Article

Estimate of the Area Affected Ecologically by the Road System in the United States

Wiley
Conservation Biology
Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

Abstract

In view of an extensive road system, abundant and rapidly growing vehicular traffic, and a scattered literature indicating that some ecological effects of roads extend outward for >100 m, it seems likely that the cumulative ecological effect of the road system in the United States is considerable. Two recent studies in The Netherlands and Massachusetts ( U.S.A.) evaluated several ecological effects of roads, including traffic noise effects, and provide quantitative evidence for a definable “road-effect zone.” Based on the approximate width of this asymmetric convoluted zone, I estimate that about one-fifth of the U.S. land area is directly affected ecologically by the system of public roads. I identify a series of assumptions and variables suggesting that over time this preliminary estimate is more likely to rise than drop. Several transportation planning and policy recommendations, ranging from perforating the road barrier for wildlife crossings to closing certain roads, offer promise for reducing this enormous ecological effect.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.

... Roads and highways divide landscapes into smaller ones, and the opening of new boundaries or edges generate new habitat conditions. In fact, roads and highways fragment landscapes, increase species' risks, and disturb species' resources (Bender et al. 1998, Spellerberg 1998, Forman 2000. ...
... Moreover scientists focus on diverse outcomes of fragmentation, such as the edge effect (Forman 2000). The edge effect varies with the increase of the edge length in each patch. ...
... A greater edge length exposes greater areas to disturbances. In addition, a complex-shaped edge introduces greater variation to edge conditions caused by orientation, exposure to prevailing winds, water runoff, and sedimentation (McGarigal and Marks 1994, Reed et al. 1996, Forman 2000. Zheng and Chen (2000) observe that the edge effect is dynamic not uniform, and it is different for each landscape type. ...
Thesis
Full-text available
Highways are a major cause of landscape fragmentation. For the past three decades, debate in conservation planning has focused on landscape fragmentation and the decrease of species diversity associated with habitat loss. The goal of this study is to evaluate the effects of highways on landscape size and fragmentation. The specific objective is to quantify how the size and fragmentation of landscapes decrease with distance from highways along a section of 20 km on Highway I-95 in Florida. The selected study area is about 24,000 hectares at northern St. Johns County, Florida. The study analyzes fragmentation variation over time for 1973, 1990, and 2000 by using a parametric methodology within a Geographic Information System (GIS) and FRAGSTATS statistics at landscape scale. The landscape classification of the Florida Natural Areas Inventory was used along with St. Johns County land cover, land-use, and roads and highway data for the definition of landscape types. The three indicators of fragmentation used include Patch Number, Patch Density, and Largest Patch Index, and they were calculated to measure landscape fragmentation. Results show that landscape fragmentation values decrease with increasing distance from highways, but it also reveals that accessibility through highways encourages new patterns of land use that increases landscape fragmentation. The study is a significant tool for understanding the complexity of assessing urban and wildlife areas for conservation planning recommendations.
... In terms of their geometry, LFs have higher perimeter-to-area ratios and higher edge-to-area ratios [7,8]. Even if some of these LFs are temporary or deemed to have a "low-impact" [9,10], they contribute to fragmentation, with the majority (70%) of the world's forests being within 1 km of a forest edge, leading to diminished habitat suitability adjacent to LFs caused by edge effects [11,12]. Moreover, LFs have direct effects on wildlife species [11,[13][14][15][16], soil [5,[17][18][19], seed dispersal and the spread of wind-dispersed invasive species [20], abiotic conditions [21,22], forest structure and composition, and their adjacent environment [23,24]. ...
... Even if some of these LFs are temporary or deemed to have a "low-impact" [9,10], they contribute to fragmentation, with the majority (70%) of the world's forests being within 1 km of a forest edge, leading to diminished habitat suitability adjacent to LFs caused by edge effects [11,12]. Moreover, LFs have direct effects on wildlife species [11,[13][14][15][16], soil [5,[17][18][19], seed dispersal and the spread of wind-dispersed invasive species [20], abiotic conditions [21,22], forest structure and composition, and their adjacent environment [23,24]. Since the most prevalent linear anthropogenic feature in many regions of eastern boreal forest are forest roads, the management of this vast network to minimize the associated linear footprint on biodiversity and wildlife habitat, requires an understanding of forest road vegetation characteristic dynamics [25,26]. ...
... Table S1: Hyperparameters (ranges and types) and their definitions. Figure S2: (A) Summary of vegetation cover predictions (means and means +/-standard deviation error bars) grouped by different forest road categories and timeframes, from cross-validated rf model (R 2 = 0.69, RMSE = 18.69%) recorded within the multi-buffers around the road centerlines, across forest road types (wide roads and narrow forest roads) for the post-clearing timeframes: >20 YPC (long-term, black boxes), [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] YPC (mid-term, dark grey boxes), and [0-10] YPC (short-term, light grey boxes). (B) Vegetation cover mean predictions using independently-validated rf model (R 2 = 0.62, RMSE = 20.29%) ...
Article
Full-text available
Linear feature networks are the roads, trails, pipelines, and seismic lines developed throughout many commercial boreal forests. These linear features, while providing access for industrial, recreational, silvicultural, and fire management operations, also have environmental implications which involve both the active and non-active portions of the network. Management of the existing linear feature networks across boreal forests would lead to the optimization of maintenance and construction costs as well as the minimization of the cumulative environmental effects of the anthropogenic linear footprint. Remote sensing data and predictive modelling are valuable support tools for the multi-level management of this network by providing accurate and detailed quantitative information aiming to assess linear feature conditions (e.g., deterioration and vegetation characteristic dynamics). However, the potential of remote sensing datasets to improve knowledge of fine-scale vegetation characteristic dynamics within forest roads has not been fully explored. This study investigated the use of high-spatial resolution (1 m), airborne LiDAR, terrain, climatic, and field survey data, aiming to provide information on vegetation characteristic dynamics within forest roads by (i) developing a predictive model for the characterization of the LiDAR-CHM vegetation cover dynamic (response metric) and (ii) investigating causal factors driving the vegetation cover dynamic using LiDAR (topography: slope, TWI, hillshade, and orientation), Sentinel-2 optical imagery (NDVI), climate databases (sunlight and wind speed), and field inventory (clearing width and years post-clearing). For these purposes, we evaluated and compared the performance of ordinary least squares (OLS) and machine learning (ML) regression approaches commonly used in ecological modelling—multiple linear regression (mlr), multivariate adaptive regression splines (mars), generalized additive model (gam), k-nearest neighbors (knn), gradient boosting machines (gbm), and random forests (rf). We validated our models’ results using an error metric—root mean square error (RMSE)—and a goodness-of-fit metric—coefficient of determination (R2). The predictions were tested using stratified cross-validation and were validated against an independent dataset. Our findings revealed that the rf model showed the most accurate results (cross-validation: R2 = 0.69, RMSE = 18.69%, validation against an independent dataset: R2 = 0.62, RMSE = 20.29%). The most informative factors were clearing width, which had the strongest negative effect, suggesting the underlying influence of disturbance legacies, and years post-clearing, which had a positive effect on the vegetation cover dynamic. Our long-term predictions suggest that a timeframe of no less than 20 years is expected for both wide- and narrow-width roads to exhibit ~50% and ~80% vegetation cover, respectively. This study has improved our understanding of fine-scale vegetation dynamics around forest roads, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The information from the predictive model is useful for both the short- and long-term management of the existing network. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that spatially explicit models using LiDAR data are reliable tools for assessing vegetation dynamics around forest roads. It provides avenues for further research and the potential to integrate this quantitative approach with other linear feature studies. An improved knowledge of vegetation dynamic patterns on linear features can help support sustainable forest management.
... Notably, during their construction, operation, and maintenance, transportation corridors alter the original land use, disruption of the landscape patterns, and degradation of regional ecosystems (Liu et al., 2014;Karlson & Mörtberg, 2015). The impacts of transportation corridors on land use change (LUC) have been reported to involve 15-20 % of the global land area (Forman, 2000). Assessing the impacts of cross-border transportation corridors on LUC and landscape changes along these corridors will provide basis for guidance and decision-making for the scientific design/layout of infrastructure construction and geo-economic cooperation (Dong et al., 2018). ...
... Specifically, transportation corridors serve as channels for material and energy (e.g., capital) flow and are both causes and preconditions for regional landscape fragmentation. In terms of the ecological impacts around transportation corridors, scholars have studied various aspects such as biological populations (Hodson, 1962;Wang et al., 2022), the physical and chemical environment (Forman, 2000), ecosystem services (Chen, Zeng, & Zeng, 2021), ecological risks (Mo, Wang, Zhang, & Zhuang, 2017), and sustainable development (Gudmundsson & Höjer, 1996). At the scale effect level, transportation corridors of different grades, types, and densities have varying impacts on different land use and landscape types. ...
Article
Regional integration initiatives have triggered impacts on land use changes (LUC) and landscape patterns through geo-economic cooperation like cross-border infrastructure, which are often presented, but comprehensive studies on the extent and degree remains insufficient. The China-Laos Railway (CLR), a cross-border transportation corridor connecting Kunming in China with the Laotian capital, Vientiane, which was launched in December 2016 and operation started in December 2021, has recently witnessed rapid and notable changes in landscape and land use. This case study provides a distinctive opportunity to evaluate the relative significance of political and socioeconomic factors on LUC and landscape patterns. In this study, we integrate 10-m land-use data products (2017–2022) provided by Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc (ESRI) with geospatial analysis to quantify and compare the impacts of cross-border transportation corridors on LUC within a 10 km buffer area along the CLR. The results showed that since 2017, about 3 % deforestation caused by the expansion of cropland (8 %) and construction land (38 %) along the CLR. The comprehensive dynamic degree along the CLR displays two peaks, appearing within the 2–4 km and 8–10 km buffer zones. Interestingly, the fragmentation of land patches within the buffer zone decreases as the distance from the CLR increases. Moreover, the construction of the CLR has a greater impact on the Laotian side, while its completion and operation triggered more significant changes on the Chinese side. The study quantitatively assesses the extent, type, and intensity of the impacts of cross-border transportation corridors on LUC and landscape patterns.
... Redes eléctricas y vialidades pavimentadas 300 m desde el eje de la red Rost y Bailey, 1979;Andrews, 1990;Saunders et al., 1991;Murcia, 1995;Olander et al., 1998;Pohlman et al., 2007;Coffin, 2007;Elias, 2008;Forman et al., 1997;Forman y Alexander;, Forman, 2000Harper et al., 2005;Laurance et al., 2009. Caminos y senderos de tierra 25 m desde el eje vial Andrews, 1990;Saunders et al., 1991;Murcia, 1995;Forman et al., 1997;Forman y Alexander, 1998;Laurance, 1998;Olander et al., 1998;Forman, 2000;Saunders et al., 2002;Harper y MacDonald, 2002;Marsh y Beckman, 2004;Harper et al., 2005;Peña et al., 2005;Coffin, 2007;Delgado et al., 2007;Pohlman et al., 2007;Elías, 2008;Laurance et al., 2009. ...
... Redes eléctricas y vialidades pavimentadas 300 m desde el eje de la red Rost y Bailey, 1979;Andrews, 1990;Saunders et al., 1991;Murcia, 1995;Olander et al., 1998;Pohlman et al., 2007;Coffin, 2007;Elias, 2008;Forman et al., 1997;Forman y Alexander;, Forman, 2000Harper et al., 2005;Laurance et al., 2009. Caminos y senderos de tierra 25 m desde el eje vial Andrews, 1990;Saunders et al., 1991;Murcia, 1995;Forman et al., 1997;Forman y Alexander, 1998;Laurance, 1998;Olander et al., 1998;Forman, 2000;Saunders et al., 2002;Harper y MacDonald, 2002;Marsh y Beckman, 2004;Harper et al., 2005;Peña et al., 2005;Coffin, 2007;Delgado et al., 2007;Pohlman et al., 2007;Elías, 2008;Laurance et al., 2009. Valles intervenidos de la vertiente norte (VERNOR) circunvecinos al parque 300 m desde el límite del área agrícola Murcia 1995;Laurance, 1998;Laurance et al., 1998;Cochrane, 2001;Revilla et al., 2001;Laurance et al. 2002;Cochrane, 2003;Giambelluca et al., 2003;Laurance 2004aLaurance , 2004bHarper et al., 2005;Cayuela et al., 2006;Michalski et al., 2006 Poblados dentro del parque 300 m a partir del centro del poblado en ambas vertientes Murcia, 1995, Laurance, 1998Esparza y Carruthers, 2000;Laurance, 2000;Revilla et al., 2001;Laurance et al., 2002;Giambelluca et al., 2003;Laurance 2004a;Harper et al., 2005;Lees y Peres 2006;Michalski et al., 2006;Ewers et al., 2007;Laurance, 2009 Murcia, 1995;Laurance, 2000;Revilla et al., 2001;Cochrane, 2003;Laurance 2004a;Lees y Peres, 2006;Michalski et al., 2006;Ewers et al., 2007;Laurance et al., 2007;Laurance 2008;Laurance y Useche, 2009;Laurance et al., 2009;Briant et al., 2010;Laurance et al., 2011. ...
Article
La fragmentación ha sido identificada como la mayor amenaza que hoy día están padeciendo los ecosistemas del mundo; y entre éstos, en los bosques nublados. Este estudio analiza las afectaciones espaciales del Parque Nacional Henri Pittier (PNHP), Venezuela por el efecto de borde generado por fraccionamientos. Los objetivos fueron identificar, cuantificar y analizar espacialmente los efectos bordes en las unidades de cobertura vegetal, zonificación y cuencas hidrográficas del parque. Estos efectos son generados dentro del área del parque por fragmentación y por usos incompatibles tanto adentro como afuera de la poligonal del PNHP. La metodología se basó en un modelo hipotético, construido mediante revisión documental sobre alteraciones de ecosistemas boscosos tropicales. Se usaron dos softwares de sistemas de información geográfica, así como la herramienta “buffer” del ArcGis. Los resultados arrojaron que el área del parque bajo el efecto de borde es de aproximadamente 35 %. Los herbazales, la Zona de Recuperación Natural (ZRN) (60,8 %) y las cuencas hidrográficas El Castaño (15,5 %), El Limón (13,8 %) y Polvorín (13,1 %) en la vertiente sur y Choroní (24,7 %), en la vertiente norte, fueron identificados como las unidades más afectadas. El fraccionamiento y sus respectivos bordes deben estar afectando desfavorablemente los servicios ecosistémicos del parque; hay evidencias de estados de amenazas para algunas especies de la fauna. Por lo anterior, sería adecuado incluir en estudios futuros análisis sobre afectaciones a los servicios ecosistémicos generadas por fragmentación y efecto de borde. Abstract Fragmentation has been identified as the greatest threat that the world's ecosystems are suffering today; and between these, in the cloud forests. This study analyzes the spatial effects of the Henri Pittier National Park (PNHP), Venezuela due to the edge effect generated by subdivisions. The objectives were to identify, quantify, and spatially analyze the edge effects in the park's vegetation cover, zoning, and watershed units. These effects are generated within the park area by fragmentation and by incompatible uses both inside and outside the PNHP polygon. The methodology was based on a hypothetical model, built through documentary review on alterations of tropical forest ecosystems. Two geographic information system software were used, as well as the ArcGis "buffer" tool. The results showed that the park area under the edge effect is approximately 35%. The grasslands, the Natural Recovery Zone (ZRN) (60.8%) and the El Castaño (15.5%), El Limón (13.8%) and Polvorín (13.1%) hydrographic basins on the southern slope and Choroní (24.7%), on the northern slope were identified as the most affected units. The subdivision and its respective borders must be unfavorably affecting the park's ecosystem services; there is evidence of threat states for some species of fauna. Therefore, it would be appropriate to include in future studies analyzes of effects on ecosystem services generated by fragmentation and edge effect.
... The parent materials of all sampled soils originated from Yangtze Delta alluvium, which was heterogeneous. Since previous studies showed that heavy metal contamination was concentrated within 300 m from roads [1,[41][42][43][44], we sampled at two distances from roads: 50 and 150 m. ...
... Many researchers have shown that the heavy metal concentration decreases with the distance from the highway [1,44,49,50]. The distance at which heavy metals are affected by the highway is not consistent [14,29,[41][42][43][44]. For example, the polluting distance of heavy metals is often found to be less than 150 m [17,36,48,50] and even less than 30 m [14] or 10 m [29]. ...
Article
Full-text available
To reveal the secondary anthropogenic contribution and accumulation rate of heavy metals in highway-side soils, we studied soil heavy metals on three representative highways in Southeast China, with different traffic intensities, service years, land use patterns and distances from roads, with high-resolution sampling of soil profiles. Concentrations of soil Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd were measured. The comparison of concentrations in surface soils with original values and their vertical distributions shows that soils within 150 m of the highway side are contaminated by heavy metals, with surface accumulation and possible movement down the profiles. The transferring depth of heavy metals was 10–30 cm. The contribution ratios of heavy metals were 1.0–30.5% in the surface at 30 cm, with the sequence of Cd >> Cu > Zn > Pb. The accumulation rates were 1.27–2.03 kg Cu ha−1 y−1, 2.44–5.27 kg Zn ha−1 y−1, 0.71–1.40 kg Pb ha−1 y−1 and 0.010–0.018 kg Cd ha−1 y−1 in soils within 50 m range. Furthermore, the accumulation of these metals varied with the traffic intensity, service years and land use patterns. Soils under forest have less heavy metal accumulation, which suggests a protective forest to set beside highways at a distance of at least 50 m to prevent soils from being contaminated.
... Roads serve as dispersal corridors where invasive plant propagules are spread by humans, vehicles and animals using roadways as travel paths (Buckley et al. 2003;Lonsdale and Lane 1994;Rauschert, Mortensen, and Bloser 2017). Moreover, human-induced changes to environmental conditions along roadsides can increase soil moisture, soil disturbance, soil nutrients, exposure to sun and soil temperature (Forman 2000;Delgado, Arevalo, and Fernandez-Palacios 2001;Parendes and Jones 2000;Li et al. 2009), all of which are factors known to promote plant invasions (Davis, Grime, and Thompson 2000;. Therefore, the effects of roads on changing habitat conditions and the dispersal of invasive plant propagules have attracted increasing research attention (Flory and Clay 2006;Pollnac et al. 2012;Dar, Reshi, and Shah 2013;Kotowska, Pärt, and Żmihorski 2021;Moore et al. 2023). ...
Article
Full-text available
Aim Road networks are common landscape disturbances that can facilitate the spread of invasive plants. This study explored the influence of distance from the road, habitat type and broader environmental factors in shaping the distribution patterns of both invasive and native species in the above‐ground vegetation and soil seed banks. Location Guangxi, China. Methods We collected data on plant species composition from both soil seed banks and above‐ground vegetation at six distances from the road edge: 0 m, 2 m, 4 m, 9 m, 14 m and 24 m in three habitat types, including abandoned land, Eucalyptus plantations and natural secondary forests. We collected data on environmental variables at each sampling location. We examined the compositional similarity of plant communities by non‐metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and identified the influence factors by redundancy analysis (RDA). Results Our results indicated that invasive species richness decreased with distance from the road, especially in natural secondary forests. Conversely, native species did not show consistent distribution patterns relative to distance from roads across the various habitats. The composition of invasive plant communities was similar in both soil seed banks and above‐ground vegetation, while only 13.33% of native species identified in the soil were observed in the above‐ground vegetation. Road characteristics, human disturbance and soil properties correlated with the distribution of invasive and native species, with the strength of these correlations varying among habitat types. The richness and density of native plants were associated with the presence of invasive alien plants at various distances from the road across the three types of habitats. Main Conclusions The study highlights that proximity to the road, habitat type and environmental factors are critical in determining the distribution of plant species within nature reserves. Moreover, it underscores the importance of integrating both above‐ground and seed bank perspectives for effective management strategies to control invasive species and promote native plant communities.
... Heneberg et al., 2017;Hopwood, 2008;Phillips et al., 2019) and are often used as nesting areas (Heneberg et al., 2017;Hopwood, 2008;Wuellner, 1999). Considering that roads in the United States cover some 21 million km (Forman, 2000), and that this number will likely climb (Meijer et al., 2018), understanding the effects of roads on pollinators is important. ...
Article
Full-text available
Pollinator populations face multiple threats, including habitat modification, complete habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. Efforts to increase habitat for potentially imperilled species include the recognition of roadside vegetation as providing important floral and nesting resources for bee species. Though roadsides be good bee habitat because they either 1) open up the dense forest canopy in mesic landscapes or 2) include more flowering plants because of increased runoff in arid landscapes, there may also be detriments. Most importantly, bees that forage or nest near roads may be more likely to be hit by moving vehicles. To date, there is no comprehensive study that quantifies bee morality from moving vehicles. Here, we used sticky traps attached to car bumpers to determine bee mortality on trips throughout Utah, USA. These data were then used to extrapolate likely average and minimum levels of bee mortality across all vehicles that drive in a day along given roads, based on Department of Transportation statistics. Though numbers are only estimates based on projection, they hint at incredibly high day-to-day mortality rates of pollinators that occur near roadways. Specifically, we forecast that tens of millions of bees are killed daily on roads in western states. Transportation authorities may want to consider ways to maximize the value of roadside habitat, while minimizing bee–vehicle collisions.
... For instance, studies in the Amazon showed that nearly 95% of deforestation occurred within 5.5 km of roads or 1 km of rivers [57]. The expansion of transportation networks also increased noise pollution [60]. Additionally, the road pressure on biodiversity is contingent upon various factors such as traffic intensity, the distance and type of the road, and its location [61,62]. ...
Article
Full-text available
The escalating human pressures on natural ecosystems necessitate urgent and effective conservation strategies to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem functions. This review explored current techniques for mapping human pressure, with a particular focus on their application in nature conservation, especially within protected areas (PAs). Specifically, we analyzed the impacts of seven major types of human pressures on nature conservation within PAs. Additionally, we discussed four key methods for mapping human pressure, including land use intensity, human footprint, digital human footprint, and other proxies, examining their distinct characteristics and respective advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, our research explored the application of human pressure mapping for nature conservation, assessing its suitability for conservation applications and delineating directions for future work. These insights contributed to better support nature conservation and the management of PAs.
... The impacts of transportation corridors on regional land use changes and landscape patterns have been mainly studied in terms of spatial and temporal characteristics, simulation prediction mechanisms, driving factors, and impact effects (Forman, 2000;Sarfraz et al., 2023;Kanchan et al., 2024;Zhao et al., 2024). At present, urgent quantitative studies is needed on the issue about the impacts of regional cross-border railway corridors on land use, landscape changes, and ecological environment. ...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Transportation corridors, as special economic corridors, have a greater impact on land cover and landscape pattern changes. Methods Therefore, 10 buffer zones were established at 1 km intervals on both sides of the Longhai Railway as the centerline to trace the impact of the railroad corridor on the land use change and regional landscape pattern change of the cities along the line from 1985 to 2020. Result The results show that: (1) The land cover changes along the railroad corridor during the 35 years are mainly characterized by the conversion between cropland, grassland, and construction land. Compared with 1985, in 2020, the construction land increased by 161.96%, the grassland area decreased by 11.83%, and the cropland area decreased by 15.83%. (2) The fragmentation of land patches and vegetation coverage is negatively and positively correlated with the buffer zone distance, respectively. In the same year, the comprehensive land-use dynamic degree is smaller as it is further away from the railway. The nighttime light index in the buffer zone is significantly correlated with the land aggregation index and average patch area, and the closer to the railroad, the higher the land aggregation index of construction land. (3) In terms of zoning, the intensity of land cover and landscape pattern changes in the eastern section is higher than that in the western section, with a higher degree of land fragmentation and more agglomeration of construction land, and the transportation corridor has a greater impact on the change of integrated land use motives in this region. The results of the study can provide a scientific basis for optimising the spatial pattern of land and improving the ecological environment in the construction of cross-regional transport corridors.
... These effects are widespread and continue to increase as the footprint of anthropogenic land use expands. For example, 88,000 km of new roads were built between 1987 and 1997 in the United States (Forman 2000, FHWA 2011, and this trend is likely to continue with new roads being built in previously roadless areas to provide access for urban expansion, natural resource extraction, recreation, and other anthropogenic land uses. Globally, road networks are also growing at unprecedented rates in remote areas of Latin America, China, and India (Laurance et al. 2002, Meijer et al. 2018; thereby increasing the global footprint. ...
... This can happen through multiple pathways, such as by avoidance of the physical road surface, avoidance of traffic emissions such as noise, and avoidance of cars and vehicular traffic (D' Amico et al., 2015). Roads and railway lines also decrease the quality of the habitat through which they pass, the effects percolating a few kilometres inside the habitat (Forman, 2000). Light, sound and air pollutants can leach into natural systems, cause disturbance to wildlife, interfere with inter-and intra-species communication, and add to the barrier already created by the physical road and railway track (Silva Lucas et al., 2017;. ...
Article
Full-text available
Social and economic growth imperatives have been the driving force behind the large-scale and rapid spurt in linear infrastructure (LI) projects in India, particularly roads and railway lines. However, while these projects aim to improve the transportation connectivity of the country, their ecological impacts on the natural ecosystems of the country are becoming increasingly evident. We delve into the prerogatives of both infrastructure development and conservation scenarios in India as they relate to one another. We also trace the country’s journey in the realm of mitigating the impacts that these vital infrastructure projects exert on natural systems. We also outline future research directions for ecologists, and the course of action for LI development agencies and other stakeholders to harmonise the conflict between development and conservation. In conclusion, we aim to provide a blueprint for concerted efforts from both conservation and development proponents to ensure that the path to India’s economic growth is sustainable.
... Landscape fragmentation is a process derived from both natural and anthropogenic forces (e.g., Zheng et al., 2023;Kubacka et al., 2022;Lawrence et al., 2021;Cai et al., 2020;Lisiak-Zielińska et al., 2018;Haddad et al., 2015;Cai et al., 2013;Jędrzejewski et al., 2011;Fahrig and Rytwinski, 2009;Pȃtroescu et al., 2007;Geneletti, 2006;Forman, 2000), and it results from the patchwork conversion and development of sites into urban or other intensively used areas and the linkage of these sites via linear infrastructure, such as roads and railroads (e.g., Karlson and Mörtberg, 2015;Wu et al., 2014;Garriga et al., 2012;Moser et al., 2007;Hawbaker and Redeloff, 2004). These processes create more or less isolated habitat patches, ecosystems, or other land-use types embedded in a development matrix that, in turn, affect ecological interactions, i.e., ecological flows among habitat patches (Forman, 1995). ...
... For migratory amphibians, if the terrestrial and wetland habitats are separated by a road, fence-end treatments should encourage them to move in the opposite direction of the structure toward an eco-passage. Thus, given the substantial financial commitment to implement road mitigation structures (Forman, 2000), more research consideration is warranted to determine if migratory amphibians respond to the current fence-end treatment recommendations to maximize the conservation outcome to preserve their populations. ...
Article
Full-text available
Migratory amphibians require movements to complete their biphasic life cycle, often across altered landscapes fragmented by roadways, which can have severe consequences on their populations. To manage this threat, transportation agencies have begun to implement exclusion fencing to separate natural areas from the roadway to prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions. Although fences are an effective conservation tool, the tendency of animals to access the road by circumventing the fence ends, known as the fence-end effect, threatens to jeopardize management efforts to reduce road associated mortality. One strategy to lessen the impacts of the fence-end effect is to construct fence-end treatments to block amphibian movement and guide the animals to safe crossing locations. By using experimental fence arenas, we examined how nine amphibian species responded to two alternative fence-end structures: horizontal v-shape and perpendicular fence-end treatments. Using a generalized linear model framework, we found both fence-end treatments to be an effective strategy to reduce the impacts of the fence-end effect, with our predictor variable, fence-end treatment, explaining most of the variation in amphibian response. Structure effectiveness also started to improve by 20% with each 7°C increase in temperature, however, this was not significant. Despite these promising findings, we also found for each additional 312 s an amphibians spent attempting to navigate around the experimental fence resulted in a 25% decline in structure effectiveness, suggesting longer fences are not an adequate protection measure to combat the fence-end effect for amphibians. In addition, Anaxyrus americanus was not found to differ in their response, performing equally well to both experimental fence-end treatments. In contrast, Rana spp., Pseudacris crucifer, and Notopthalmus viridescens showed a greater response to the horizontal v-shape fence-end treatment compared to the perpendicular fence-end treatment. Variation in response for Ambystoma spp. could not be detected due to a small sample size; however, no individuals responded positively to the perpendicular fence-end treatment. Guidelines for amphibian fences should continue to incorporate fence-end treatments into the design and implementation to mitigate for the fence-end effect, and preferably angle the fence-ends inward in the horizontal v-shape pattern with the fence ends diagonal to the road for migratory amphibians.
... Due to their unique designs and functions, different LIs have the potential to differentially affect wildlife (Borda-de-Água et al., 2017;Forman, 2000). For instance, transport corridors, such as roads and railroads, exert a dynamic disturbance on the environment due to vehicular movement resulting in animalvehicle collisions and emission of pollutants at the site. ...
Preprint
Full-text available
Linear infrastructures (LIs) such as roads, railroads, and powerlines are expanding rapidly around the globe. While most future developments are projected to take place in tropical regions, available information on impacts of LIs is biased towards single species studies of solely road impacts in temperate regions. Therefore, we investigated impacts of three types of LIs (road, railroad, and powerline) on the bird community of a tropical dry forest. Point-count surveys to record avian richness and abundance were conducted at 80 plots that were spatially stratified to include sites proximate to all possible LI combinations. Five measures of vegetation structure were collected at each plot as well. We then assessed the relationship between the bird community (i.e., richness, abundance, composition) and distance to each LI type while accounting for variation in vegetation structure. Species richness and abundance both declined significantly (25% and 20%, respectively) from edge habitat next to railroad to interior forest plots, while community composition was significantly altered by the distance to all three LIs. Road and railroad (both forms of dynamic infrastructure with moving vehicles) had similar effects on the bird community that contrasted with those of powerline (a type of static infrastructure). The resulting ordination reveled that Sri Lankan endemics are significantly disfavored by LI proximity, while the three species most often found proximal to LIs all have naturalized populations across the world. Our results emphasize that LI drive biotic homogenization by favoring generalist species at the expense of unique elements of the biota.
... Subalpine forests play crucial roles in supporting terrestrial ecological services such as nutrient cycling [1] and regulating climate, air quality, and hydrology [2,3]. Yet, unprecedented human alterations to the native land surface pose growing threats on subalpine forest ecosystems [4], e.g., highway construction, leading to the degradation of landscape connectivity [5], loss of biodiversity [6], and even decreases in ecosystem quality [7]. Techniques such as external soil spray seeding (ESSS) [8] are often employed to facilitate landscape restorations after construction. ...
Article
Full-text available
Abundant and rare bacteria exhibit unequal responses to environmental changes and disturbances, potentially resulting in differential contributions to the altitudinal characteristics of total community in natural and disturbed soils. Although the altitude patterns of soil bacteria have been widely studied, it remains unclear whether these patterns are consistent among bacteria with varying predominance levels, and which subpopulation contributes more to maintaining these patterns in natural and disturbed subalpine forest soils. In this study, we collected 18 natural subalpine forest soil samples and 18 disturbed ones from three altitudes (2900 m a.s.l., 3102 m a.s.l., and 3194 m a.s.l.) along the Wenma highway in Miyaluo, Lixian, Sichuan, Southwest China. By partitioning total bacterial communities based on species predominance, we found that bacteria with higher predominance levels tended to exhibit altitude patterns (α-diversity, community structure, and functional redundancy) similar to those of total bacteria in both natural and disturbed subalpine forest soils, although they only occupied a small portion of the community. Abundant bacteria might play critical roles in maintaining the regional ecological characteristics of total community across the altitude gradient, while the rare and hyper-rare ones might contribute more to local diversity and functional redundancy. In natural soils, the altitude patterns of α-diversity inferred from total, abundant, and rare bacteria were mainly shaped by NO3−-N, while soil conductivity mainly drove the altitude patterns of α-diversity inferred from hyper-rare bacteria. Additionally, the community structures of total, abundant, rare, and hyper-rare bacteria were mainly shaped by NO3−-N, while the altitude patterns of functional redundancy inferred from total, abundant, and rare bacteria were mainly shaped by soil conductivity in natural soils. In disturbed subalpine forest soils, the influences of NO3−-N for the altitude patterns of α-diversity and community structure, and those of soil conductivity for functional redundancy, were relatively weak in total, abundant, rare, and hyper-rare bacteria. This study examined the roles of bacteria with varying predominance levels in maintaining the altitude pattern of bacteria in both natural and disturbed subalpine forest soils, providing novel insights for devising strategies to conserve biodiversity and ecologically restore disturbed soils in subalpine ecosystems.
... Roadside habitats and other transportation corridors constitute large areas in most landscapes. For example, about 1% of the land area in the USA is covered by roads and roadsides, and approximately 20% of the land is ecologically affected, either directly or indirectly, by the public road system (Forman 2000). Roads and transport infrastructure impose several types of negative impacts on landscapes and biodiversity, such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, barriers for animals, roadkill mortality, and pollution. ...
... Yet, they are sensitive to disturbances and land-use changes [2]. The construction of highways in these ecosystems usually results in the formation of cut slopes, causing landscape connectivity degradation [3], biodiversity loss [4], and decreases in ecosystem quality [5]. Various initiatives are employed to rapidly stabilize cut slopes and restore above-ground landscapes, with external soil spray seeding (ESSS) emerging as a widely adopted technique that involves spraying artificially mixed soils onto cut slopes. ...
Article
Full-text available
Soil fungi often operate through diverse functional guilds, and play critical roles in driving soil nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition and the health of above-ground vegetation. However, fungal functional guilds at the early-stage restoration of disrupted subalpine forest soils remain elusive. In the present study, we collected 36 soil samples along an altitudinal gradient (2900 m a.s.l., 3102 m a.s.l., and 3194 m a.s.l.) from cut slopes (CS) (from Wenma highway) and natural soils (NS) at the Miyaluo of Lixian County, Southwest China. By applying nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing, this study revealed the ecological characteristics of fungal functional guild in the early-stage restoration of cut slope soils. The results showed that the predicted prevalence of ectomycorrhizal fungi decreased, while plant pathogens and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi increased in CS. In the high-altitude regions (3102 m a.s.l. and 3194 m a.s.l.), the differences in communities between natural and cut slope soils were more pronounced for total soil fungi, soil saprotroph, litter saprotroph, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and ectomycorrhizal fungi, in contrast to the low altitude communities (2900 m a.s.l.). An opposite pattern was evident for plant pathogens. Variations in the differences of both soil properties (mainly soil pH) and community assembling processes (e.g., heterogeneous selection, dispersal limitation and drift) between natural and cut slope soils across the altitudinal gradient likely shaped the shifting patterns of community difference. This study provides valuable insights for devising restoration approaches for cut slopes in subalpine forest ecosystems, emphasizing the importance of taking soil fungal functional guilds into account in evaluating the restoration of cut slopes, and underscoring the necessity for increased attention to the restoration of soil fungi in cut slopes at the high-altitude ecosystems.
... La RBPC esta enfrentándose a una gran pérdida y fragmentación del hábitat, que debe estar sustancialmente impulsada por la expansión de infraestructuras lineales; como las carreteras, líneas de transmisión eléctricas y tuberías de gas (Trombulak y Frissell, 2000;Coffin 2007;Van der Ree et al., 2011). Este tipo de infraestructuras están ocasionando una reducción en la cantidad y calidad de hábitat disponibles para la biodiversidad, (Spellerberg, 1998;Forman, 2000;Trombulak y Frissell, 2000). En estudios como el realizado en la zona de manglar de Tabasco (De la Cruz, 2009), se encontró que la relación entre el manglar y el establecimiento de la vía de comunicación, derivó en la pérdida de superficie de ese ecosistema y de las funciones que realiza. ...
... Habitat lost to road construction is also notable, as the increasing extent of these cleared areas erodes the surrounding habitat. Furthermore, road effects can reach into otherwise intact landscapes, with verges introducing habitat edges along their lengths (Eigenbrod et al. 2009) and further degrading important habitats, referred to as the "road effect zone" (Forman 2000). Additionally, runoff from impervious surfaces of paved roads can contain damaging chemicals from road deicers and vehicle emissions (Kayhanian et al. 2012). ...
Article
Full-text available
Context Road expansion has raised concerns regarding road effects on wildlife and ecosystems within the landscape. Salamanders, critical ecosystem components and bioindicators, are vulnerable to road impacts due to habitat loss, migrations, and reliance on stream health. Systemic reviews considering the effects of different road types on salamanders are lacking. Objectives We summarize 155 studies of road effects on salamanders, including paved, unpaved, and logging roads, hiking trails, railroads, and powerlines. We examine trends in road type, study area, and impacts on salamanders; summarize current knowledge; and identify knowledge gaps. Methods We used Web of Science for literature searches, completed in January 2023. We reviewed and summarized papers and used Chi-squared tests to explore patterns in research efforts, research gaps, and impacts on salamanders. Review Roads had negative effects on salamanders through direct mortality, damaging habitat, and fragmenting populations. Traffic and wetland proximity increased negative impacts in some studies; abandoned logging roads showed negative effects. Positive effects were limited to habitat creation along roads. Habitat creation and under-road tunnels with drift fencing were effective mitigation strategies. Non-passenger vehicle roads were critically understudied, as were mitigation strategies such as bucket brigades and habitat creation along roads. Conclusions With road networks expanding and salamander populations declining, managers must account for road effects at landscape scales. The effects of non-paved roads on salamanders are poorly understood but critically important as such roads are frequently located in natural areas. Managers should incorporate mitigation strategies and work to reduce road impacts on vulnerable wildlife.
... One significant conflict often arises between traffic and ecological corridor planning (Bernes et al., 2017). Roads and highways, viewed as threat factors (Kroeger et al., 2022;Palomino and Carrascal, 2007), disrupt habitat continuity and impede terrestrial and aquatic species movements in ecological corridors (Forman, 2000). To mitigate the detrimental impacts of roads and reconcile traffic planning with biodiversity conservation (Kroeger et al., 2022), we suggest paying attention to the intersections of roads and corridors and restoring these barriers to improve connectivity. ...
Article
Focal species play a crucial role in planning ecological networks (ENs). Despite the finding that ENs designed for a specific focal species can yield benefits for associated communities, current practices of applying individual focal species have faced criticism for oversimplifying intricate ecosystems. Besides, the aggregation of ENs for individual species has been demonstrated as ineffective and costly. To improve cost-effectiveness, species with similar habitat preferences are typically conserved using shared strategies. Thus, drawing from the habitat preference of wading birds for blue and green spaces, we hypothesized that an EN for wading birds may benefit co-existing water and forest birds that prefer blue or green spaces. To validate this hypothesis, we conducted our study in the Yangtze River Delta’s Ecological Green Integration Demonstration Zone. We simulated six scenarios S1-S6 to compare the cost-effectiveness of focal species networks, respectively for water, forest, and wading birds in the S2-S4, with the aggregate networks in the S5-S6. During ENs’ construction, we employed the InVEST Habitat Quality model, MSPA, MCR model, and Linkage Mapper Tools. Furthermore, we selected the most cost effective EN by calculating six ENs’ connectivity-cost ratio (CCr index) and ranked the conservation priority for its sources and corridors. The results showed that the EN4 ranked highest in the CCr index and displayed a high conservation efficiency for all bird species. 93.41% of primary ES4 and 42.46% of secondary ES4 overlapped with the ecological conservation redline and the permanent basic farmland and could be well protected under current statutory planning. Our findings confirm that wading birds are the ideal focal species in EN planning for broader bird conservation in the context of the Yangtze River Delta. The constructed regional EN could contribute to establishing a linkage with the supra-regional EN and the world’s major bird migration flyway. Moreover, our cost-effective approach to bird conservation could provide new insights for targeting focal species from the perspective of habitat preference in multi-species EN planning.
... Many thousands of animals are killed annually along roads by vehicles, and road-killing is widely studied because it may have serious implications on species conservation and management (Goodman et al. 1994;Forman and Alexander 1998;Spellerberg 1998;Forman 2000;Bautista et al. 2004;Barthelmess and Brooks 2010). For instance, it has been demonstrated that road-killing may impact natural populations of animals especially in particular seasons (e.g., wet season in tropical Africa, see Akani et al. 2002;spring in Europe, see Bonnet et al. 1999) and may affect population structure via differential mortality according to classes of age and sex (Bonnet et al. 1999;Hels and Buchwald 2001;Meek 2009). ...
Article
The dataset available from the compilation of the atlas of mammals of the Province of Rome was used in order to analyze patterns of road-kill. Western hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), coypu (Myocastor coypus), brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and medium-sized mustelids were over-represented in the road-killed sub-data set. The spatial coverage (=the ratio between the number of occupied cells from a given species and the total atlas sample cells) of road-killed species was statistically higher than the spatial coverage of the non-road-killed species. Body size of the mammal species did not influence its likelihood of being killed along roads. Our data did corroborate findings by previous research indicating that road-killed species are characterized by peculiar behavioural and ecological traits (e.g., habitat generalists such as red fox and brown rat) or referred to landscape scale for their dynamics and vagility (wide-ranging landscape mosaic species such as red fox and mustelids). Normalizing data, we also observed a higher road-killing impact on carnivores when compared to her-bivores. Atlas dataset, although providing some interesting information on road-kill pattern for studies carried out at a landscape/regional scale, could not be used for a careful analysis of the ecological correlates of road-killing in mammals because of their largely heterogeneous nature.
... O peixe-boi é o mamífero marinho mais ameaçado de extinção no país afetado, principalmente, pela destruição dos manguezais, seu principal refúgio (ANZOLIN et al, 2012) Além disso, alterações na paisagem natural para o desenvolvimento imobiliário podem perturbar o delicado equilíbrio ecológico dessas áreas. Mudanças na topografia, por exemplo, podem perturbar os padrões hidrológicos locais e, consequentemente, os habitats de muitas espécies (FORMAN, 2000;ALBERTI et al., 2003). A topografia de uma área de praia pode ter impactos significativos na biodiversidade que essa área suporta. ...
... However, the adverse environmental impacts of roads construction and operation are frequently downplayed [18,[22][23][24]. These negative effects encompass habitat loss, landscape fragmentation, alterations in the physical and chemical environment, spread of exotic species [25][26][27], loss of biodiversity at both local and regional scales due to restricted movement between populations, increased human access to wildlife habitats, and intensification of bushmeat hunting [28][29][30][31][32]. In addition, some studies have revealed that road-induced isolation has led to reduced genetic diversity and increased genetic differentiation in snake populations (Crotalus horridus) due to interrupted seasonal migration [33]. ...
Article
Full-text available
This study explored the role of the hydrological regime as a trigger factor for wildlife roadkill along a 22 km road crossing the Taim Wetland, a Ramsar site of international importance in South Brazil. The north–south crossing of BR-471, a federal highway, causes fatalities to numerous animals due to collisions with vehicles. An 11-year long-term time series study encompassing monthly roadkill incidents, water level, and rainfall was analyzed by considering three different periods related to a Wildlife Protection System (WPS): (i) 3 initial years before the WPS implementation (BWPS); (ii) 4 intermediate years after the WPS implementation (AWPS), which includes fences, fauna tunnels, cattle guard stocks, bumps, and speed control; (iii) 4 final years during partial destruction of the WPS (PDWPS). A pseudo-2D full hydrodynamic cell model was employed to fill missing water level data. The model had a good to very good performance (NSE: 0.73 to 0.87; R2: 0.79 to 0.90). The relationship between roadkill incidents and the WPS periods (BWPS, AWPS, and PDWPS) was modeled using Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale, and Shape (GAMLSS), considering rainfall and water level as predictor variables. The analysis revealed a higher incidence of wildlife roadkill in BWPS compared to AWPS and PDWPS, suggesting the effectiveness of the implemented measures. Critical season and interplay between water levels, rainfall, and the roadkill were assessed. Mammals was the most common roadkill class identified (~92%), followed by reptiles (13%) and birds (2%), with no change in these percentual in the BWPS, AWPS, and PDWPS. Among mammals, capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) and coypu (Myocastor coypu) were the most frequent victims (~93% of mammals). Winter, followed by autumn, recorded the highest number of roadkill incidents (>60%), and this pattern remained consistent during the three periods. While rainfall did not emerge as a determining variable for roadkill, water levels above certain thresholds (>3.3 m) drastically diminished the effectiveness of the WPS, mainly due to fauna tunnel submersion. These findings offer valuable insights for enhancing wildlife conservation strategies in this protected area by incorporating hydrological information providing a baseline for designing WPS in similar environments.
... The progress of road construction causes immediate and direct loss and damage to habitats and changes at the landscape level (Olander et al., 1998) due to soil drying, increased solar radiation, and/or soil compaction (Labelle and Jaeger, 2011;Neher et al., 2013;Rentch et al., 2005). In particular, it indirectly affects soil conditions, not only affecting plant growth and species diversity but also promoting the establishment of alien plants (Forman, 2000;Johnston and Johnston, 2004;Jones et al., 2000). Moreover, roads contribute to the spatial spread of alien species because they are a major conduit for the introduction of alien plants, particularly those with short lifespans and high reproductive rates (Gelbard and Belnap, 2003;Vakhlamova et al., 2016). ...
... Anthropogenic noise is widespread and a main source is noise from vehicle traffic on public roads, as also experienced in our study. Road systems can affect large areas in some countries, including 15-20% of the land area in the United States (Forman & Alexander 1998, Forman 2000. Communication through masking noise may be difficult for wild animals. ...
Article
Full-text available
Cover photo: Great Tit male. Photo: Alf Tore Mjøs. Birds may sing to defend a territory and to attract a mate. However, despite many studies clear conclusions remain on how ecological conditions affect the song, such as physical obstacles that may reduce the sound transmission, and anthropogenic noise that may mask the signal. The social environment of the local populations may also be important, such as breeding density and sex ratio, influencing the number of competing males with which to song match, and the distances to the neighbouring males and to prospecting females. During 2016-19, we counted the number of syllables (notes) per phrase of singing male Great Tits Parus major by visiting seven countries in Europe and one in North Africa. A total of 946 songs were observed by visiting 554 territories. We also recorded study year, anthropogenic noise, calendar date, time of day, type of habitat and vegetation density, latitude, longitude and altitude. The most important explanatory variables were anthropogenic noise and the latitude of the focal site; the number of syllables per phrase decreasing both with increasing anthropogenic noise and with the latitude. The latter result was also supported when analysing sonograms of the species found on the Internet (Xeno-canto), namely fewer syllables per phrase in Norway than in Spain and Portugal. We suggest that repetition of a short phrase is fast interpreted by conspecifics in noisy environments, and that such signals are more readily detected by conspecifics over a wider area where the density of the tits is low.
... Anthropogenic factors such as human disturbances, deforestation, and land use change can have signi cant impacts on rare and endangered plants by altering water and energy balances. (Forman 2000;Pressey et al. 2007;Zhang & Ma 2008). Such impacts can be critically assessed by species modelling to provide valuable inputs for conservation management. ...
Preprint
Full-text available
Introduction Conservation efforts have traditionally focused on biodiversity hotspots, overlooking the essential ecological roles and ecosystem services provided by cold spots. Cold spots are areas outside biodiversity hotspots, characterized by low species diversity and harboring rare species living in threatened habitats. Aim This study aims to predict the present and future plant species distribution in cold spots across India, considering various environmental and non-environmental variables. Location India Methods The Indian national-level plant species database generated through the project ‘Biodiversity Characterization at Landscape Level’ was used. The species modelling (70% randomly selected training data) was carried out for four major biogeographic zones of India namely Arid and semi-arid zone, Deccan peninsula, and Gangetic plain. Generalized Linear Model (GLM), Generalized Boosted Model (GBM), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and ensemble modeling were compared to predict species distribution. Future representative concentration pathways (RCP4.5 & RCP8.6) were used to forecast species distribution. Results The study demonstrated good predictive ability with water and energy variables dominating in all zones, showing a strong agreement with the observed data (30% subset of the original data). Temperature annual range, annual precipitation, and precipitation of the driest month (bio7, bio12, and bio14) significantly influenced (r > 0.4) plant species patterns in the arid and semi-arid zone. Ensemble modeling showed improved results when validated with observed data, exhibiting a significant reduction in the RMSE and an improved correlation (r=0.8). Non-environmental variables (elevation and human influence index) showed significant influence in combination with water and energy variables in the Deccan peninsula zone. We observed continuous species loss in both future climate scenarios. Among biogeographic zones, the semi-arid and arid zones showed the maximum probable increase in species, with 69% and 52.5% of grids gaining species in 2050 (RCP4.5) and 69% and 84.7% of grids gaining species in 2070 (RCP8.6) respectively. Conclusion The study provides insights into the species richness distribution of cold spots in major Indian biogeographic zones, supporting their climate-derived patterns at a macro-scale. Ensemble modeling proves to be more accurate than individual models, emphasizing its potential for conservation efforts. The study calls for a performance-based conservation approach, prioritizing criteria to safeguard valuable ecosystems and prevent species loss.
... Yet, there are increasing threats due to the unprecedented human alteration of the native land surface (Fusaro et al. 2019). An example is the infrastructure constructions like the railway and highway in mountain areas, which generates a lot of bare cut slopes that can potentially result in landscape connectivity degradation (Forman 2000), biodiversity loss (Banerjee et al. 2020), and even ecosystem quality Ree et al. 2015). Despite the approaches applied for ecosystem restoration after the constructions, e.g., the external soil spray seeding (ESSS) technique (Xu et al. 2017), however, both the cement and composite materials (e.g., fertilizer and water retention agent) used in the ESSSbased restoration (Fu et al. 2018;Xiao et al. 2017) may be a synthesized disturbance to native ecosystem. ...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose Despite the deeply discussed microbial responses along the elevational gradient in natural mountain ecosystem, it remains elusive about how soil bacterial communities and their functional profiles respond to the disturbance along an elevational gradient. Materials and methods In this study, soil bacterial community diversity, compositions, and the potential functional profiles for the cut slopes (CS) and natural soils (NS) across three elevations (2900 m, 3102 m, and 3194 m) were studied in a mountain ecosystem. We investigated the diversity patterns of soil bacteria by sequencing 16S rRNA gene amplicons. The bacterial functional potential was predicted via using the PICRUSt2. Functional redundancy was calculated based on the copy numbers of KO (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Orthology). The drivers for variations in bacterial communities were evaluated using Spearman’s rank correlation. The relative contributions of diversity and community composition to the community function and functional redundancy were assessed using variation partitioning analysis. Results The results showed that the bacterial α-diversity declined but the β-diversity increased with the elevation in both CS and NS. There were overall trends that the differences in bacterial α-diversity, β-diversity, community compositions, and community functions between CS and NS were enlarged with the elevation. The α-diversity was highly correlated with soil moisture, followed by total nitrogen; the community composition was significantly correlated with total nitrogen and ammonium nitrogen, followed by soil moisture in CS. Functional redundancy was lower in CS than that in NS. The relative contributions of bacterial α-diversity and community composition in regulating community functions were almost similar in CS. Bacterial community compositions contributed more to functional redundancy than α-diversity in both types of soil. Conclusion This study revealed that the elevated altitude enlarges soil bacterial responses to disturbance in CS through increasing soil moisture and reducing nitrogen availability. Our findings provide new insights for the ecological restoration of engineering wound-surface in mountain ecosystem.
... Roads provide undoubted benefits for human transportation. They can even create ecological benefits when they cross, for example, intensively agricultural areas (Forman, 2000). On the other hand, they also affect both qualitatively and quantitatively the wildlife habitat mainly through fragmentation. ...
Article
Wildlife-vehicle collisions have been identified as an important ecological problem in most countries around the world, during the last decades. In the present work we examined the impacts on wildlife arising from two road categories crossing and adjoining the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli National Park (DLS NP), in north-eastern Greece. The study area is consisted of one of the most diverse fauna in Europe, with 202 bird species including 36 out of 38 European diurnal raptors, 60–65 mammal species, 29 reptiles and 13 amphibians. Vehicle collisions was the highest mortality factor in the study (83.9%) among five recorded categories, poison, electrocution, drowning, vehicle collisions and unidentified causes. 204 vehicle casualties were recorded out of 243 in total. Mammals (90.7%) were the vertebrates that mainly suffered from road mortality, including 11 species. The stone marten Martes foina contributed with the highest numbers, followed by the red fox Vulpes vulpes, the hedgehog Erinaceus roumanicus and the wild cat Felis silvestris. Although the contribution of birds on the road casualties was low, nine species were identified, including five diurnal and four nocturnal species, with raptors predominating. Most road casualties were observed in the national road network (71.6%), mainly during holidays (58.3%). Traffic volume, road category, season and blind bend were all dominant factors with different effects determining high wildlife-vehicle collision values. Mitigation measures that can reduce the harmful effects of roads on wildlife in the DLS NP are also discussed.
... Such a field might be the restoration of roadside vegetation. The total global road network is longer than 64 million km and it is continuously increasing [3], and the roadsides cover approximately 1% of the surface of developed countries [4]. While revegetation of roadsides and maintenance of permanent vegetation is an important task for road managers, roadsides could be plausible places for the restoration of grasslands that otherwise are neglected in most restoration agendas despite their global decline, high biodiversity, and potential in the delivery of ecosystem services [5][6][7][8]. ...
... However, recognizing that the ecological effects of roads can extend far beyond the edge of the pavement, it has been estimated that "roadside ecosystems" may comprise as much as 15-20% of the USA. This becomes an even larger area when unpaved roads are considered (Forman & Alexander, 1998;Forman, 2000). Given the growing recognition of the ecological impacts of the US road network, along with current indications of its persistence and expansion over time, the integration of positive ecological goals with transportation infrastructure objectives is becoming standard operating procedure as the country's future roads are constructed, updated, and modified. ...
Chapter
For successful restoration of wetland and riparian systems, we need to recognise several key points: Wetland systems exist because of, and are governed by hydrology, so hydrological restoration is imperative. Wetlands always have been and need to be temporally and spatially variable, changes in flow and water availability are natural; so restoration of those characters are necessary for successful wetland restoration. Wetlands are closely linked to their surrounding environment as a water and nutrient source; where possible they should be restored in relation to whole landscape restoration. Wetland systems can be resilient and are capable of recovery to a functioning state; the recovery goal, appropriate methods, available resources and subsequent management and monitoring are vital to success.
... In addition, urbanization creates highly fragmented spaces. For example, human environments increase the risk of death for tortoises and other wildlife because of roads (Forman 2000, Jochimsen et al. 2014, Santos et al. 2018. The roads at this study site were low-trafficked, residential streets, yet they appeared to be a barrier to tortoise movement. ...
Article
Full-text available
Gopherus polyphemus (Gopher Tortoise) is a federally listed or state threatened species throughout its range due to significant declines in its populations, largely due to habitat loss and fragmentation. Many Gopher Tortoises reside on private lands in human-impacted and urbanized areas, yet the value of these populations to the conservation of the species is unclear. We conducted a radio-telemetry study on a population of Gopher Tortoises in a residential neighborhood in Cape Coral, FL, to determine if they could be benefitting from their location within an urban environment (i.e., whether or not they are “urbanophiles”). Some findings suggested that these tortoises could exist in an urban environment. There were no confirmed mortalities among the 10 tortoises in the year-long study, though 1 male dispersed from the area and later disappeared after 6 months. The mean annual home ranges (100% MCP) were 1.19 ha (min–max: 0.39–2.71 ha) for females (n = 5) and 1.13 ha (min–max: 0.51–1.72 ha) for males (n = 4), which are comparable to home-range sizes in natural habitats. However, other findings suggested that this urban landscape limited the animals. Gopher Tortoises rarely crossed roads (5% of all movements) and avoided lots with houses and associated human structures, in favor of undeveloped lots. Efforts to sustain these animals in urban environments can start implementing management strategies that integrate greenspaces within urban landscapes as an additional approach to protect this threatened species. This study suggests that adult Gopher Tortoises are adaptable and tolerant to high levles of urbanization and human disturbance, yet the degree to which tortoises can persist over time in these landscapes needs further exploration.
... While previous studies investigating the impacts of human activities have usually prioritized grazing, fencing, and management policies, they have paid little attention to transportation factors (Wang et al., 2022a(Wang et al., , 2022b. However, transportation is a crucial human activity that can significantly influence ecosystem integrity, vegetation dynamics, biodiversity maintenance, and ecosystem services (Forman, 2000;Laurance et al., 2014;Ibisch et al., 2016). There exists significant evidence demonstrating that the construction and operation of roads have a range of impacts on ecosystem patterns, processes, and functions (Fu et al., 2019;Duffett et al., 2020). ...
Article
The ecosystem services of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have been hot topics in recent decades due to their unique value, and the region's sensitivity to climate change and human activities is considered to be of major importance. However, few studies have focused on the variations of ecosystem services in response to traffic activities and climate change. This study applied different ecosystem service models, along with the buffer analysis, local correlation and regression analysis to quantitatively analyze the spatiotemporal variations of carbon sequestration, habitat quality, and soil retention, further detected the climatic and traffic influences in the transport corridor region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from 2000 to 2020. The obtained results showed the following: (1) The carbon sequestration and soil retention increased over time, while the habitat quality decreased during the railway construction period; in addition, the variations of ecosystem services between the two periods exhibited substantial spatial differences. (2) The distance trends of ecosystem service variations were similar for the railway and the highway corridors, and the positive ecosystem service trends were mainly observed within 2.5 km and 2 km of railway and highway corridors, respectively. (3) The impacts of climatic factors on ecosystem services were predominantly positive; however, temperature and precipitation displayed contrasting distance trends in their impacts on carbon sequestration. (4) The types of frozen ground and locations away from the railway or highway were the combined factors affecting the ecosystem services, among which carbon sequestration was negatively influenced by the distance from the highway in the continuous permafrost areas. It can be speculated that rising temperatures caused by climate change may intensify the decline of carbon sequestration in the continuous permafrost areas. This study provides guidance on ecological protection strategies for future expressway construction projects.
... The construction of linear transportation infrastructure (such as roads, railways, etc.), regarded as one of the gravest threats to terrestrial ecosystems [1][2][3], is increasing rapidly worldwide [4,5]. Studies have demonstrated that roads negatively impact wildlife on multiple levels [6][7][8]. ...
Article
Full-text available
Roads, acting as barriers, hamper wildlife movements and disrupt habitat connectivity. Bridges and culverts are common structures on roads, and some of them can function to allow wildlife passage. This study investigated the effects of traffic, the surrounding landscape, human disturbance, and bridge and culvert structures on the utilization of bridges and culverts as dedicated passages by wildlife, using motion-activated infrared camera traps along a 64 km road in Giant Panda National Park, Sichuan, China. The results show that both species richness and counts of wildlife recorded at the bridge and culvert were significantly lower than those observed at sites distant from roads. No large-sized wildlife was recorded at the bridges and culverts. Human activities and traffic volume significantly and negatively affect medium-sized wildlife utilization of bridges and culverts. We conclude that bridges and culverts serve as wildlife crossings, but their efficacy is weak. This emphasizes the necessity of retrofitting bridges and culverts via mitigation facilities such as noise and light barriers, and vegetation restoration on both sides of the roads in Giant Panda National Park.
... The extent of collective road networks enhances the magnitude of the effects of individual roads. For example, using effect zones (i.e., the area over which ecological effects extend beyond a road) weighted by the type of road, dated calculations estimated that up to 20% or more of United States land area experienced direct ecological effects from roads (Forman and Alexander 1998;Forman 2000). This estimate likely underestimates road-effect zones and is undoubtedly greater today (Carr and Fahrig 2001), but even at intermediate densities (e.g., 1-1.5 km/km 2 ), road-effect zones can saturate a landscape (Frair et al. 2008). ...
Article
Full-text available
Roads are important drivers of habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation that affect global biodiversity. Detrimental effects of roads include direct mortality of individual animals, spread of habitat-altering invasive plants, and loss of demographic and genetic connectivity of wildlife populations. Various measures address the negative effects of roads on wildlife. However, most strategies for minimizing or mitigating the effects of roads are focused on the actual roads themselves rather than on the collective travel network across landscapes. We summarized a growing body of literature that has documented the effects of road density on wildlife populations and the benefits associated with lower densities. This literature supports the application of limits on road density as a viable tool for managing cumulative effects. Based on these examples, we recommend road densities, including all linear features used for travel, < 0.6 km/km2 as a general target for travel management in areas where wildlife conservation is a priority. Lower densities may be necessary in particularly sensitive areas, whereas higher densities may be appropriate in areas less important to landscape-level conservation and wildlife connectivity. Public policy and funding also are needed to address challenges of enforcing off-highway vehicle regulations. In applying this general overview to a case study of the Mojave desert tortoise Gopherus agassizii, we found that all management plans across the species’ range lack considerations of road density and that tortoise populations declined within all conservation areas with road densities > 0.75 km/km2. From this we provide several travel-management recommendations specific to Mojave desert tortoise conservation beginning with identifying the entire travel network within management areas. Specific actions for managing or setting limits for road density depend on the site-specific biological or management context, for instance relative to habitat quality or proximity to designated tortoise conservation areas. In addition, increasing law enforcement and public outreach will improve enforcement and compliance of travel regulations, and installing tortoise-exclusion fencing along highways will reduce road-kills and allow tortoise populations to reoccupy depleted areas adjacent to highways. Implementation of these recommendations would improve the prospects of reversing desert tortoise population declines.
... Roads are a large-scale investment causing changes in the environment. The most important impacts of road investment include transforming the structure and functioning of the landscape, excluding part of the land from use, air pollution, noise, soil and crop contamination, surface and underground water pollution, the impact on fauna and flora, as well as human mobility, health and safety [1][2][3][4]. The sustainable development of road infrastructure has to take into account ecological, economic and social issues, as well as spatial management. ...
Article
Full-text available
Roads, due to their large spatial scale, significantly affect the landscape, causing numerous and usually irreversible changes. Due to a lack of consensus among various specialists and varying evidence on the extent of the influence of roads, the present study focused on the clarification of the real range of the effect of roads on the environment, especially the landscape structure. The aim of the study was to assess road-effect zones for different types of land use. The existing sections of the European route E30 in the Wielkopolska region (Poland) were selected for the research. Based on buffer analysis, landscape metrics and statistical analysis, such as cluster analysis and changes in mean and variance, the spatial diversity of the landscape and road-effect zone was characterized. The results indicate the spatial diversity of the landscape structure and the range of impact, which depended on the type of land cover. Therefore, to analyze the road-effect zone, it is necessary to take into consideration not only the variable range of impact due to the type of road or the time of exploitation, but also the different types of land use of areas surrounding the road.
Article
This empirical research utilized geographic information system (GIS) data and involved kernel density estimation (WKDE), ecological footprint modeling, landscape index analysis, and spatial analysis methods. A plateau landscape ecological risk model is constructed, and the temporal and spatial changes in the road network pattern and the landscape ecological risk in the region in 2012 and 2020 are investigated. The study results identify that the expansion of the road network led to a rapid increase in construction land area and a decrease in cultivated land area. However, there is little impact on other landscape types. The study reveals that road network expansion leads to landscape ecological risk changes, primarily in low-altitude urban centers. The risk levels decrease with increasing ecological risk levels, with the proportion of road level lengths increasing and decreasing. Landscape ecological risk and road level is correlated. This study will interest practitioners engaged in ecosystem management, infrastructure planning, and transportation systems development, as well as researchers in these and related areas.
Article
This empirical research utilized geographic information system (GIS) data and involved kernel density estimation (WKDE), ecological footprint modeling, landscape index analysis, and spatial analysis methods. A plateau landscape ecological risk model is constructed, and the temporal and spatial changes in the road network pattern and the landscape ecological risk in the region in 2012 and 2020 are investigated. The study results identify that the expansion of the road network led to a rapid increase in construction land area and a decrease in cultivated land area. However, there is little impact on other landscape types. The study reveals that road network expansion leads to landscape ecological risk changes, primarily in low-altitude urban centers. The risk levels decrease with increasing ecological risk levels, with the proportion of road level lengths increasing and decreasing. Landscape ecological risk and road level is correlated. This study will interest practitioners engaged in ecosystem management, infrastructure planning, and transportation systems development, as well as researchers in these and related areas.
Article
Soil erosion on highway side-slope has been recognized as a cause of environmental damage and a potential threat to road embankments in the high-altitude permafrost regions. To assess the risk to roads and to protect them effectively, it is crucial to clarify the mechanisms governing roadside erosion. However, the cold climate and extremely vulnerable environment under permafrost conditions may result in a unique process of roadside erosion, which differs from the results of current studies conducted at lower altitudes. In this study, a field survey was conducted to investigate side-slope rill erosion along the permafrost section of a highway on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau of China. Variations in erosion rates have been revealed, and intense erosion risks (with an average erosion rate of 13.05 kg/m2/a) have been identified on the northern side of the Tanggula Mountains. In the case of individual rills, the detailed rill morphology data indicate that the rill heads are generally close to the slope top and that erosion predominantly occurs in the upper parts of highway slopes, as they are affected by road surface runoff. In the road segment scale, the Pearson correlation and principal component analysis results revealed that the protective effect of vegetation, which was influenced by precipitation, was greater than the erosive effect of precipitation on roadside erosion. A random forest model was then adopted to quantify the importance of influencing factors, and the slope gradient was identified as the most significant factor, with a value of 0.474. Accordingly, the integrated slope and slope length index (L0.5S2) proved to be a reliable predictor, and a comprehensive model was built for highway side-slope rill erosion prediction (model efficiency = 0.802). These results could be helpful for highway side-slope conservation and ecological risk prediction in alpine permafrost areas.
Article
Identifying highway sections with high vertebrate roadkill and associated landscape features is crucial for proposing mitigation measures to reduce the negative impacts of wildlife-vehicle collisions on biodiversity, human safety, and the economy. Focusing on highways in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, this study proposes a prioritization of road segments for implementing mitigation measures based on landscape characteristics and roadkill hotspots recorded between 2016 and 2018. Roadkills distribution was assessed using Hotspot Identification, detecting sections with the highest collision intensity. The effect of landscape variables, such as the area and distance of natural vegetation and anthropic land use within 1 km of the highways, on roadkill was modelled using General Linear Mixed Models, which were evaluated based on two response variables: (1) roadkill presence/absence and (2) roadkill abundance, with model selection by the Akaike information criterion. Based on roadkill hotspot identification analysis and predictive models of the influence of landscape elements on roadkill occurrence and abundance, an evaluation criterion was proposed to determine the priority sites for installing wildlife crossings, speed bumps, and signposts. Wildlife-vehicle collisions were positively associated with riparian vegetation areas and urban areas, while negatively associated with silviculture and distance to “cerrad˜ ao” (forest Cerrado) patches. Eleven road sections were identified as top priority, two as high priority and 78 as medium priority for the installation of mitigation measures with varying cost-benefit ratios. Our results can potentially guide decision-making at broader scales and provide mitigating alternatives applicable to dry ecosystems such as the Cerrado (Brazilian Savanna).
Article
Full-text available
Species are distributed in predictable ways in geographic spaces. The three principal factors that determine geographic distributions of species are biotic interactions ( B ), abiotic conditions ( A ), and dispersal ability or mobility ( M ). A species is expected to be present in areas that are accessible to it and that contain suitable sets of abiotic and biotic conditions for it to persist. A species' probability of presence can be quantified as a combination of responses to B , A , and M via ecological niche modeling (ENM; also frequently referred to as species distribution modeling or SDM). This analytical approach has been used broadly in ecology and biogeography, as well as in conservation planning and decision‐making, but commonly in the context of ‘natural’ settings. However, it is increasingly recognized that human impacts, including changes in climate, land cover, and ecosystem function, greatly influence species' geographic ranges. In this light, historical distinctions between natural and anthropogenic factors have become blurred, and a coupled human–natural landscape is recognized as the new norm. Therefore, B , A , and M (BAM) factors need to be reconsidered to understand and quantify species' distributions in a world with a pervasive signature of human impacts. Here, we present a framework, termed human‐influenced BAM (Hi‐BAM, for distributional ecology that ( i ) conceptualizes human impacts in the form of six drivers, and ( ii ) synthesizes previous studies to show how each driver modifies the natural BAM and species' distributions. Given the importance and prevalence of human impacts on species distributions globally, we also discuss implications of this framework for ENM/SDM methods, and explore strategies by which to incorporate increasing human impacts in the methodology. Human impacts are redefining biogeographic patterns; as such, future studies should incorporate signals of human impacts integrally in modeling and forecasting species' distributions.
Preprint
Full-text available
Building wildlife corridors is thought to be a useful strategy for reducing the negative effects of road construction. However, the wildlife corridors currently built are mainly set up for medium-sized or large wild mammals in the wilderness, while there are relatively few constructions for small animal corridors in urban areas. In this study, we assessed the use of two underpasses on the Beiyan Highway of Chongming Island, Shanghai. We recorded 27 species of animals in a total of 385 events, and 8 species successfully passed through the underpasses. The most frequent animal species recorded in the two corridors were weasels and white-breasted waterhens respectively, followed by both rodents. Overall, mammals and aves frequented the underpasses the most, and their time spent there matched their routines. Our study suggests that local wildlife has successfully used the two underpasses in a variety of ways, but longer-term monitoring is still required.
Article
Full-text available
An assessment of animal roadkill can help develop road mitigation measures. This article is the first to report data on animal-vehicle collisions (AVCs) in Nanjing, a supercity in eastern China. The research was conducted on a 224.27 km stretch of nine roads in Nanjing. In the period, between November 2020 and October 2021, 26 fortnightly monitoring missions were conducted to gather roadkill carcasses so that we could analyze their temporal and spatial distribution patterns. A total of 259 carcasses were collected, comprising 22 different species, of which 46.42% were mammals and 48.81% were birds. Cats and dogs are the most roadkill mammals, and blackbirds and sparrows are the most roadkill birds. The temporal analysis demonstrated that the peak of vertebrate roadkill occurred from May to July. Spatial analysis showed that the distribution patterns of vertebrate roadkill on different roads varied with a generally non-random distribution and aggregation. By mapping accidents using kernel density analysis, we were able to pinpoint locations that were at high risk for roadkill. Due to the fortnightly survey, our results would underestimate the casualties, even if, our study suggests that the problem of car accidents due to animals should be a cause for concern, and the results of the analysis of temporal and spatial patterns contribute to the establishment of mitigation measures.
Chapter
The profound impact of transportation infrastructure (TI) on affecting the ecology of the planet has been covered in this chapter. According to estimates, between 15 and 22% of the land in the continental United States (US) is defined as a road-impact zone, which is an effective approach that scientists have presented to examine the interaction between TIs and ecology. The alignment of transportation networks is fragmenting the ecosystem, which has effects such as habitat loss, obstructions to the migration of wildlife, ecological casualties, and edge effects. As seen in the Amazon Rainforest, the road network acts a significant role in enhancing habitat loss, which is mostly caused by deforestation around the roadways. Installation of stream crossings also significantly disturbed the riverine ecology by affecting the longitudinal continuity of the stream habitat, acting as barriers for the movement of river biota, altering the hyporheic zone (HZ), reducing the diversity of macroinvertebrates etc. The input of fine to coarse sediment to the streams from roadways is also a major problem of riverine ecology. The transportation sector is also significantly influencing in climate change by enhancing the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Chapter
The construction and maintenance of roads, in conjunction with concomitant roadside activities, have traditionally been viewed as having detrimental effects on the ecological functioning of the disturbed area and surrounding environment. These effects include significant habitat loss and fragmentation, ongoing wildlife disruption and mortality, increased erosion and water quality degradation, altered hydrologic cycles, and the creation of conditions conducive to the establishment and spread of undesirable plant species (Forman et al., 2003; Laurance et al., 2014). Recently, however, more thoughtfully designed road and roadside environments are increasingly valued and utilized for their ability to provide important conservation and restoration opportunities and outcomes. Indeed, there are examples of road modification and construction projects which have been purposefully designed to restore natural water flows to streams in order to protect endangered fish species or have been purposefully built to have the ability to filter pollutants from storm water runoff (Rammohan, 2006). Specifically constructed underpasses and overpasses have been integrated into major transportation projects to enhance wildlife habitat and connectivity while also improving visibility and safety for animals and motorists (Forman et al., 2003; McCleery et al., 2015). Revegetation and maintenance practices are also being adjusted to favor native plant species and provide refugia and dispersal corridors for at-risk plant populations and assemblages of bees, wasps, butterflies, and other important pollinator species (Forman & McDonald, 2007; Brown & Sawyer, 2012; Heneberg et al., 2017; Wigginton & Meyerson, 2018). In addition, roadside stops (parking bays, off-road parking) which are commonly used to provide social and community benefits for humans such as for the observation of notable scenic features, shady rest areas, and general comfort and respite from driving are also being developed with appropriate native flora (see Inset 9.1).
Article
Full-text available
The rapidly expanding road network has resulted in the separation of the urban ecological landscape. To assess the potential implication of the road systems on the landscape ecological risk, the corridor cutting degree model based on roadway impact zones was introduced, and the effects of the road system on the landscape pattern change were analyzed in Fuzhou City, China, in 2000, 2010, and 2020. Meanwhile, through spatial auto-correlation analysis and a geographical detector model, it was shown that there was a link between the characteristics of the road network and the temporal and spatial distribution of landscape ecological risk index, and the main determinants of landscape ecological risk were identified. The outcome indicated that (1) the intermediate cutting had the greatest impact on the ecological landscape of the four corridor cutting modes of the road network. Furthermore, the land types with a higher corridor cutting degree index were woodland, cultivated land, and grassland, accounting for 35.23%, 33.61%, and 5.95% of the total cutting areas, respectively, and the landscape fragmentation was relatively serious. (2) Fuzhou’s landscape ecological risk has significantly increased over the past 20 years, with sub-high-risk and high-risk areas experiencing increases of 9.47% and 7.63%, respectively, and the spatial distribution pattern being primarily high-high and low-low clustering. (3) Corridor cutting degree index (CCI) and distance from sampling point to road (shortest distance) were two key factors that altered the geographic distribution of ecological risk in the landscape, and they showed a positive and negative connection, respectively. (4) In the geographic distribution of landscape ecological risk, the interaction between CCI and land type, or shortest distance and land type, was much higher than that of other components, with an explanation rate of more than 22%. The study findings could provide a scientific basis for integrated transportation and ecological restoration strategies in national space.
Preprint
Full-text available
Linear infrastructures such as roads are among the most frequent generators of anthropogenic disturbances. Due to the expensive area that is affected along them, these great infrastructures represent a major conservation concern worldwide. Ants are an important component of natural ecosystems and are considered to be very sensitive to disturbance. The National Road Nº 150 is an important road of South America that forms part of the Central Bioceanic Corridor which will connect Brazil with Chile. In its trajectory, it crosses the Ischigualasto Provincial Park in Argentina. In order to evaluate the effects of this road on biodiversity in roadsides that run across this protected area, we compared species and functional group diversity of ants collected using pitfall traps between disturbed and undisturbed sites. In addition, we analyzed whether habitat variables, such as plant cover, gravel cover and soil hardness, explain ant species and functional group abundance in both site types. Twenty-one and 17 ant species were caught in disturbed and undisturbed sites, respectively. Roadside contained relatively more exclusives and rare species, while undisturbed sites harbored more common and dominant species. Hot climate specialists were more abundant at disturbed sites, whereas Opportunists at undisturbed sites. Ant species abundance seems to be positively influenced by gravel cover on roadside. In the present context of land use change, roadside could have an important function as reservoir and corridor for some ant species, and thus, plays a valuable role in the conservation of ant diversity in arid ecosystems.
Preprint
Full-text available
Linear infrastructures such as roads are among the most frequent generators of anthropogenic disturbances. Due to the expensive area that is affected along them, these great infrastructures represent a major conservation concern worldwide. Ants are an important component of natural ecosystems and are considered to be very sensitive to disturbance. The National Road Nº 150 is an important road of South America that forms part of the Central Bioceanic Corridor which will connect Brazil with Chile. In its trajectory, it crosses the Ischigualasto Provincial Park in Argentina. In order to evaluate the effects of this road on biodiversity in roadsides that run across this protected area, we compared species and functional group diversity of ants collected using pitfall traps between disturbed and undisturbed sites. In addition, we analyzed whether habitat variables, such as plant cover, gravel cover and soil hardness, explain ant species and functional group abundance in both site types. Twenty-one and 17 ant species were caught in disturbed and undisturbed sites, respectively. Roadside contained relatively more exclusives and rare species, while undisturbed sites harbored more common and dominant species. Hot climate specialists were more abundant at disturbed sites, whereas Opportunists at undisturbed sites. Ant species abundance seems to be positively influenced by gravel cover on roadside. In the present context of land use change, roadside could have an important function as reservoir and corridor for some ant species, and thus, plays a valuable role in the conservation of ant diversity in arid ecosystems.
Book
Cambridge Core - Ecology and Conservation - Land Mosaics - by Richard T. T. Forman
Article
Abstract A huge road network with vehicles ramifies across the land, representing a surprising frontier of ecology. Species-rich roadsides are conduits for few species. Roadkills are a premier mortality source, yet except for local spots, rates rarely limit population size. Road avoidance, especially due to traffic noise, has a greater ecological impact. The still-more-important barrier effect subdivides populations, with demographic and probably genetic consequences. Road networks crossing landscapes cause local hydrologic and erosion effects, whereas stream networks and distant valleys receive major peak-flow and sediment impacts. Chemical effects mainly occur near roads. Road networks interrupt horizontal ecological flows, alter landscape spatial pattern, and therefore inhibit important interior species. Thus, road density and network structure are informative landscape ecology assays. Australia has huge road-reserve networks of native vegetation, whereas the Dutch have tunnels and overpasses perforating road barriers to enhance ecological flows. Based on road-effect zones, an estimated 15–20% of the United States is ecologically impacted by roads.
Chapter
The following values have no corresponding Zotero field: ID - 115
Article
Roads may effect animal communities in various ways. One such way is ‘di sturbance’, i.e. emission of stimuli to which animals may respond by avoiding the vicinity of the road. The extent, intensity and mechanism of this effect is almost entirely unknown. Veen (1973), studying the bird species lapwing Vanellus vanellus, black-tailed godwit Limosa limosa, oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus, redshank Tringa totanus and ruff Philomachus pugnax in open grassland areas, found disturbance over surprisingly long distances, ranging from 500–600 m for a quiet rural road to 1600–1800m for a busy highway. However, his approach has met with serious methodological criticism.The validity of Veen's conclusions was tested by critically reanalysing bird distribution in one of his study plots. It is inferred that his conclusions do hold for the lapwing, the godwit and possibly the redshank, though not for the oystercatcher. An additional field study in four areas yielded similar results, with comparable disturbance distances. The total population loss over this distance may amount to 60%. Rough indications were obtained that the distance-density graph is a logistic one, while the relation between traffic volume and total population loss is possibly logarithmic. In addition confirmation was obtained of the general impression that, apart from roads, disturbance may also be caused by farms, other buildings and plantations, suggesting that disturbance caused by a road is not easily eliminated by planting trees alongside.It is recommended that extra care be taken in planning new roads, while impact statements concerning roads which disregard disturbance and other long-distance effects on the fauna should be rejected.
Article
1. This study investigated the effect of car traffic on the breeding density of birds in deciduous and coniferous woodland, and the importance of noise and visibility of cars as possible factors affecting density. 2. Of the 43 species analysed in both woodland types, 26 species (60of reduced density adjacent to roads (based on analysis with Wilcoxon signed-ranks test and regression). 3. Regression models with noise load as the only independent variable gave the best overall results. Calculated `effect distances' (the distance from the road up to where a reduced density was present) based on these regressions varied between species from 40-1500 m for a road with 10 000 cars per day to 70-2800 m for a road with 60 000 cars per day (120 km h -1 and 70of 250 m from the road the reduction of the density varied from 20 to 984. When visibility of cars was controlled for, the number of species showing density reductions was much higher on plots with a high noise load than on ones with a low noise load. When noise conditions were held constant, however, there was no difference in bird densities between plots with high and low visibility of cars. 5. It is argued that noise load is probably the most important cause of the reduced densities. Visibility of cars, direct mortality and pollution are considered unimportant. 6. The results of this study stress the importance of considering the effect of car traffic on the breeding density of birds in planning and constructing main roads.
Article
Ecological flows and biological diversity trace broad patterns across the landscape, whereas transportation planning for human mobility traditionally focuses on a narrow strip close to a road or highway. To help close this gap we examined the 'road-effect zone' over which significant ecological effects extend outward from a road. Nine ecological factors-involving wetlands, streams, road salt, exotic plants, moose, deer, amphibians, forest birds, and grassland birds-were measured or estimated near 25 km of a busy four-lane highway west of Boston, Massachusetts. The effects of all factors extended >100 m from the road, and moose corridors, road avoidance by grassland birds, and perhaps road salt in a shallow reservoir extended outwards > 1 km. Most factors had effects at 2-5 specific locations, whereas traffic noise apparently exerted effects along most of the road length. Creating a map of these effects indicates that the road-effect zone averages approximately 600 m in width and is asymmetric, with convoluted boundaries and a few long fingers. We conclude that busy roads and nature reserves should be well separated, and that future transportation systems across landscapes can provide for ecological flows and biological diversity in addition to safe and efficient human mobility.
Article
The effect of traffic on the breeding density of grassland birds was studied in 1989 in 15 transects along main roads in The Netherlands. Out of 12 species that could be analysed, 7 showed a reduced density adjacent to the road. There was also a strong effect on the summed densities of all species. Disturbance distances varied between species, ranging from 20 to 1700 m from the road at 5000 cars a day and from 65 to 3530 m at 50,000 cars a day (car speed 120 km/h). At 5000 cars a day most species had an estimated population loss of 12–56% within 100 m of roads, but beyond 100 m > 10% loss only occurred in black-tailed godwit Limosa limosa (22% for 0–500 m zone) and oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus (44% up to 500 m and 36% for 0–1500 m zone). At 50,000 cars a day all species had estimated losses of 12–52% up to 500 m while lapwing Vanellus vanellus, shoveler Anas clypeata, skylark Alauda arvensis, blacktailed godwit and oystercatcher populations were reduced by 14–44% up to 1500 m. In The Netherlands, with a dense network of extremely crowded motorways, traffic should be considered a serious threat to breeding bird populations in grasslands. Greater care should be taken in planning new roads, and it is important to explore how the present effects can be reduced.
Article
Mosaic pattern is the central feature of land, and ecological structure, function, and change of the mosaic is the central focus of this book. Spatial arrangement is the structure of a landscape or region. It determines the movements and flows between local ecosystems, and across the mosaic. It changes in form over time. Spatial arrangement is also a useful handle for decision-makers in planning, conservation, design, management, and policy.
Ecological effects of roads: toward three summary indices and an overview for North America. Pages 40–54 in K. Canters, editor. Habitat fragmentation and infrastructure
  • R T T Forman
  • D S Friedman
  • D Fitzhenry
  • J D Martin
  • A S Chen
  • L E Alexander
Forman, R. T. T., D. S. Friedman, D. Fitzhenry, J. D. Martin, A. S. Chen, and L. E. Alexander. 1997. Ecological effects of roads: toward three summary indices and an overview for North America. Pages 40–54 in K. Canters, editor. Habitat fragmentation and infrastructure. Min-istry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, Delft, The Netherlands.
Landscape processes and their significance to biodiversity conservation. Pages 319–347 in O Population dy-namics in ecological space and time Toward a sustainable future: address-ing the long-term effects of motor vehicle transportation on climate and ecology
  • L D Harris
  • T S Hoctor
  • S E Gergel Rhodes Jr
  • R Chesser
  • M Smith
Harris, L. D., T. S. Hoctor, and S. E. Gergel. 1996. Landscape processes and their significance to biodiversity conservation. Pages 319–347 in O. Rhodes Jr., R. Chesser, and M. Smith, editors. Population dy-namics in ecological space and time. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. National Research Council. 1997. Toward a sustainable future: address-ing the long-term effects of motor vehicle transportation on climate and ecology. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
Strassen-Okologie. Pages 19–115 in Okologie und strasse
  • H Ellenberg
  • K Muller
  • T Stottele
Ellenberg, H., K. Muller, and T. Stottele. 1991. Strassen-Okologie. Pages 19–115 in Okologie und strasse. Broschurenreihe de Deut-schen Strassenliga, Bonn, Germany.