation, indicating the need for priority in monitoring. Therefore, the proposed approach may assist in providing early warning signals for immediate response to pressures increasing habitat fragmentation. These would enable local authorities to develop a baseline for change detection that can then be used to collect consistent data for monitoring, change assessment, and ultimately more effective management.