Analyzing land use change to identify migration corridors of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in the Kenyan-Tanzanian borderlands

Context: East African ecosystems are characterized by the migrations of large herbivores that are highly vulnerable to the recent development of anthropogenic land use change. Objectives: We analyzed land cover changes in the Kenyan-Tanzanian borderlands of the greater Amboseli ecosystem to evaluate landscape connectivity using African elephants as an indicator species. Methods: We used multi-temporal Landsat imagery and a post classification approach to monitor land cover changes over a 43-year period. GIS based methods were accompanied by a literature review for spatial data on land cover changes and elephant migrations. Results:Land cover changed considerably between 1975 and 2017. Wood- and bushlands declined by 16.3% while open grasslands increased throughout the study region (+10.3%). Agricultural expansion was observed (+12.2%) occupying important wildlife habitats and narrowing migration corridors. This development has led to the isolation of Nairobi National Park which was previously part of a large contiguous ecosystem. Eight migration corridors were identified of which only one is formally protected. Two others are almost completely blocked by agriculture and three are expected to become endangered under continuing land use changes. Conclusions: Landscape connectivity is still viable for this ecosystem (except for Nairobi National Park). However, the current situation is very fragile as anthropogenic land use changes are threatening most of the identified large mammal migration corridors. Sustainable land use planning with regard to important wildlife habitats and connecting corridors is a crucial task for further conservation work to safeguard a viable future for wildlife populations in the Kenyan-Tanzanian borderlands

Hildesheimer Geographische Studien, Band 5

In diesem Band enthalten: Hannah Graen, Robin Stadtmann & Martin Sauerwein: Modellierung von Temperaturdaten und Temperaturveränderungen im Nationalpark Asinara, Sardinien (S. 1-27); Sarah Matheis, Nico Herrmann & Martin Sauerwein: Entwicklung eines Monitoringkonzeptes für Niedermoore am Beispiel des Bergen-Weißacker Moores, Süd-Brandenburg (S. 28-63); Martin Sauerwein, Jan-Philip Dieck & Robin Stadtmann: Urbane Böden im Kontext von Ecosystem Services (S. 64-89); Martin Sauerwein, Julia Jaquemotte & Lars Germershausen: Ursachen der Nitratbelastung des Grundwassers im Raum Hannover/Hildesheim (S. 90-110); Sabine Panzer-Krause: Einkaufen in der Hildesheimer Innenstadt. Auswirkungen der Arneken Galerie auf den innerstädtischen Einzelhandel (S. 111-132); Robin Stadtmann, Nico Herrmann, Jasmin Karaschewski & Martin Sauerwein: Bodenbewusstsein: Hildesheimer Aktivitäten zum Jahr des Bodens 2015 (S. 133-140

Diversità ecosistemica nel Parco Nazionale dell'Asinara (Sardegna, Italia)

Le aree protette costituiscono uno strumento utile per mantenere la biodiversità a livello ecosistemico, di paesaggio e di specie, ma anche per la promozione dei servizi ecosistemici. Tra i parchi nazionali italiani, uno dei più interessanti dal punto di vista biologico è il Parco Nazionale dell’Asinara, una piccola isola nel nord-ovest della Sardegna. In questo lavoro abbiamo fatto una sintesi delle conoscenze attuali su flora, fauna, vegetazione e habitat, 124 Ann. Mus. Civ. RoveReto 38 (2022) 1 IntroduzIone In tutto il mondo, la biodiversità è in continuo e drammatico declino (IPBES, 2018), tanto che si parla di “sesta estinzione di massa del pianeta Terra” (Barnosky et al., 2011; Ceballos et al., 2017). Le principali cause di questo declino sono il cambio di destinazione d’uso del territorio, l’urbanizzazione e l’uso non sostenibile delle risorse naturali, associati con il cambiamento climatico (IPCC, 2021, Zerbe, 2022). Nel quadro degli sforzi da compiere per l’attuazione degli Obiettivi di Sviluppo Sostenibile (DSDG, 2020) sui sistemi terrestri, costieri e marini, le aree naturali protette sono cruciali. Attualmente la superficie totale di aree protette è circa il 15% sulla terraferma (CBD, 2020), ma i ricercatori suggeriscono di mantenere e ripristinare gli habitat naturali su “almeno il 50% della superficie terrestre” (Dinerstein et al., 2019). I parchi nazionali rappresentano una strategia di conservazione per proteggere le specie le cui popolazioni sono suscettibili all’impatto umano e per promuovere i processi naturali degli ecosistemi. La IUCN definisce i parchi nazionali come aree protette di categoria II cioè “grandi aree naturali o quasi naturali per proteggere processi ecologici su larga scala, insieme alle specie ed ecosistemi caratteristici dell’area, che forniscono una base anche per opportunità spirituali, scientifiche, educative, ricreative e di visita compatibili con l’ambiente e la cultura” (Dudley, 2008). L’isola dell’Asinara è uno dei 25 parchi nazionali italiani ed è considerata una delle aree protette più importanti e interessanti d’Italia (Cinquepalmi et al., 2010). Come molti altri parchi nazionali in Italia e in Europa, l’isola combina caratteristiche naturali, semi naturali e culturali che spiegano la diversità di specie ed ecosistemi ivi presenti (Zerbe, 2022). L’isola è stata studiata in maniera approfondita per quanto riguarda la flora, la fauna, la vegetazione, gli habitat, l’uso del suolo e la storia dell’uso del suolo. In questo lavoro, abbiamo preso in esame la ricca bibliografia relativa a questo territorio per offrire una panoramica utile per lo sviluppo futuro del Parco. 2 MetodI 2.1 Area di studio L’isola dell’Asinara, con una superficie di 51,9 km2, si trova a nord-ovest della Sardegna (Italia). È un Parco Nazionale dal 1997 e un’Area Marina Protetta dal 2002 (Villa et al., 2002; Casu et al., 2006). Inoltre, fa parte della rete europea Natura 2000 (Zona Speciale di Conservazione “Isola dell’Asinara”, ITB010082). L’isola è diventata un’importante destinazione turistica da quando, con la dismissione della colonia penale presente sull’isola per 112 anni, è stato consentito di visitarla. In base ai dati del Parco, il numero di turisti stimati, pari a 81.400 nel 2010, è aumentato più o meno costantemente fino a 121.597 nel 2016 (Corbau et al., 2019). Il numero massimo di turisti si registra nella stagione estiva, tra maggio e settembre. Oltre al suo paesaggio peculiare, l’isola offre ai visitatori una storia e una cultura uniche (Carboni et al., 2015). Testimonianze dell’antica storia di questa isola risalgono al Neolitico e arrivano fino ai giorni nostri (Corbau et al., 2018). 2.2 Analisi Per la nostra analisi, abbiamo considerato la letteratura prodotta tra il 1909 e il 2022 riguardante specificamente l’Asinara o aree più ampie nelle quali è ricompresa. La nomenclatura delle specie e delle comunità vegetali citate in questo studio è quella originale degli studi quali si riferiscono. 3 rIsultatI Complessivamente, abbiamo preso in considerazione 73 studi, di cui 13 riguardano la geologia, la geomorfologia e il suolo, 3 il clima, 15 la flora, 7 la vegetazione e gli habitat, 23 la fauna, 12 l’uso del suolo e la sua storia e 3 i servizi ecosistemici (Tabella 1). considerando anche i fattori ambientali abiotici e la storia del paesaggio di questo territorio basandoci su più di 70 studi. La gestione futura del Parco Nazionale dovrebbe basarsi sulla combinazione delle risorse naturali e di quelle culturali uniche di quest’isola.Protected areas are a useful tool for maintaining biodiversity at the ecosystem, landscape and species level, but also for promoting ecosystem services. Among the Italian national parks, one of the most biologically interesting is the Asinara National Park, an island in the north-west of Sardinia. In this paper, we have summarised current knowledge on flora, fauna, vegetation and habitat, also considering abiotic environmental factors and the landscape history of this area based on more than 70 studies. Future management of the National Park should be based on the combination of the island’s unique natural and cultural resources

Erfassung und Bewertung von Boden-Ökosystemleistungen im Nationalpark Asinara (Sardinien) – basierend auf bodengeographischen Untersuchungen und dem Aufbau eines Bodeninformationssystems.

Böden sind die Lebensgrundlage des Menschen und anderer Organismen. Ungeachtet dessen findet weltweit eine Zerstörung dieser nicht erneuerbaren Ressource statt, wodurch der Mensch diese Lebensgrundlage immer weiter degradiert. Das Konzept der Ecosystem Services (Ökosystemleistungen) soll dazu beitragen, die weltweite Zerstörung von Ökosystemen einzudämmen, indem die Leistungen der Natur sowie deren Verlust erfasst, bewertet und damit auch für Entscheidungsträger/innen sichtbar werden. Das Umweltmedium Boden, in dem sich unterschiedliche Sphären des Ökosystems überschneiden und vielfältige Wechselwirkungen und Prozesse stattfinden, bietet essenzielle Beiträge zu vielen Ökosystemleistungen. In vielen Studien werden diese Beiträge jedoch nur unzureichend betrachtet, sodass die vielfältigen Leistungen der Böden im Verborgenen bleiben. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird beispielhaft für den Nationalpark Asinara (Sardinien) aufgezeigt, wie die Beiträge der Böden zu Ökosystemleistungen erfasst, bewertet und damit in ihrer Bedeutung sichtbar gemacht werden können. Hierzu wird ein übertragbares, auf feldbodenkundlichen Aufnahmen und physikochemischen Laboruntersuchungen aufbauendes Bewertungsschema für bereitstellende, regulierende und kulturelle Boden-Ökosystemleistungen entworfen. Eine Monetarisierung der Leistungen wird nicht angestrebt. Mit bodengeographischen Modellen und Methoden der digitalen Bodenkartierung wird ein Bodeninformationssystem aufgebaut, auf dessen Grundlage das Bewertungsschema für das Untersuchungsgebiet umgesetzt wird. In der faktorenbasierten Vorgehensweise wird die deutlich reliefabhängige Bodenverbreitung durch eine hochauflösende digitale Reliefanalyse abgebildet. Vegetationsökologische Ergebnisse werden einbezogen, um mit Fernerkundungsmethoden eine digitale Landbedeckungskartierung umzusetzen. Zudem wird eine Analyse der historischen Landnutzung vorgenommen, um die im Gelände erfasste anthropogene Veränderung der Böden flächenhaft abzubilden und kulturelle Boden-Ökosystemleistungen zu visualisieren. Es erfolgt eine Betrachtung der raumzeitlichen Veränderungen der Inanspruchnahme von Boden-Ökosystemleistungen auf der mediterranen Nationalparkinsel. Mit den Bodeninformationen wird ein hochauflösender Beitrag zum Management des Schutzgebietes bereitgestellt, welcher zur Planung von Management- und Renaturierungsmaßnahmen sowie zur Durchführung von Habitatanalysen herangezogen werden kann. Zur Förderung des Transfers von Boden-Ökosystemleistungen in Planungs- und Entscheidungsprozesse und zur Sicherung einer nicht-anthropozentrischen Perspektive wird ein Huckepackverfahren vorgeschlagen, in welchem eine Bodenfunktionsbewertung die Grundlage für die Ausweisung von Boden-Ökosystemleistungen bildet. Mit einem breiten interdisziplinären Ansatz dokumentiert das Fallbeispiel für die mediterrane Landschaft ausgehend von Primärdatenerhebungen erstmals den vollständigen Erarbeitungsprozess einer hochauflösenden Bewertung aller Kategorien von Boden-Ökosystemleistungen im regionalen Maßstab. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen das erhebliche Potenzial der digitalen Kartierungsverfahren, unterstreichen aber auch die Notwendigkeit eines Mindestmaßes an Geländeuntersuchungen, insbesondere zur Erfassung der kulturellen Leistungen von Böden.Soils are the basis of life for humans and other organisms. Despite this fact, this non-renewable resource is being destroyed worldwide, whereby humans degrade this basis of life more and more. The concept of Ecosystem Services is intended to help contain the worldwide destruction of ecosystems by recording and evaluating the services provided by nature and their loss, and thus making them visible to decision-makers. The environmental medium soil, in which different spheres of the ecosystem overlap and various interactions and processes take place, offers essential contributions to Ecosystem Services. In many studies, however, these various contributions are only insufficiently considered, so that the manifold services of soils remain hidden. In this study, the contributions of soils to Ecosystem Services are shown exemplarily for the Asinara National Park (Sardinia). For this purpose, a transferable evaluation scheme for provisioning, regulating and cultural Soil-Ecosystem Services is designed, based on field-survey data and physicochemical laboratory analytics. An economic evaluation of the services is not intended. Using soil-geographic models and a digital soil mapping approach, a soil information system is developed, on the basis of which the evaluation scheme is implemented. In the factorial approach, the clearly relief-dependent soil distribution is mapped by a high-resolution digital relief analysis. Results of vegetation ecology are included in order to implement a digital land cover classification using remote sensing techniques. In addition, an analysis of historical land use is carried out in order to map the anthropogenic soil changes recorded in the area and to visualize cultural Soil-Ecosystem Services. The spatio-temporal changes in the use of Soil-Ecosystem Services on the Mediterranean National Park Island is examined. With the acquired soil information a high-resolution contribution to the management of the protected area is provided, which can be used for the planning of management and ecological restoration measures as well as for the execution of habitat analyses. In order to promote the transfer of Soil-Ecosystem Services in planning and decision-making processes and to ensure a non-anthropocentric perspective, a piggyback approach is proposed in which a soil function assessment forms the basis for the designation of Soil-Ecosystem Services. Using a broad interdisciplinary approach, the case study documents the complete process of a highresolution evaluation of all categories of Soil-Ecosystem Services based on primary data collection for the Mediterranean landscape on a regional scale. The results illustrate the significant potential of digital mapping approaches, but also underline the need for a minimum of field survey, especially for the assessment of the cultural services of soils

Complementing endozoochorous seed dispersal patterns by donkeys and goats in a semi-natural island ecosystem

Abstract Background Endozoochory is, in grazing systems, a substantial vector for seed dispersal. It can play an important role in vegetation dynamics, especially in colonization processes through seed input on the vegetation and on the soil seed bank. We investigated the endozoochorous seed input of donkeys and goats on a semi-natural island ecosystem in the Mediterranean. Through germination experiments, we assessed the viable seed content of the dung of these grazing animals to estimate their suitability and efficiency for seed dispersal of the vegetation types of the island. Results We show different dispersal patterns of donkeys and goats. Goats disperse a high number of diaspores from shrubs while donkeys disperse more diaspores of grasses. In addition, goats disperse plants of greater growth height and donkeys plants of shorter height. These dispersal patterns are in accordance with the vegetation types of which donkeys and goats disperse indicator species. Both, donkeys and goats, feed on and disperse species of the vegetation types, open grassland and temporarily wet grassland. In addition, goats feed on and disperse diagnostic species of the semi-open maquis and preforest formations. Conclusions Overall, our results show that donkeys and goats are complementing each other in their endozoochorous seed dispersal potential. This emphasizes the importance of both grazing animals for the vegetation dynamics of the semi-natural island ecosystem. Therefore, the adaption of the goat management to a traditional land management based on directed transhumance might maintain and enrich vegetation types

Hildesheimer Geographische Studien 2

Robin Stadtmann, Christine Jung-Dahlke & Martin Sauerwein: Entwicklung einer Geodatenbank mittels GIS und Erdas Imagine für den Nationalpark Asinara (Sardinien) Hannah Graen & Martin Sauerwein: Auswertung landwirtschaftlicher Kalender aus der Hildesheimer Börde zur Analyse lokaler Klimaveränderungen und deren Auswirkungen auf Vegetation und Landwirtschaft Kristin Gawert & Sabine Panzer-Krause: Der demographische Wandel und seine Auswirkungen im Ortsteil Barsinghausen-Bantorf in der Region Hannover Sabine Panzer-Krause: Innerstädtischer Einzelhandel und Konsum in Hildesheim. Ergebnisse der Datenerhebung 201

National Park or Cultural Landscape Preservation? What the Soil Seed Bank Reveals for Plant Diversity Conservation

National parks play an important role in the conservation of biodiversity, mainly excluding human influence following the IUCN approach. However, in Europe, they are often characterized by a high percentage of traditional cultural landscape elements, which require active management. This calls into question whether the national park protection strategy is always appropriate. Here, we follow this question by taking the soil seed bank of various habitats of the Asinara National Park (Sardinia, Italy) as an example. Asinara is a suitable model region, as the island mainly consists of traditional cultural landscape elements, but the main conservation goals include afforestation plans and nature development promotion, which creates a trade-off between the conservation of forest vs. cultural landscapes. We investigated the soil seed bank, standing vegetation, and environmental factors in different cultural and natural habitats. Since the highest species richness and diversity were revealed for cultural vegetation units, they need to be of primary concern regarding the preservation of the island’s phytodiversity. Given the main objective of the conservation of biodiversity in the Asinara National Park, we conclude that a biosphere reserve with an adapted sustainable land-use management might be more suitable than a national park to account for both natural and cultural landscape preservation. This conclusion applies to many other European national parks

National Park or Cultural Landscape Preservation? What the Soil Seed Bank Reveals for Plant Diversity Conservation

National parks play an important role in the conservation of biodiversity, mainly excluding human influence following the IUCN approach. However, in Europe, they are often characterized by a high percentage of traditional cultural landscape elements, which require active management. This calls into question whether the national park protection strategy is always appropriate. Here, we follow this question by taking the soil seed bank of various habitats of the Asinara National Park (Sardinia, Italy) as an example. Asinara is a suitable model region, as the island mainly consists of traditional cultural landscape elements, but the main conservation goals include afforestation plans and nature development promotion, which creates a trade-off between the conservation of forest vs. cultural landscapes. We investigated the soil seed bank, standing vegetation, and environmental factors in different cultural and natural habitats. Since the highest species richness and diversity were revealed for cultural vegetation units, they need to be of primary concern regarding the preservation of the island’s phytodiversity. Given the main objective of the conservation of biodiversity in the Asinara National Park, we conclude that a biosphere reserve with an adapted sustainable land-use management might be more suitable than a national park to account for both natural and cultural landscape preservation. This conclusion applies to many other European national parks

Grammaire de la langue malaye ou malaise / par Alfred Tugault,...

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