Political Ecology and Cultural Change: Impacts on Swidden-fallow Agroforestry Practices among the Mopan Maya in Southern Belize

Little agroecological research examines indigenous agroforestry practices that appear to be unsustainable, and how such practices devolved from more environmentally sound land use strategies that have been documented by geographers and others. This paper discusses the political ecological factors that led the Mopan Maya to reject a diverse swidden-fallow management strategy for a system where an abandoned milpa provides few forest products. In doing so, this paper explains the process whereby cultural change, in this case rejection of certain agricultural traditions, leads to a less diverse agricultural landscape and ultimately a less diverse biological landscape.     

A Comparison of Awareness,Attitudes, and Usage of Water Quality Conservation Practices Between Amish and Non-Amish Farmers

This study provides a unique examination of Amish farmers’ awareness of water quality issues and their attitudes toward and use of agricultural conservation practices compared with small non-Amish farmers in Northeastern Indiana. There is minimal research about the conservation beliefs and behaviors of this growing and highly diverse ethnoreligious minority, who have faith-based technological restrictions and are often hesitant to work with community outsiders, especially the government. We find that, compared with non-Amish farmers, Amish farmers have limited awareness of the linkages between common agricultural practices and broader water quality problems and lower levels of adoption of conservation practices, with the exception of cover crops. This information is essential for conservation practitioners who need to work with a diverse range of agricultural producers to increase the uptake of conservation practices that address critical water quality concerns.     

Progress and Prospects in Tourism Research on Agricultural Heritage Sites

Agricultural heritage is an important type of world heritage. The special features of this kind of heritage are that they are "living" or "real life" systems, in both the ecosystem and in the cultural sense. So, agricultural heritage needs to be conserved in a special way. In a well-reasoned approach to dynamic conservation of agricultural heritage, careful development of heritage sites can realize greater sustainability of the traditional agriculture by considering both conservation and development though tourism. This paper examines the Global Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) as designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and listed by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as agricultural heritages sites. Currently, the research in China focuses on tourism resources evaluation and development, production design and marketing, tourism perception and the impacts of tourism development and so forth. There is less emphasis on research about benefit sharing of heritage tourism evolution mechanisms, environmental impacts of agricultural heritage tourism and study methods which should be analyzed in-depth, so as to illuminate the theories and practices of development in a living landscape.     

Land cover changes and landscape pattern dynamics in Senegal and Guinea Bissau borderland

Different levels of climatic, agricultural, demographic, political and socioeconomic change have been detected in West African countries. For many years the human impact on the region was negligible, due to the low population density. However, in the last decades, demographic increase has accelerated exploitation of the natural resources and consequently the degradation of the ecosystems. Land cover degradation and landscape changes are more or less pronounced according to politic and socio-economic conditions of each country. In this study, a region located on the borderland of north Guinea-Bissau and south Senegal, is analyzed with regard to land cover and landscape trends, considering the socio-economic factors that drive them and the borderline effect. In this analysis, remote sensing data (Landsat TM, ETM+ and OLI data) were used to obtain four land cover maps for the years 1990, 2002, 2010 and 2015. The results show a similar landscape behavior in both countries, directly related to similar socio-economic practices. Forest area increase in both countries and there is a reduction in Agriculture/Bare soil areas until 2010. Main causes may be associated to the rural exodus, resulting from the conflict for independence of Casamance, which affects the borderland region of Senegal and Guinea Bissau, or to the conversion of agricultural areas into cashew orchards. In opposition, between 2010 and 2015, Forest area decrease and Agriculture/Bare soil increase, due to the recent trend of conversion of old cashew orchards into traditional fields of cereals and peanut. An increase in landscape fragmentation is observed in the period under analysis, revealing a heterogenization trend, which can be related to the adoption of similar human practices, in the last decades.     

农业景观保护路径历史回顾及启示

农业景观保护是实现农业景观可持续发展的重要举措,关系到中国粮食安全保障、农耕文明传承、乡村风貌维系、生态安全格局构建乃至社会经济稳定发展.本文借助对发达国家农业景观保护路径的长时间尺度历史回顾,总结归纳出农业景观保护路径发展的一般规律,即其在社会经济发展进程中一般经历传统保护、应对保护、管制保护、治理保护和管护保护五个...     

Human and Environmental Factors Affect Patterns of Crop Diversity in an Ethiopian Highland Agroecosystem

The Ethiopian highlands are a center of diversity for numerous globally important crops. Heterogeneous landscapes, traditional agricultural practices, and inaccessibility have created and maintained diverse subsistence agroecosystems. We surveyed sixty-three farms in twelve communities of the Gamo highlands and found high levels of on-farm diversity of crop species and varieties. The extent and nature of this diversity are related to both ecological factors, namely elevation, and anthropogenic factors such as land-use history, accessibility to markets and extension, and strength and scale of farmer exchange networks. These human landscape features have the potential to both enhance and mediate effects of elevation and other environmental factors on crop diversity. The interaction of environmental and anthropogenic forces on the diversity of crops grown by farmers affects the strategies farmers employ to adapt their farming to changing conditions.     

Qualitative satellite image analysis: Mapping spatial distribution of farming types in Ethiopia

Satellite images have enormous potential for qualitative land use analysis. This paper presents empirical results that demonstrate how normally invisible dimensions produced by land use can be identified by enriching satellite data with qualitative information from field studies.Land use can be defined as the intentional use of a specific piece of land resulting in patterns of ecological responses that are visible in the land cover and landscape. Responses to land use often result in a heterogeneous combination of reflectance in satellite images. Statistical methods used in the classification of satellite imagery are limited in their capacity to handle categories consisting of heterogeneous combinations of spectral values. To overcome this limitation, a contextual post-classification method has been used to map land cover configurations as related to different agricultural practices in the district of Sodo, Ethiopia.The results show that it is possible to map socio-spatial distribution of different agricultural and socioeconomic practices on a regional level by combining field observations and spatial contextual information. The empirical findings show local agricultural activity variations in cash crop production and subsistence agriculture in the Sodo district of Ethiopia.     

Improving the simulation of fine-resolution landscape changes by coupling top-down and bottom-up land use and cover changes rules

Modelling land use and cover changes (LUCC) at local and landscape scales simultaneously, in terms of composition and configuration, remains today highly challenging. Agricultural landscapes offer an illustrative context for this purpose. This article presents a modelling platform (DYPAL) able to simulate LUCC at both local (agricultural parcel, farm) and landscape levels by combining LUCC processes with an optimization algorithm. The efficiency of this approach is assessed by comparing it with an approach applying the same LUCC processes without optimization. Simulations have been developed for two representative case studies of temperate intensive agricultural mosaics: (1) neutral landscapes with simple and theoretical rules and (2) observed landscapes with realistic crop successions rules. Results show that this modelling platform improves the simulation of LUCC achieved at fine resolution, although not systematically. Improvements are observed when compared to theoretical farming practices. But, when compared with an observed landscape, it is true for one type of (arable) farms only. Several hypotheses are discussed, such as the fact that farmers possibly do not follow optimized rules. Finally, this study illustrates that the use of several indices is crucial to assess whether a simulated landscape is realistic or not, because it does not rely to the assessment of the predictive power of the model.     

三峡库区腹地山区农业景观格局动态变化与转型

山区农业景观格局动态分析有利于厘清农业景观发展的动态轨迹与方向,对农地用途的合理规划和管理有重要意义。本文提出了山区农业景观格局转型理论框架,并在三峡库区草堂溪流域进行了实证研究,从整体—微观的角度解析2000—2018年期间,以坡耕地、撂荒地和果园为代表的农业景观格局转型特征。研究发现：① 果园沿河谷的扩张和撂荒地在较高海拔处的扩张明显压缩了坡耕地的空间,这导致区域景观多样性的整体增强,而在局部地形上的差异明显,斑块破碎但聚集度增强;② 研究区农户耕种范围内的农业景观格局转型主要表现为耕—果转换型、综合型、部分撂荒型和撂荒型4种模式,各模式揭示了山区农业景观格局的不同发展阶段;③ 在以社会经济因素为主的驱动下,三峡库区山区的农业景观格局转型具有双向性,表现为以传统均衡分布的纯粮种植景观向河谷生态经济双赢的经果林景观和较高海拔的撂荒地转变。研究结果揭示了近年来中国山区农业景观格局演变的独特性,对库区山区农村土地利用和农业生态系统的深入认识以及库区乡村发展和生态环境的改善均有启示意义。     

农业景观格局演变及其生态效应研究进展

农业景观格局演变的驱动力及生态效应研究具有重要的意义, 目前研究主要集中在农业 景观格局及其组分的动态变化, 在驱动力和生态环境效应等方面的研究则是案例较多、归纳总结 和机制研究相对薄弱。分析了形成当前研究状况的原因并提出了今后研究的重点方向, 包括发展 能够反映生态过程的景观格局指数、归纳农业景观演变的驱动机制、农业景观格局变化的生态环 境效应机理研究、发展景观格局整体性指标和长期定位观测数据相结合研究方法、农业景观变化 所带来的生态恶化的恢复因子和恢复方法的研究、加强农业景观规划设计研究和实施、高效农田 景观结构设计机理研究。     

Revitalizing ecological capital

Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography 111(2):149–167, 2011

The modernization of agricultural food production has diminished and is diminishing the sustainable use of the local natural resource base, resulting in the fragmentation of landscapes and the decline of biodiversity. In this paper we analyze the revitalization of ecological capital, which provides insights into how effective adjustments in land-use and farming practices can stimulate a reconnection between farming, nature and society. The paper focuses on a case study about endogenous knowledge on the relation between farm activities and the reproduction of the landscape and its flora and fauna in the (Dutch) Friesian Woodlands. We suggest that building adequate, local institutional frameworks that strengthen landscape structures, regional identity and the ‘branding’ of food products will sustain rural development in the area. The results should be of value for increasing the understanding among researchers and policymakers of the potential of endogenous knowledge in governing the increase of the ecological stock in an area.     

Structure of volcanic landscape in the equatorial belt (A case study of the Kerinci Volcano,Sumatra Island)

An analysis is made of the volcanic landscape structure of Mount Kerinci, the highest volcano in South-East Asia. Field observations, remote sensing methods, and also cartographic material were used in obtaining new evidence to gain a more penetrating insight into the characteristics of structure and altitudinal zonation of the landscapes along the equatorial belt that have shaped themselves and are evolving in conditions of intense volcanic activity, equatorial climate and heavy anthropogenic load. The analysis revealed natural and anthropogenic landscape-forming factors that determined the present-day landscape appearance of the Kerinci volcano. Within the boundaries of the volcanic structure, landscapes of the mountain class show the highest diversity of landscape taxa. They are represented largely by slope units. With an increase in altitude, there is an increase in the proportion of landscapes of steep and vertical slopes as well as moderately steep slopes, along with the disappearance of landscapes of smart slopes and valley bottoms. A less diverse landscape structure is characteristic for subclasses of aggraded-denudation plains where there occur only landscapes with bogs and waterlogged meadows predominating. Anthropogenic modifications of landscapes occur mostly within subclasses of smart slopes and aggraded-denudation plains. They are characterized by a predominance of agricultural plants.     

Landscape and a political border determine desert arthropods distribution

We studied the distribution of arthropods in the Arava desert on both sides of the Israeli-Jordanian border, to assess the impact of different anthropogenic pressures on the local fauna. We examined how different landscape units, proximity to agricultural fields, and human societies, might affect the diversity of ground dwelling beetles, and spiders, using ordination and diversity estimation methods. Our results suggest that although both countries contain similar habitats, each has its own unique characteristics, probably due to different cultural practices. The immediate repercussion is that loss of a habitat on one side of the border cannot be compensated with preservation of the same habitat across the border, due to fauna dissimilarity. For example, beetle species can be assembled according to landscape units, but within each landscape unit they show dissimilarities that are based on the geopolitical location. Spiders fail to assemble according to landscape units but cluster as a unique group within Israel. Both landscape unit type and the border, were found to be important for the overall species diversity of this ecosystem and therefore “redundancy” should be carefully applied, especially across geopolitical borders.     

国内外高原文化景观研究进展

高原文化景观作为高原文化的重要表现形式,是国内外学者关注的重点。为探究国内外高原文化景观的研究进展,本文以高原文化景观为切入点,在梳理文化景观发展脉络的基础上,对2000年后国内外有关高原文化景观的文献进行梳理和评述。国外相关研究聚焦于文化景观历史性、身份认同、行为以及流动性四个方面,中国研究呈现出以分析高原文化景观空间分布格局为主的特征,研究主题开始呈现多元的趋势。高原文化景观研究的未来展望:关注西方的相关研究,拓展文化地理的相关研究;历史性是高原文化景观的研究重点,应关注高原文化景观的历史性;聚焦高原文化景观开发的文化价值。     

Pond biodiversity and habitat loss in the UK

Ponds are common landscape features but have been poorly studied compared to other freshwater habitats in the UK, despite their high frequency of occurrence. In the last century, many ponds have been lost and those that remain face increasing pressure due to agricultural land drainage, pollution and urban development. However, ponds provide important habitats for diverse floral and faunal communities, including a number of rare taxa of conservation interest. This paper examines the biodiversity and wider environmental value of ponds, with particular reference to the aquatic invertebrate and amphibian communities they support, and the adverse impact of anthropogenic activity on their aquatic habitats.     

农业景观对土壤侵蚀的适应机制研究初探

随着气候变化对农业系统的影响不断加剧,为保障粮食安全,必须掌握变化中的自然与人文因素,判别农 业景观中可调整的关键机制,依据未来的可能情景,尽早订定农业景观优化方案。本研究以土壤侵蚀问题为切入 点,整合相关的环境因子,构建农业景观对土壤侵蚀适应性的研究框架。基本思路为首先通过目前气候变化对土壤 侵蚀的影响研究,为不同时空尺度上土壤侵蚀发生、发展趋势提供理论依据;其次,从增强未来农业景观对土壤侵 蚀适应能力的角度,详细讨论景观类型、空间配置和管理措施等与土壤侵蚀的关系,以提高农业景观优化配置的针 对性;最后,为科学评价农业景观对土壤侵蚀适应的程度,基于Agent 模型原理设计土壤侵蚀模拟模型,通过不同 土壤侵蚀情景下景观类型、结构、空间配置和管理措施等的适应性分析,为有效提升区域农业景观的土壤抗侵蚀能 力提供科学依据。     

Heterogeneity as a measure of spatial pattern for monitoring agricultural landscapes

The Norwegian monitoring programme for agricultural landscapes is a sample-based programme that aims to document the current state and patterns of change in the agricultural landscape for the entire country. For this broad geographical coverage an indicator approach is the most cost-effective methodology. Landscape metrics are used as indicators in the monitoring programme based on the assumed importance of landscape composition and spatial pattern for a number of countryside interests. However, although indicators have been used successfully over a long period of time in various disciplines, their use in landscape monitoring is relatively new and there is little empirical data with which to assess their validity. This paper provides information on the performance of landscape diversity and landscape heterogeneity indices as estimated by specific biodiversity measures. Preliminary results show increasing numbers of breeding bird species and numbers of vascular plant species with increasing landscape diversity and heterogeneity, two indices that capture information on landscape content and structure. Overall, the heterogeneity index provided a better surrogate for species richness than the diversity index.     

The farmer as a landscape manager: Management roles and change patterns in a Danish region

Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography 111(2):107–116, 2011

Rural landscapes are mainly maintained and changed through farmers' decisions and practices. As a landscape manager the farmer has many different roles of which three roles related to the farm as a whole is investigated in this paper: producer, owner and citizen. Although most farmers take landscape decisions in all these three roles production based decisions are assumed to be more important for full time farmers than for hobby farmers who have their main income outside the farm and who may consider their farm more as a living place than as a production place. Based on a large survey carried out in Hvorslev, Eastern Jutland, Denmark in 2008 farmers' landscape practices are analysed in relation to their background, occupational status and view of their farms as a production place versus a living place. Altogether 377 farmers were interviewed and some comparisons are made to a similar survey in the same area in 1996. It was found that a significant proportion of farmers are hobby farmers who mainly see the farm as a living place and who to a large degree have different landscape practices than full time farmers have. The findings indicate that more research is needed to fully understand the reasons for and implications of the differences in landscape management practices.     

不同交通干道周边景观格局的分析与比较—以厦门岛为例

以厦门岛主要交通干道厦禾路、嘉禾路和鹰厦铁路厦门段为研究对象,利用GoogleEarth软件上获得的厦门岛2006年卫星遥感图像,在ArcGIS9.0与Fragstats3.3软件支持下,通过计算斑块面积比例、平均斑块面积、Shannon多样性、景观优势度、景观破碎度等景观指数,分析与比较各条交通干道周边地区的景观格局特征,得出：厦禾路周边人工景观面积比例较高,景观较为单一,且破碎度高;嘉禾路周边人工景观面积比例比厦禾路低,景观较为多样化,破碎度相对较低;而鹰厦铁路厦门段相对于两条道路,其周边人工景观面积比例较小,景观更为多样化,破碎度相对更低,并指出,造成不同干道周边地区城市化景观格局差异的主要两方面原因是干道建设时间的不同与干道性质的不同。     

Now I See: Photovisualization to Support Agricultural Climate Adaptation

To remain viable, agricultural producers will need to adapt to changing climatic conditions in coming decades. Agricultural advisers play an important role in helping producers decide to adopt appropriate adaptation practices. Photovisualizations have the potential to complement currently utilized outreach and education strategies. This research uses a focus group approach to explore (1) whether photovisualizations can aid in decision-making about climate change adaptation, and (2) what characteristics of photovisualizations are most effective at conveying spatial aspects of adaptation practices. We found that photovisualizations generate rich discussions about ecological and economic effects as well as tradeoffs associated with climate adaptation practices. To have the greatest impact, photovisualizations should be used when producers are considering implementing high-cost or high-risk projects, when practices are likely to dramatically change the visual landscape, or when a practice is unfamiliar to a producer.