Landscape Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Beyond the patch: leveraging functional habitat delineation in fragmentation-biodiversity research.","authors":"Matthew Dennis, Jonathan Huck, Claire Holt, Ewan McHenry, Erik Andersson, Sonali Sharma, Dagmar Haase","doi":"10.1007/s10980-025-02290-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10980-025-02290-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Context: </strong>Theoretical and methodological developments in the field of fragmentation-biodiversity research continue to rely on the central concept of the habitat patch where patch size and number are considered particularly relevant to spatially structured ecological communities. However, although great interest has been shown in the effects of habitat fragmentation, appropriate methods for the spatial delineation of habitat have not received equal attention. In this paper, we argue that existing methods are not consistent with a functional definition of habitat as they fail to address key methodological challenges. These relate to the need to acknowledge a) the contribution of multiple resource types to habitat, b) the influence of neighbouring land cover types and c) the <i>continuity-contiguity problem</i> (the tendency of habitat to exhibit properties of gradation and aggregation).</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>In this second of two papers on this topic, we present an application of a new methodological framework outlined by Dennis et al. (this issue) that offers a route to a more functional definition and delineation of habitat through the use of spatial kernels and the generation of Type 1 and 2 fuzzy sets from landscape classification algorithms. We present a demonstration of the framework applied to a real-world landscape, in which we illustrate the impact of adopting alternative perspectives with respect to habitat delineation on the ecological process of habitat connectivity.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We demonstrate the functional delineation of habitat for a focal generic woodland species (FGWS) in a real-world landscape classified through the application of a fuzzy Random Forest classifier. We employ nesting, foraging and dispersal parameters relevant to the FGWS to achieve a functional estimate of habitat. We test the influence of habitat fragmentation (number of patches controlling for total habitat amount) on potential functional connectivity for the FGWS based on contiguous (emphasising aggregation and homogeneity), continuous (emphasizing gradation) and functional (integrating multiple resource types and neighbourhood effects) habitat perspectives.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our results indicate large discrepancies between the three perspectives on habitat delineation across key fragmentation-relevant metrics (total area, number of patches and potential functional connectivity). Importantly, a functional habitat perspective supports markedly different conclusions (compared to contiguous and continuous perspectives) with respect to the relationship between fragmentation (number of patches) and connectivity, and estimates of the contribution of individual habitat patches to landscape-scale connectivity.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The functional habitat perspective, operationalized by harnessing uncertainty in landscape classification and employing spatial kernels to parameterise neighbourho","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"41 2","pages":"37"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12852187/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146108432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Post-fire structural forest recovery associated with climate extremes in dry sub-boreal forests.","authors":"Sarah Smith-Tripp, Nicholas Coops, Christopher Mulverhill, Joanne White, Sarah Gergel","doi":"10.1007/s10980-025-02266-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10980-025-02266-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Context: </strong>Recent large and high-severity wildfires have burned vast areas of coniferous forests throughout Western North America. These burned landscapes are recovering amid increasingly frequent climate extremes, such as drought. We need to understand how post-fire climate extremes and other ecological drivers (such as fire impacts) influence patterns and trends of coniferous recovery.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>We worked at a landscape scale (> 400,000 hectares) to investigate the association between distinct post-fire forest recovery and ecological drivers in dry sub-boreal forests. We created structural recovery groups distinct in patterns and trends of coniferous cover and density and then modeled their association with ecological drivers.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We used Landsat time-series data to identify unique spectral recovery, which we grouped based on post-fire regrowth and stocking estimates. Remotely Piloted Aircraft light detection and ranging (lidar) provided structural estimates 5-21 years post-fire. We modeled the association between structural recovery groups and ecological drivers with random forests. For each category of drivers (site conditions, climate, climate anomalies, pre-fire composition, and fire impacts), we used individual models to identify important drivers. We then incorporated the most important drivers in a global model to highlight the drivers that were important across categories.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Initial spectral trends indicated longer-term differences in structural forest recovery. Climate anomalies (such as post-fire extremes in temperature and precipitation) and pre-fire basal area best predicted observed structural groupings-abnormally cold and dry summers after the fire were associated with slow conifer establishment. Comparatively, areas with a higher pre-fire basal area maintained a mixed canopy of deciduous and coniferous stems.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>At a landscape scale, post-fire climate conditions best predicted structural forest recovery, suggesting management plans should be adaptable to the conditions experienced post fire.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02266-y.</p>","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"41 1","pages":"14"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12779702/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145953835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Local-scale increase masks landscape-scale loss of species richness in managed Pannonian grasslands.","authors":"Elias Kapitany, Thomas Wrbka, Stefan Dullinger","doi":"10.1007/s10980-025-02256-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10980-025-02256-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Context: </strong>While biodiversity decline is undebated on the global level, landscape-scale trends are poorly known and local assemblages even show stable species richness, accompanied by pronounced turn-over. The landscape-scale consequences of local-scale species turnover likely depend on whether species replacement is random or biased towards more frequent species in the metacommunity, but this potential bias is insufficiently studied.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Here, we use grassland ecosystems of a Central European national park to simultaneously analyse time-series of local-scale species richness and landscape-scale species incidence to better understand how trends are linked at these two scales.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>From 2013 to 2024 we sampled 120 plots per year and used regression methods to quantify changes in the number of species per assemblage, the incidence of species across assemblages and the relationship between initial incidence of species and incidence trends. To explore possible drivers of change, we further evaluated trends of community means of environmental indicator values.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found that local species richness has increased within the study period from 18 species per plot in 2013 to 21 species in 2024, while the overall number of species sampled per year stayed the same. In contrast, when looking at individual species trends we found an average decline of species' incidence in the region. While a small pool of already common species became more frequent, the majority of species became rarer, leading to a pronounced homogenization of plant communities on the sampled sites. Indicator-value analysis showed that the species turnover was mainly influenced by desiccation of grasslands, significantly biassing incidence changes towards species that prefer drier conditions.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We conclude that in typical Central-European grassland ecosystems, anthropogenic drivers rather decrease landscape-scale than local-scale biodiversity, because they tend to homogenize environmental conditions. The resulting species turn-over can stabilize local species richness but depletes the metacommunity, thereby posing future risks to the regional biodiversity.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02256-0.</p>","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"41 1","pages":"10"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12738669/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145851612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Causal machine learning methods for understanding land use and land cover change.","authors":"F Eigenbrod, Peter Alexander, Nicolas Apfel, Ioannis N Athanasiadis, Thomas Berger, James M Bullock, Gregory Duveiller, Julian Equihua, Isaura Menezes, Rodrigo Moreira, Dilli Paudel, Vasileios Sitokonstantinou, Markus Reichstein, Simon Willcock, Tamsin Woodman","doi":"10.1007/s10980-025-02279-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10980-025-02279-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Context: </strong>Understanding the roles of different drivers in land use and land cover change (LULCC) is a critical research challenge. However, as LULCC is the result of complex, socio-ecological processes and is highly context dependent, achieving such understanding is difficult. This is particularly true for causal modelling approaches that are critical for effective policy formulation. Causal machine learning (ML) methods could help address this challenge, but are as yet poorly understood or applied by the LULCC community.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To provide an accessible introduction to the state of the art for causal ML methods, their limitations, and their potential applications understanding LULCC.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted two workshops where we identified the most promising ML methods for increasing understanding of LULCC dynamics.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We provide a brief overview of the challenges to causal modelling of LULCC, including a simple example, and the most relevant causal ML approaches for addressing these challenges, as well as their limitations.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Causal ML methods hold considerable promise for improving causal modelling of LULCC. However, the complexity of LULCC dynamics mean that such methods must be combined with domain understanding and qualitative insights for effective policy design.</p>","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"41 2","pages":"25"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12816019/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146020823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"In search of Schrödinger's patch: a functional approach to habitat delineation.","authors":"Matthew Dennis, Jonathan Huck, Claire Holt, Ewan McHenry, Erik Andersson, Sonali Sharma, Dagmar Haase","doi":"10.1007/s10980-025-02291-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10980-025-02291-x","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Context: &lt;/strong&gt;The effective delineation of habitat is crucial for understanding drivers of habitat loss and fragmentation, and their effects on biodiversity outcomes at local to global scales. The concept of the habitat patch is central to this process but presents both theoretical and methodological challenges related to the seemingly irreconcilable tendency of habitat to simultaneously exhibit characteristics of both gradation and aggregation. This apparent contradiction, recently described as the &lt;i&gt;continuity-contiguity problem&lt;/i&gt; in landscape ecology, presents a problem of classification in which the associated ambivalence is analogous to that surrounding the fate of Schrödinger's Cat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objectives: &lt;/strong&gt;This is the first of a pair of papers that aim to address the theoretical and methodological challenges associated with the habitat patch concept. This first paper aims to (a) articulate the theoretical and practical limitations of working with the habitat patch concept and (b) set out a framework based on a functional definition of habitat that captures the tendency of resources to exhibit both discrete and continuous spatial characteristics. The second paper (Dennis et al. this issue) presents a demonstration of this framework applied to a real-world landscape, in which the impact of adopting alternative perspectives on habitat delineation on potential functional connectivity is revealed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Methods: &lt;/strong&gt;We present a new methodological approach that integrates alternative gradient and patch-based models of habitat in landscape ecology. We achieve this integration by leveraging the notion of geographical vagueness and the application of fuzzy set theory to land cover classification. We apply this approach to simulated landscapes that contain information on membership values to different land cover classes and their associated uncertainty. We then demonstrate the functional delineation of habitat from these landscapes based on the use of species-specific parameters, the leveraging of spatial kernels, and &lt;i&gt;type-1&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;type-2&lt;/i&gt; fuzzy sets. The possibility of incorporating this approach into subsequent workflows is then described using estimates of between-patch distances and potential functional connectivity as examples.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;Our method provides a functional spatial delineation of habitat that reflects both resource-based and patch-based habitat perspectives and can be applied to any gradient or patch-based landscape modelling method. This approach achieves the integration of multiple resource types, habitat complementarity associated with neighbouring cover types, and negative edge effects. We refer to this measure of habitat as &lt;i&gt;Functional Habitat&lt;/i&gt; so-called as it reflects the total availability of habitat accounting for the influence of all land cover types and positive and negative neighbourhood effects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion: &lt;/strong&gt;This paper d","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"41 2","pages":"36"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12852142/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146108478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Scale-dependent foraging behaviour and habitat associations of two sympatric marine top predators.","authors":"Matt I D Carter, Geert Aarts, Sophie M J M Brasseur, Gordon D Hastie, Simon E W Moss, Jacob Nabe-Nielsen, Jonas Teilmann, Dave Thompson, Paul M Thompson, Cécile Vincent, Debbie J F Russell","doi":"10.1007/s10980-025-02281-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10980-025-02281-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Context: </strong>Theoretical research has considered how animals should optimise foraging strategies to maximise fitness, adapting search scale to exploit different habitats and minimise competition. Empirical studies have described multi-scale area-restricted search (ARS) strategies for some species, but the physical and biological mechanisms underpinning such behaviour are rarely studied.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Our objectives were to quantify the presence, prevalence, and habitat associations of scale-dependent foraging for two sympatric seal species, accounting for regional variation across the seascape.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We analyse a GPS telemetry dataset of 116 grey (<i>Halichoerus grypus</i>) and 325 harbour seals (<i>Phoca vitulina</i>) tracked throughout the North Sea. We test the existence of multi-scale ARS, comparing hidden Markov models (HMMs) with two ARS states against more conventional HMMs (one ARS state). We quantify regional variation and examine the scale-dependence of foraging habitat associations using <i>post-hoc</i> \"use-encounter\" models.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Both species exhibited nested broad-scale and focussed ARS. Accounting for scale resulted in increases of up to 25% and 46% in inferred ARS for grey and harbour seals respectively. The prevalence and habitat associations of different ARS scales varied in a regional species-specific manner.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We demonstrate the first application of HMMs to capture multi-scale ARS from animal-borne tracking data. Overlooking scale-dependence may mask individual variation and underestimate ARS, with consequences for ecological understanding and conservation applications. We hypothesise that seals employ different search scales for different habitats, competition levels and/or prey types. We call for further research to elucidate the prevalence and ecological significance of this phenomenon in other aquatic predators.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02281-z.</p>","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"41 2","pages":"21"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12811352/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145999695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adapting a systematic conservation planning tool for supporting accessible and diverse urban greenspace recreation.","authors":"Jieying Huang, Sarah E Gergel, Melissa R McHale","doi":"10.1007/s10980-026-02311-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-026-02311-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Context: </strong>Urban greenspaces are increasingly recognized for their multifunctionality-the capacity to provide diverse ecological and social benefits. Yet, planning strategies often focus on greenspace availability and accessibility, overlooking the functional and structural diversity within and among urban greenspaces. Traditional hotspot-based approaches typically prioritize areas with high richness, while overlooking rare and unique features that, despite their low abundance, may be critical to overall multifunctionality.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>With a focus on park amenities, this study explored the unique capabilities of Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) for evaluating the diversity and complementarity of recreational opportunities in a region-wide urban park system. We further integrated mobility considerations to offer a more nuanced approach to greenspace monitoring. We asked: How do different measures of accessibility and mobility shape selection of park portfolios?</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>As a proof-of-concept, we adapted a SCP approach, often used in biodiversity conservation, to identify greenspace portfolios in the City of Surrey, BC, Canada, a region with detailed mapping of diverse park amenities. Two contrasting scales of accessibility (neighborhood blocks vs. pixel-based) were used as constraints, and then evaluated under varying mobility (i.e. travel distance) assumptions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found finer scale (i.e. pixel-based) accessibility measures captured portfolios with a greater proportion of urban park amenities (80-100%) compared to block-level measures (1-67%), and also selected more spatially aggregated portfolios across the city. Irreplaceability patterns-indicating the parks most critical for diverse recreational amenities-varied depending on how accessibility was quantified. Lastly, more neighbourhoods were included in park portfolios as mobility (travel) distance increased, but this growth was non-linear.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our work demonstrates SCP's potential as a valuable tool for planning and evaluating urban greenspace recreational opportunities. It offers a proof-of-concept for applying spatial prioritization in urban contexts, and can be feasibly expanded to include many additional aspects of park multi-functionality. Use of finer-scale measures of accessibility (as a cost constraint), and different mobility (i.e. travel distance) assumptions, further enhanced the selection of park portfolios that can provide diverse recreational opportunities.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-026-02311-4.</p>","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"41 3","pages":"53"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12979426/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147470235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Connectivity indices can predict population persistence in river networks: insights from a metapopulation model.","authors":"Ali Gharouni, Richard Pither, Bronwyn Rayfield, David Cote, Frithjof Lutscher","doi":"10.1007/s10980-025-02278-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10980-025-02278-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Context: </strong>Connectivity across river networks facilitates species movement and ecological processes that contribute to freshwater biodiversity. Certain indices provide measures of connectivity to focus conservation planning.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Our objective was to test whether commonly used connectivity indicators based on network structure can reliably predict population persistence.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We used a spatially explicit metapopulation model for freshwater fish that complete their life cycle entirely within river networks and depend on connectivity for movement. Simulations were conducted across a range of network sizes, topologies, dispersal abilities, and barrier passabilities. We assessed the relationship between the Dendritic Connectivity Index (DCI) and metrics of persistence at the network and the reach scale.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>DCI was strongly correlated with persistence at both the network and reach scale across most simulated network sizes and configurations, particularly in dendritic (branching) systems with symmetric barrier passability. At the network scale, correlations were strongest with density-independent persistence metrics, which is expected since DCI does not incorporate population interactions. Species dispersal ability influenced DCI-persistence correlations differently across scales: correlations were strongest at the network scale when dispersal distances spanned the full network (global dispersal) and at the reach scale when movement was limited to neighbouring segments (local dispersal). We also found that increases in DCI following simulated barrier removal were associated with improvements in persistence, further demonstrating its potential to support restoration efforts.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Indicators like DCI can inform connectivity-focused conservation planning in river networks.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02278-8.</p>","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"41 2","pages":"27"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12827428/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146055046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Context matters: how river typology shapes biotic responses to fine sediment pressure.","authors":"Kate L Mathers, Morwenna McKenzie, Adrian L Collins, Jessica M Durkota, J Iwan Jones, John F Murphy","doi":"10.1007/s10980-026-02297-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10980-026-02297-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Context: </strong>Excess fine sediment is a global stressor affecting freshwater biodiversity. However, little consideration has been given to how large-scale landscape controls and temporal variability may influence the effect of fine sediment deposition and storage on biological communities.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>We assess if ecological responses to deposited fine sediment are spatially and temporally consistent through the application of the river typology approach.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We used 2,940 records from 391 wadable streams across England and Wales to identify taxonomic and functional community composition change points, in addition to individual family responses along the fine sediment gradient. We also examined the association of taxonomic and functional community diversity metrics and biomonitoring metrics with deposited fine sediment coverage.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Mid-altitude rivers displayed a lower community threshold (~ < 10% fine sediment cover) of deposited fine sediment before the majority of community change occurred, whilst lowland rivers were more tolerant (20-25%). Critically, we found that both mid-altitude river types demonstrated no association with two fine sediment stressor-specific metrics and that some community metrics displayed a positive association with increasing fine sediment cover.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Community and family level responses to deposited fine sediment are non-linear, which can be characterized effectively by river typologies and most notably altitude groupings. Low levels of deposited fine sediment may not act as a stressor in mid-altitude catchments as these may be resource limited. Our research underlines the need to consider context-specific effects of fine-grained sedimentation rather than seeking to generalise stressor effects.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-026-02297-z.</p>","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"41 2","pages":"41"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12890971/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146182575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Human occupation of the Afroalpine Bale Mountains at the onset of the African Humid Period.","authors":"Götz Ossendorf, Minassie Girma Tekelemariam, Noora Taipale, Alexander R Groos, Agazi Negash, Dries Cnuts, Naki Akçar, Christof Vockenhuber, Zinash Kefyalew Tariku, Trhas Hadush Kahsay, Veerle Rots, Ralf Vogelsang","doi":"10.1007/s10980-026-02337-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10980-026-02337-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Context: </strong>The reasons for the intermittent human use of harsh Afroalpine environments in prehistory remain unclear. High-resolution glacial and archaeological chronologies from Ethiopia's Bale Mountains now offer insights into landscape change and human adaptations at high altitudes.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study investigates the behavioral signatures of human occupation in Africa's largest alpine environment around 15,000 years ago, focusing on local site use and integration into regional networks amid deglaciation and the abrupt onset of African Humid Period wet conditions.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This research integrates surface exposure dating of moraine boulders and radiocarbon dating of archaeological rock shelter deposits with detailed analyses of lithic materials from three stratified sites in the Bale Mountains. We use multivariate statistical analyses of electron microprobe data to determine the geochemical provenance of obsidian artifacts. Lithic technological analysis is based on systematic recording of artifact attributes to reconstruct key stages of production. Functional analyses include use-wear and residue studies conducted using stereomicroscopy, reflected light microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>This study provides a detailed reconstruction of the final deglaciation phase in the Bale Mountains and identifies distinct patterns of lithic acquisition, production, and use across three contemporaneous sites. Dimtu, located on the formerly glaciated plateau and representing the highest known stratified archaeological site in Africa, is distinguished by a focus on the production of rare but specific pointed flakes. Simbero exhibits standardized backed tool production and evidence of hafting, while the Webi Gestro assemblage includes bladelets and notched tools; wear on unretouched bladelets indicates their use in transverse and longitudinal motions for processing activities and possibly as projectile elements. Geochemical results reveal obsidian exchange between high altitudes and lowlands, suggesting extensive social networks reinforced by technological and behavioral parallels.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Human strategies at high altitudes closely mirror contemporaneous lowland behavior, revealing synchronous patterns across ecological zones. Similar patterns during other periods point to broader systemic dynamics. Conventional refugium-based explanations fail to fully capture these patterns, highlighting the need to examine diachronic shifts in the scale, connectivity, and intensity of prehistoric networks across ecozones.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-026-02337-8.</p>","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"41 4","pages":"75"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13083501/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147724947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}