Search Results (46)

Human recreation is an increasingly popular activity; however, an increase in recreational pressure in wilderness areas can contribute to issues such as human–wildlife conflict, introduction of invasive species, vegetation and soil degradation, riparian area impacts, and anthropogenic waste. While remote camera studies are frequently used to assess the response of wildlife species (i.e., grizzly bears) or ecosites (i.e., coastal sand dunes) to human recreational disturbance, classifying and quantifying human recreational behavior, including differences in spatial, temporal, and recreation types, is less common and presents unique design challenges. Here, we present our practical design considerations and lessons learned from a study quantifying human recreation along trails in the northern Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. We describe our standardized protocol to deploy our camera array, and image classification and analysis of recreation use by type and group size. Finally, we provide practical recommendations for future work attempting to evaluate human recreation in wilderness settings relative to landscape management outcomes. Full article

Coastal landscapes are complex socio-ecological systems that undergo rapid transformations driven by both natural dynamics and human pressures. Their sustainable management depends on robust, cost-effective remote sensing methodologies for long-term monitoring and quantitative assessment of spatiotemporal change. In this study, we developed an integrated remote-sensing-based framework that combines historical aerial photograph interpretation, transition matrix analysis, and machine learning to assess coastal dune landscape dynamics over a seventy-year period. Georeferenced orthorectified and preprocessed aerial imagery freely available from the Italian Ministry of the Environment for the years 1954, 1986, and Google Satellite Images for 2022 were used to generate detailed land-cover maps, enabling the analysis of two temporal intervals (1954–1986 and 1986–2022). Transition matrices quantified land-cover conversions and identified sixteen dynamic processes, while a Random Forest (RF) classifier, optimized through parameter tuning and cross-validation, modeled and compared landscape dynamics within protected Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and adjacent unprotected areas. Model performance was evaluated using Balanced Accuracy (BA) to ensure robustness and to interpret the relative importance of change-driving variables. The RF model achieved high accuracy in distinguishing change processes inside and outside LTER sites, effectively capturing subtle yet ecologically relevant transitions. Results reveal non-random, contrasting landscape trajectories between management regimes: protected sites tend toward naturalization, whereas unprotected sites exhibit persistent urban influence. Overall, this research demonstrates the potential of integrating multi-temporal remote sensing, spatial statistics, and machine learning as a scalable and transferable framework for long-term coastal landscape monitoring and conservation planning. Full article

The expansion of algaroba (Neltuma juliflora), an invasive exotic species widely adapted to arid and semi-arid environments, has caused significant ecological and geomorphological changes on the northern coast of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil. This study aimed to analyze the greening process associated with the expansion of algaroba in the Rosado Dunes Environmental Protection Area (APADR) between 2004 and 2024. Images from the SPOT 5PSM, CBERS 4, and CBERS 4A satellites were used, processed by supervised classification in QGIS software version 3.38. The multitemporal analysis revealed a significant change in the landscape, with a reduction in areas of native vegetation (caatinga and restinga) and an increase in dunes and beaches, urban areas, and invasive species. The area occupied by algaroba expanded from 70 ha (0.5%) in 2004 to 435 ha (3.1%) in 2024, representing an increase of more than six times in two decades. This expansion has had direct impacts on biodiversity, sediment dynamics, and groundwater availability, in addition to compromising connectivity between the dunes and the beach environment. The results point to the need for public policies aimed at controlling invasive species and sustainably managing native vegetation, with a view to conserving biodiversity and the integrity of the coastal and semi-arid geosystems of APADR. Full article

Coastal climate processes that affect landscape hydrology and beach dynamics are studied using local and remote data sets near Cape Vidal (28.12° S, 32.55° E). The sporadic intra-seasonal pulsing of coastal runoff, vegetation, and winds is analyzed to understand sediment inputs and transport by near-shore wind-waves and currents. River-borne sediments, eroded coral substrates, and reworked beach sand are mobilized by frequent storms. Surf-zone currents ~0.4 m/s instill the northward transport of ~6 10⁵ kg/yr/m. An analysis of the mean annual cycle over the period of 1997–2024 indicates a crest of rainfall over the Umfolozi catchment during summer (Oct–Mar), whereas coastal suspended sediment, based on satellite red-band reflectivity, rises in winter (Apr–Sep) due to a deeper mixed layer and larger northward wave heights. Sediment input to the beaches near Cape Vidal exhibit a 3–6-year cycle of southeasterly waves and rainy weather associated with cool La Nina tropical sea temperatures. Beachfront sand dunes are wind-swept and release sediment at ~10³ m³/yr/m, which builds tall back-dunes and helps replenish the shoreline, especially during anticyclonic dry spells. A wind event in Nov 2018 is analyzed to quantify aeolian transport, and a flood in Jan–Feb 2025 is studied for river plumes that meet with stormy seas. Management efforts to limit development and recreational access have contributed to a sustainable coastal environment despite rising tides and inland temperatures. Full article

The Conca d’Oro of Palermo, a plain in NW Sicily of significant historical and agricultural importance, has undergone significant landscape alterations due to agricultural strengthening and urbanization. This paper analyses the evolution of the plant landscape from early human settlements to the present by integrating historical records, cartographic analysis, and floristic surveys. Three key periods of change were identified: Roman-era deforestation for cereal cultivation, the expansion of irrigated agriculture under Arab rule, and the dominance of citrus monoculture in the 19th century. Post-World War II urban expansion led to the loss of agricultural land and natural habitats, particularly wetlands and coastal dunes. Spatial analysis revealed a drastic reduction in semi-natural areas, with agricultural land giving way to urban sprawl. Floristic studies showed the persistence of endemic plant species in fragmented natural habitats alongside the local extinction of wetlands and coastal vegetation. The Oreto River, a river with a basin that extends into the territories of the municipalities of Altofonte, Monreale, and Palermo, remains a critical biodiversity reservoir, and most other natural ecosystems have been degraded. This research provides insights into the long-term interactions between human activities and biodiversity and offers a foundation for sustainable conservation strategies in Mediterranean urban and peri-urban environments. Full article

This study reconstructs the agricultural landscape of the southern coastal plain of late Ottoman and British Mandatory Palestine (today southwestern Israel) utilizing late 19th and early 20th century cartographic materials and aerial photographs. Immense human effort and ingenuity were required to maintain sustainable agricultural on the fringes of the desert. Given today’s increasingly severe climate crisis, the lessons drawn from these historical agricultural practices have particular resonance. The agricultural land use described in this work extended into the coastal dunes of the region where the shallow water table was exploited to create complex agricultural systems that enabled the growth of citrus trees, grapes, and other crops for export and trade. Aerial photos and maps reveal the critical aspects of this region’s neglected agricultural history. The stability and resilience of these systems, some of which are still in existence 76 years or more after they were abandoned, as seen in the survey conducted for this study, point to the importance of understanding and preserving this chapter of the region’s agricultural heritage. The unique varieties of fruit trees adapted to the local climate of the western Negev still have significant economic value and are threatened with extinction from rapid urban encroachment. The remnants of this tradition serve as historical testimony of a bygone agricultural era which was replaced by mechanized monoculture. The discussion centers on the ways n which the study of heritage agriculture in rapidly changing areas can contribute to the broader field of historical geography by reconstructing landscapes that preserve the knowledge and societal patterns of behavior of past communities for future generations. Full article

Although dune systems play a crucial ecological role and offer various ecosystem services, they are listed among the habitat types of community interest in the European Union that are undergoing the most severe conservation challenges. The subject of this study was the monitoring of habitat types protected under Directive 92/43/EEC (Habitats Directive) along the coastal dune systems of the Taranto Ionian Arc. Vegetation sociological surveys, GIS mapping, landscape metrics, NBR and dNBR indices were employed to assess the conservation status of the dune system and the impact of disturbance factors. Special attention was given to habitat 2250* (Coastal dunes with Juniperus spp.), revealing that it expanded from 2006 to 2019 but then significantly reduced between 2019 and 2022, with increasing fragmentation, mainly due to wildfires. The study also highlighted the impact of invasive species such as Acacia saligna and Carpobrotus acinaciformis, which compete for space and vital resources. These findings provide scientific evidence for the management and restoration of coastal dune ecosystems, emphasizing the need for targeted conservation strategies to mitigate the effects of these disturbances. Full article

Sand dunes protect the most important economic and ecologically critical landscapes from coastal hazards (storms and high-tide flooding). The characteristics of the dune affect their protective ability. This paper qualitatively and quantitatively assesses the relationships between pre- and post-storm conditions for vegetation and the morphology of an incipient dune system along the South Carolina coast. Field-based dune vegetation and morphology measurements were obtained before and after tropical storm Dorian (2019). Vegetation is assessed with respect to distribution and functional type, and subgroups are introduced to categorize land cover transitions. At the quadrat scale (0.2 m²) following the storm, there was a shift from stabilizer to builder, a decrease of sand (2%), and the vegetation remained consistent at around 61% of the land cover. Transect-level analysis (0.2 m × 1.0 m) revealed distinct variability concerning post-storm morphology change in the extreme study site extents. Dorian resulted in approximately 10% volumetric loss over the entire study site (101 m²). This study demonstrated changes to a dune system following a tropical storm with wind as the dominant forcing factor. This study revealed that vegetation presence is not broadly correlated with reduced levels of post-storm erosion. Full article

This study analyses land use changes in the Sado Estuary (West-Central Portugal) based on a multi-temporal analysis of 19th century cartographic data and 21st century remote sensing land use maps, updated by fieldwork. A GIS plot of land use evolution is summarized in a quantitative table. The comparison shows the changes in land use, with increasing occupation by human economic activities, including extensive agriculture and forestry, as well as localized urbanization and industrialization. The main elements of the landscape impacted by anthropogenic uses were (i) hydrography—river dams affected the flow dynamics and sedimentary processes in the estuary; (ii) vegetation—increasing agriculture and forestry reduced the area of native vegetation, which is now mostly occupied by vineyards, pine forests and cork oaks; (iii) wetlands—tidal and alluvial plains are being occupied by rice cultivation, aquaculture, industries, and ports; (iv) coastal dunes—new developments are occupying large areas of Holocene coastal dunes; and (v) natural environment—mining and dredging have affected some habitats and biodiversity. This analysis is intended to help the territorial organization of present and future economic activities, as well as to reduce environmental and social problems, thus promoting the long-term sustainability of this rapidly evolving region. Full article

Monitoring and modeling of coastal vegetation and wetland systems are considered major challenges, especially when considering environmental response to hazards, disturbances, and management activities. Remote sensing applications can provide alternatives and complementary approaches to the often costly and laborious field-based collection methods traditionally used for coastal ecosystem monitoring. New and improved sensors and data analysis techniques have become available, making remote sensing applications attractive for evaluation and potential use in monitoring coastal vegetation properties and ecosystem conditions and change. This study involves the extraction of vegetation metrics from airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and hyperspectral imagery (HSI) to quantify coastal dune vegetation characteristics and assesses landscape-level trends from those derived metrics. HSI- and LiDAR-derived elevation (digital elevation model) and vegetation metrics (canopy height model, leaf area index, and normalized difference vegetation index) were used in conjunction with per-pixel linear regression and hot spot analyses to evaluate hurricane-induced spatial and temporal changes in elevation and vegetation properties. These assessments showed areas with greatest decreases in vegetation metric values were associated with direct tropical storm energies and processes (i.e., overwashing events eroding beach and dune features), while those with the greatest increases in vegetation metric values were in areas where overwashed sediments were distributed. This study narrows existing gaps in dune vegetation data by advancing new methodologies to classify, quantify, and estimate critical coastal vegetation metrics. The tools and methods developed in this study will ultimately improve future estimates and predictions of nearshore dynamics and impacts from disturbance events. Full article

Identifying connectivity patterns among remnant bird populations and their relationships with land use practices and adjacent habitat fragments is key to implementing appropriate long-term management strategies for species conservation. The coastal scrub and dune vegetation complex of the northern Yucatan Peninsula is rich in endemisms and has been affected by human development, which threatens the survival of the Yucatan Wren (Campylorhynchus yucatanicus) population, an endemic bird species. To identify possible anthropogenic barriers to the connectivity of C. yucatanicus along 14 localities in the Yucatan (Mexico) coastal north, we explored the relationship between the species population’s genetic variability at each sampled site and landscape structure using regression models, in addition to the relationship between genetic distance and landscape resistance. Seven nuclear microsatellite loci were used as genetic markers. Four genetic populations were highlighted by the clustering method implemented in the Geneland program. Human settlement and availability of adequate habitat were significantly related to genetic distance (Fst), suggesting limited connectivity among sites due to ongoing land use changes. We suggest changing the IUCN threat category of C. yucatanicus to endangered as we found a significant loss of genetic variability in addition to restricted distribution, small population, habitat degradation, and loss of connectivity. Full article

Assessing post-fire recovery is essential to forecast how ecosystems will respond to future warmer conditions and higher fire severity. Such assessments must consider site conditions and the post-fire recovery of trees and shrubs. We used tree-ring data and intrinsic water-use efficiency (WUEi) to quantify the post-fire responses of a tree (Pinus pinea) and a shrub (Juniperus phoenicea) in Mediterranean coastal dunes located in the Doñana protected area, SW Spain. We compared pines and junipers growing in an inter-dune slack with those growing in a nearby dune ridge. We quantified crown damage and bark char in pines impacted by a wildfire. Pines with lower crown damage after the fire showed a higher growth rate one year later. Growth decreased afterwards in the case of fast-growing pines from the slack site, whereas slow-growing dune pines showed increasing growth rates one to three years after the fire. The fire did not change the pines’ WUEi, whereas the junipers located in dunes presented the highest WUEi values. Severe crown damage (damage > 60%) impairs long-term growth recovery in P. pinea. Open and heterogeneous landscapes can reduce the wildfire risk in the study Mediterranean area, where slack vs. dune and tree vs. shrub differences should be considered in post-fire management plans. Full article

Understanding of complex sedimentary records formed by transgressive systems is critical because they provide information on sea level changes which control the evolution of the coastal environment. This paper discusses the preservation of the Transgressive System Tracts (TST) in the south-eastern Sicilian Tyrrhenian margin during the last Holocene eustatic cycle. The available dataset consists of high-resolution bathymetry (multibeam), whose description and interpretation through a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) has been integrated with six seismic profiles (CHIRP). Within the whole study area, four bathymetric contours (−120 m, −100 m, −80 m and −70 m) were identified and assumed as the markers of the main locations of the paleo-coastlines, corresponding with the steps of the main changes in the sea level. The transgressive deposits are preferentially preserved in the 70–100 m bathymetric range, bounded at the top by the maximum flooding surface and consisting of the relict geomorphic elements that represent past landscapes (coastal barrier lagoons, transgressive sheet areas, cuspate beaches, transgressive dune-field systems). Furthermore, with the support of 3D bathymetric maps, a reconstruction of the geomorphological evolution of the past coastal systems during the last transgressive stage is also provided. Full article

On the Curonian Spit, the leading conservation issue is an opposition between the two contrasting nature-management principles—anthropocentricity and biocentricity. Land managers still waver between the two options, and the worst-case scenario materializes as a rapid proliferation of vegetation to the accumulative sandplain (palve). It results in the decline of sand drift to the mobile dunes. This article aims to examine how climate change affects the coastal dune landscape and to identify current dune protection and management priorities. The analysis of hydroclimatic changes; succession patterns in forest, herbaceous, and open-sand ecosystems; and phenological-based evaluation (NDVI from MODIS, 2000–2020), influencing possible management directions, were carried out in this study. The results show the significant hydro-climatic changes (air temperature, precipitation, and sea level) occurring over the last thirty years. They influence the prevailing overgrowth trends in recent decades, especially in herbaceous ecosystems. Therefore, if the EU’s priority habitat—open-sand ecosystems—is to be preserved, the main policy recommendation is to apply adequate management tools such as grazing, and to pay more attention to the aesthetic ecosystem services of the mobile dunes parallel to biodiversity conservation. Full article

As the population grows, the deteriorating quality of ecosystems and the increased area of urban environment are correlated affected by climate change and affecting public health. It becomes critical to reach a balance between demographics and the natural environment to reduce pressure on our ecosystems. Creating improved conditions for sustainable urbanization is vital for supplying greater protection of biodiversity and people. This semi-urban project development represents a possible scalable model of sustainable development in an arid coastal environment. It is aligned with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and country NDCs (National Determined Contributions) towards the reduction of emissions and mitigating climate change. It aims to support socio-ecological relationships and energy transitions towards low emissions and economic, ecological, resilient, and inclusive urbanizations. More than one hundred landfills, dune erosion, and their impacts on a coastal environment are some of the issues related to human behavior identified through observation in the project site. Viable solutions that were researched include landfill sanitation, landscape regeneration sustainability, and accessibility. Full article