Explore the vast range of titles available.

Understanding the impacts of land use/land cover (LULC) changes on ecological processes is essential for addressing biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation, and climate change. This study analyzes the effects of LULC changes on habitat quality and landscape connectivity in İzmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs Habitat Quality (InVEST HQ) model, Conefor 2.6 connectivity analysis, and Circuitscape 4.0 resistance-based modeling. This study relies on Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) Land Cover data from 1990 to 2018. Findings indicate that artificial surfaces increased by 82.5% (from 19,418 ha in 1990 to 35,443 ha in 2018), primarily replacing agricultural land (11,721 ha converted). Despite this expansion, high quality habitat areas remained relatively stable, though habitat fragmentation intensified, with the number of patches rising from 469 in 1990 to 606 in 2018, and the average patch size decreasing from 394.31 ha to 297.39 ha. Connectivity analysis highlighted Mount Nif and the Urla–Çeşme–Karaburun Peninsula as critical ecological corridors. However, resistance to movement increased, reducing the likelihood of connectivity-supporting corridors. These findings emphasize the importance of integrating spatial modeling approaches into urban planning and conservation strategies to mitigate future habitat loss and fragmentation.

The study compares the quality of the habitats of mountain streams in sections without visible human integration and those permanently transformed by human activity between mountain areas in different climate zones. Three mountain streams with small catchments (10–20 km2) characterized by different natural conditions were selected for the research. The selected streams are Bystrzanka (Beskid Niski, Polish Carpathians), Peshok (Darjeeling Himalaya in India), and Fanshen (Hengduan Shan in China). Field studies were carried out using the British River Habitat Survey (RHS) method. Habitat quality was analyzed based on the following indicators: Habitat Quality Assessment (HQA) and Habitat Modification Score (HMS). The obtained results indicated that sections of mountain streams located in upper catchment areas show greater habitat naturalness in relation to stream sections in lower areas. This results from the greater variety and number of natural hydromorphological elements in streams and the close vicinity of channels. In both upper and lower stream sections, regardless of the degree of naturalness and anthropopressure, the same RHS attributes have the greatest impact on the HQA and HMS values. Similar regularities in the degree of naturalness and anthropogenic modifications of the habitat between the upper and lower reaches of streams can be also expected in other mountain areas, apart from areas not affected by human activities.

The degradation and loss of global urban habitat and biodiversity have been extensively studied as a global issue. Urban heat islands caused by abnormal land surface temperature (LST) have been shown to be the main reason for this problem. With the accelerated urbanization process and the increasing possibility of abnormal temperatures in Zhengzhou, China, more and more creatures cannot adapt and survive in urban habitats, including humans; therefore, Zhengzhou was selected as the study area. The purpose of this study is to explore the response of urban habitat quality to LST, which provides a basis for the scientific protection of urban habitat and biodiversity in Zhengzhou from the perspective of alleviating heat island effect. We used the InVEST-Habitat Quality model to calculate the urban habitat quality, combined with GIS spatial statistics and bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis, to explore the response of habitat quality to LST. The results show the following: (1) From 2000 to 2015, the mean value of urban habitat quality gradually decreased from 0.361 to 0.304, showing a downward trend as a whole. (2) There was an obvious gradient effect between habitat quality and LST. Habitat quality’s high values were distributed in the central and northern built-up area and low values were distributed in the high-altitude western forest habitat and northern water habitat. However, the distribution of LST gradient values were opposite to the habitat quality to a great extent. (3) There were four agglomeration types between LST and habitat quality at specific spatial locations: the high-high type was scattered mainly in the western part of the study area and in the northern region; the high-low type was mainly distributed in the densely populated and actively constructed central areas; the low-low type was mainly distributed in the urban-rural intersections and small and medium-sized rural settlements; and the low-high type was mainly distributed in the western mountainous hills and the northern waters.

Partial migration – a part of a population migrates and another part stays resident year‐round on the breeding site – is probably the most common type of migration in the animal kingdom, yet it has only lately garnered more attention. Theoretical studies indicate that in partially migratory populations, the proportion of resident individuals (PoR) should increase in high latitudes in response to the warming climate, but empirical evidence exists for few species. We provide the first comprehensive overview of the environmental factors affecting PoR and the long‐term trends in PoR by studying 27 common partially migratory bird species in Finland. The annual PoR values were calculated by dividing the winter bird abundance by the preceding breeding abundance. First, we analysed whether early‐winter temperature, winter temperature year before or the abundance of tree seeds just before overwintering explains the interannual variation in PoR. Secondly, we analysed the trends in PoR between 1987 and 2011. Early‐winter temperature explained the interannual variation in PoR in the waterbirds (waterfowl and gulls), most likely because the temperature affects the ice conditions and thereby the feeding opportunities for the waterbirds. In terrestrial species, the abundance of seeds was the best explanatory variable. Previous winter's temperature did not explain PoR in any species, and thus, we conclude that the variation in food availability caused the interannual variation in PoR. During the study period, PoR increased in waterbirds, but did not change in terrestrial birds. Partially migratory species living in physically contrasting habitats can differ in their annual and long‐term population‐level behavioural responses to warming climate, possibly because warm winter temperatures reduce ice cover and improve the feeding possibilities of waterbirds but do not directly regulate the food availability for terrestrial birds.

Global change is not restricted to climate change, and plant species generally face multiple human-driven disturbances constraining their viability. Most importantly, interactions among these drivers frequently generate nonadditive effects that cannot be predicted based on single-factor studies. Our goal was to assess the joint effects of three global change drivers that are especially relevant in Mediterranean ecosystems, namely, fragmentation, reduced habitat quality, and climate change on Centaurea hyssopifolia, a gypsum specialist plant. We carried out a two-year study (2005-2006) in natural populations of this plant in large (>11 ha) and small (<1.5 ha) fragments. Within each fragment, we identified areas of contrasting habitat quality as revealed by plant cover and nutrient content, and within each combination of habitat quality and fragment size we performed a rainfall manipulation experiment simulating the most likely future climate scenario for the region. Survival, growth, phenology, and reproductive success of selected plants were monitored. The three drivers profoundly affected responses of Centaurea hyssopifolia in both study years, phenology being mainly affected by changes in habitat quality and reductions in rainfall and reproductive traits being mainly affected by fragmentation. Plants in sites of poor habitat quality and plants in the dry treatment advanced most of their phenophases (flowering and dispersing earlier) and showed reduced growth rate and increased fraction of senescent leaves. Plants growing in small fragments had lower survival, lower number of viable seeds, and a reduced seed set compared to those from large fragments. We found significant synergistic interactions among drivers. For example, the interaction between fragmentation and habitat quality led to lower survival and lower relative growth in plants from small and poor-quality habitat sites. Our results highlight the importance of studies addressing simultaneously all relevant drivers of global change potentially affecting plant performance under natural conditions. In addition, the complex responses of phenology and reproductive traits of C. hyssopifolia emphasize the need for studies integrating traits from vegetative to reproductive and from the organ to the whole-plant level.

In the water-deficient area, river-changed ponds are common and vital for aquatic species. This paper studies the relationship between the environmental factors and the benthic invertebrate communities in varying ponds under river habitat modifications (RHM). For analysis, numerous samples are collected from river-changed ponds in Beijing, China. These ponds are classified into five types, including totally reinforced ponds, channel reinforced ponds, bank reinforced ponds, natural ponds, and restored ponds. Results indicate: 1) the biodiversity of benthic invertebrates is dependent strongly on the pond type; 2) habitat quality explains a considerable amount of variations in benthic invertebrate communities, and RHM show strong power in explaining variations in habitat quality; 3) RHM on the pond bank has stronger impact on the habitat quality than that on the pond bottom. These findings suggest that RHM can affect the benthic invertebrate community through changing habitat quality. And we suggest that ecological restoration of pond bank should be a useful way to improve invertebrate biodiversity for rive-changed ponds in Beijing.

The intensity of human activity, habitat loss and habitat degradation have significant impacts on biodiversity. Habitat quality plays an important role in spatial dynamics when evaluating fragmented landscapes and the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation. This study aimed to evaluate the status and characteristic variation in habitat quality to analyze the underlying factors affecting habitat quality in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). Here, we applied Kendall’s rank correlation method to calculate the sensitivity of habitat types to threat factors for the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs habitat quality (InVEST-HQ) model. The spatiotemporal variation in habitat quality of the GBA in the period 1995–2015 was estimated based on the InVEST-HQ model. We analyzed the characteristic habitat quality using different ecosystem classifications and at different elevation gradients. Fractional vegetation cover, the proportion of impervious surface, population distribution and gross domestic product were included as the effect factors for habitat quality. The correlation between the effect factors and habitat quality was analyzed using Pearson’s correlation tests. The results showed that the spatial pattern of habitat quality decreased from fringe areas to central areas in the GBA, that the forest ecosystem had the highest value of habitat quality, and that habitat quality increased with elevation. In the period from 1995 to 2015, habitat quality declined markedly and this could be related to vegetation loss, land use change and intensity of human activity. Built-up land expansion and forest land fragmentation were clear markers of land use change. This study has great significance as an operational approach to mitigating the tradeoff between natural environment conservation and rapid economic development.

Human activities are altering natural areas worldwide. While our ability to map these activities at fine scales is improving, a simplistic binary characterization of habitat and non‐habitat with a focus on change in habitat extent has dominated conservation assessments across different spatial scales. Here, we provide a metric that captures both habitat loss, quality and fragmentation effects which, when combined, we call intactness. We identify nine categories of intactness of the world's terrestrial ecoregions based on changes in intactness across a 16‐year period. We found that highly impacted and degraded categories are predominant (74%) and just 6% of ecoregions are on improving trajectories. It is essential that management of degrading processes be targeted in international agendas in order to ensure that Earth's remaining intact ecosystems are effectively conserved and restored in order to achieve effective conservation outcomes.

Faunal mediated particle and porewater mixing (bioturbation) alters the structure of the surface sediment layer, forming a distinct mixed layer, where the majority of organic matter degradation takes place. Current methods of assessing benthic habitat quality often reference this mixed layer as an indicator of benthic activity. Whilst a great deal of effort has been devoted to linking macro-invertebrate activity to the mixing depth, less attention has been given to defining what the mixing depth represents in terms of ecosystem process and function. Here,in situsediment profile images are analysed using grey scale intensity analysis to distinguish the mixed zone and relate it to the physicochemical environment in order to determine the biological, chemical and physical variables most influential in its formation. Significant differences were found between biogeochemical conditions within the mixed layer relative to the underlying historic sediment layer. These were attributed to a combination of environmental variables (Fe, Mn, Si, chlorophyllaand NO₃⁻) rather than a single dominant driver of change. Although these findings are consistent across multiple locations, the driver(s) that influence the depth of the mixed layer are site- and season-specific. The mixing depth thus provides a reasonable approximation of benthic ecosystem functioning, but when considering ecosystem process the link between the mixing depth and its driving factors (faunal mixing, food input, environmental conditions) is highly context-dependent. Conclusions on benthic community dynamics and ecosystem process, including assessments of habitat quality, cannot therefore be drawn from estimates of the mixing depth alone.

The loss of biodiversity is one of the three global crises today. How to reduce habitat destruction and overexploitation to protect biodiversity is an urgent issue to be addressed. This study aims to explore the influential factors and driving mechanisms of habitat quality to find ways to reduce the interference of human activities on habitat quality. This paper evaluates the habitat quality in 30 provinces of China from 2010 to 2020 using the InVEST model and studies its geospatial differences by spatial auto-correlation. Then it investigates the influencing factors and driving mechanisms based on Geodetector and proposes strategies to improve habitat quality for different regions. The study shows that first, habitat quality is not distributed homogeneously in Chinese provinces, and habitat quality varies widely among different regions in the structure. Second, factors have different influences on habitat quality, which can be grouped into “key factors” and “auxiliary factors”. Its driving forces vary greatly over time, with per capita water resources, nighttime light index, area of afforested land, forest area, and destructed forest area as key factors in both 2010 and 2020. Third, the factor pairs are all bifactor or non-linear enhanced, showing that two factors have a stronger combined effect on habitat quality than a single factor. In particular, factors such as per capita water resources and area of afforested land in very strong interactions with others. Fourth, corresponding strategies are proposed for different regions in China to improve habitat quality according to the analysis of the spatial inequality of habitat quality and its driving mechanism, providing a reference for relevant regions abroad.