Pang Ying Wai. / Thesis submitted in: August 2003. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-144). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.i / ABSTRACT (CHINESE) --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iii / TABLE OF CONTENT --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.viii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.x / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- INTRODUCTION / Chapter 1.1 --- Conceptual Framework --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Objectives and Significance of the study --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Study Area --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Organization of Thesis --- p.9 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- LITERATURE REVIEW / Chapter 2.1 --- Landscape Ecology --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Definition of Landscape Ecology --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Dimension of Landscape Ecology --- p.13 / Chapter 2.2 --- Landscape metrics --- p.17 / Chapter 2.3 --- Application of Remote Sensing in Landscape Ecology --- p.25 / Chapter 2.4 --- Wetland Habitats and Situations in Hong Kong --- p.29 / Chapter 2.5 --- Summary --- p.39 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- METHODOLOGY / Chapter 3.1 --- Data Description --- p.40 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Satellite Data --- p.40 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Topographic Map Sheets and Digital Maps --- p.45 / Chapter 3.2 --- Satellite Data Preprocessing --- p.45 / Chapter 3.3 --- Landuse and Land Cover Classification --- p.47 / Chapter 3.4 --- Landscape Units Extraction --- p.51 / Chapter 3.5 --- Landscape Metrics Identification and Extraction --- p.54 / Chapter 3.6 --- Disturbance Level Identification and Extraction --- p.60 / Chapter 3.7 --- Inter-Classes and Temporal Comparison of Class-based and Landscape-based metrics --- p.61 / Chapter 3.8 --- Summary --- p.62 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION RESULT / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.63 / Chapter 4.2 --- Clustering Result --- p.63 / Chapter 4.3 --- Land cover classification results --- p.66 / Chapter 4.4 --- Accuracy Assessment --- p.83 / Chapter 4.5 --- Implication from land covers change --- p.84 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- Mangrove Changes --- p.84 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- Encroachment of Built-up area --- p.89 / Chapter 4.6 --- Summary --- p.91 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- LANDSCAPE METRIC ANALYSIS / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.94 / Chapter 5.2 --- Landscape perspective analysis --- p.94 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- "Area, Density and Edge" --- p.95 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Fractal Dimension and Shape Indices --- p.98 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- "Contagion, Interspersion and Diversity" --- p.99 / Chapter 5.2.4 --- Disturbance information --- p.101 / Chapter 5.3 --- Class perspective analysis --- p.105 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Mangrove --- p.105 / Chapter 5.3.1.1 --- "Area, Density and Edge" --- p.105 / Chapter 5.3.1.2 --- Fractal Dimension and Shape Indices --- p.107 / Chapter 5.3.1.3 --- Contagion and connectivity --- p.107 / Chapter 5.3.1.4 --- Disturbance information --- p.109 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Reed bed --- p.111 / Chapter 5.3.2.1 --- "Area, Density and Edge" --- p.111 / Chapter 5.3.2.2 --- Fractal Dimension and Shape Indices --- p.112 / Chapter 5.3.2.3 --- Contagion and connectivity --- p.113 / Chapter 5.3.2.4 --- Disturbance information --- p.114 / Chapter 5.3.3 --- Fishponds --- p.116 / Chapter 5.3.3.1 --- "Area, Density and Edge" --- p.116 / Chapter 5.3.3.2 --- Fractal Dimension and Shape Indices --- p.117 / Chapter 5.3.3.3 --- Contagion and connectivity --- p.118 / Chapter 5.3.3.4 --- Disturbance information --- p.119 / Chapter 5.4 --- Discussion --- p.121 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Landscape degradation from landscape perspective --- p.121 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Implication of landscape metrics on land use planning --- p.123 / Chapter 5.4.3 --- Factors affecting the usage of landscape metrics --- p.124 / Chapter 5.5 --- Summary --- p.126 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX --- CONCLUSION / Chapter 6.1 --- Summary of Findings --- p.129 / Chapter 6.1.1 --- Summary of landscape composition --- p.129 / Chapter 6.1.2 --- Summary of landscape configuration --- p.130 / Chapter 6.2 --- Limitations of the Study --- p.132 / Chapter 6.3 --- Recommendations for Further Studies --- p.133 / REFERENCES --- p.134 / APPENDIX --- p.145

No description available.

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 22-25). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aberdeen University, 2009. / Title from web page (viewed on Jan. 18, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on November 18, 2009). Thesis advisor: Dr. Hong S. He. Includes bibliographical references.

Abstract Spatial structure of habitats has been found to affect the species abundance and distribution patterns in heterogeneous environments. In this thesis, I studied landscape responses of the Siberian flying squirrel in a boreal forest context in northern Finland. Studies were conducted at several spatial scales in order to identify landscape characteristics that are associated with the species occurrence at a local scale and its distribution patterns at a regional scale. Data on species presence and absence in forest areas were collected in the field. Habitat patterns in landscapes were analysed from satellite images and landscape metrics concerning landscape structure were quantified in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Results of this study are in agreement with the general landscape ecological theory and findings in the field. In northern Finland, the distribution of the Siberian flying squirrel primarily follows the spatial extent of spruce-dominated forests but that its actual occurrence is dependent on the scale of observation and the habitat structure. At a home range scale the abundance of deciduous trees in old spruce forest increases the probability that a forest site is occupied by the species, whereas at a local scale the amount of such spruce forests and linkages between habitat patches play an important role. At a regional scale, an increase in open areas and the dominance of pine makes the habitat unsuitable and restricts the presence of the species. Findings of the present research forward practical forest management planning at a large scale and may help set general conservation goals for the Siberian flying squirrel. When managing the species in a complex network of habitat patches in heterogeneous landscapes, spatial dispersion of potential habitat patches as well as connecting habitat and their temporal development should be considered carefully. For this purpose, remote sensed images and GIS are valuable and useful tools. Satellite-image based landscape analysis is presently developing rapidly and hopefully this methodology will soon become a common practice in landscape ecological research and everyday forest management planning.

This thesis demonstrates how systems ideas and grounded theory have been applied to provide a broader approach to researching hedgerows in England, drawing on the idea that holistic thinking brings together different people’s relationships with hedgerows and with each other concerning hedgerows. The cultural dimensions of hedgerows and their implications for future hedged landscapes were investigated through the collection and exploration of different groups perspectives - public, farmers and experts - in England and Canada, using a diversity of primary and secondary data sources. English hedgerows were important to all groups. Everyone liked hedged landscapes for aesthetic, visual and wildlife reasons. They were important for the way they break up the landscape; provide signs of the changing seasons; their sense of mystery and intimacy; their connections with the past and childhood memories. They are also seen as part of England’s history and national identity. Such cultural identity was absent in the Canadian data. However, some groups also held a rational or objective view which was dominant over this subjective or emotional view and which affects where they draw the boundaries to their systems of interest. Farmers were most concerned with their farms (and the hedgerows they owned) as a business, while experts dealt mainly with the ecological aspects of hedgerows. There was found to be little awareness of others groups views with different groups seeing the same action in very different ways. Even where there was contact between farmers and experts, there could be a lack of trust. Finally, it is noted that policy and practice towards hedgerows have ignored many of these relationships and that the approach used here offers opportunities to examine the different systems of interest.

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to global biodiversity. A cornerstone of traditional conservation involves setting aside land as formally protected areas (PAs). However, for effective biological conservation in the long term there needs to be connectivity between these PAs. When possible, improved connectivity can be achieved using natural corridors at a landscape scale. Even better is to establish a network of corridors and nodes in the form of ecological networks (ENs). ENs are currently being employed by commercial forestry companies in South Africa. While larger corridors and nodes are considered optimum, factors other than design, such as management and environmental heterogeneity, have also been found to be important for species maintenance. This study aims to explore the role of corridor width in driving the composition of invertebrate assemblages across a transformed landscape in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and to investigate other possible environmental variables significant for species distributions. In Chapter 2, I investigated the contribution of smaller grassland corridors within a timber production matrix to overall biodiversity conservation using two important bioindicator taxa. Ants and dung beetles were sampled in grassland corridors of three size classes, plantation blocks and a nearby PA, iMpendle Nature Reserve. The two taxa showed differential responses to landscape level fragmentation. Dung beetles showed a decrease in species richness and corresponding increase in species turnover with increased fragmentation, while ants were unaffected, although counter intuitively smaller corridors even contained more unique ant species compared to larger corridors. Dung beetle assemblages also showed strong differences between the PA and grassland corridors. While the conservation effectiveness of large corridors undoubtedly exceeds that of smaller corridors, for ants it seems that smaller corridors contribute to their overall conservation within this production landscape. In Chapter 3, I explore the importance of spatial and environmental factors for species distribution across this landscape. Dung beetles were split into functional guilds according to size and nesting behaviour for analyses. Within grassland corridors, tunnelling dung beetle species richness was sensitive to landscape level fragmentation, especially for larger species, while elevation and vegetation type influenced ant species richness. Since rolling dung beetles showed a close association with the PA, the marked difference in dung beetle assemblages between these two land-uses may be due to the presence of pellet producing grazers in the protected area and their replacement by pat producing cattle in the grassland corridors. Other environmental variables that were found to be important for dung beetle species composition were elevation, vegetation type, and soil hardness. For ant species composition, only elevation was found to be important. In conclusion, as large corridors were comparable to the PA in dung beetle and ant species richness, ENs act as extensions of formally PAs, given that they are large enough. Nevertheless, smaller corridors had surprisingly high species richness. Including additional information other than species data improved our knowledge of the underlying factors that drive dung beetle species composition. Even though dung beetle and ant species responded differentially to habitat fragmentation, environmental heterogeneity seemed important for both taxa. Incorporating habitat heterogeneity into the current management scheme may improve the conservation effectiveness within this transformed landscape. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die vermindering en fragmentasie van natuurlike habitat is ‘n groot bedreiging vir globale biodiversiteit. ‘n Belangrike tradisionele benadering tot natuurbewaring behels die afbakening van land vir formele beskermde areas (BAs). Ten einde effektiewe biologiese bewaring oor die langtermyn te verseker moet daar verbinding wees tussen hierdie BAs. Indien moontlik kan verbeterde verbinding verkry word deur die gebruik van natuurlike gange op ʼn landskaps-vlak. Nog beter is om ʼn netwerk van gange en nodes in die vorm van ekologies netwerke (ENe) saam te stel. ENe word tans deur kommersiële bosboumaatskappye in Suid Afrika aangewend. Terwyl groter gange en nodes as optimaal beskou word, is ander faktore behalwe ontwerp, soos bestuur en omgewingsheterogeniteit, ook al gevind as belangrik vir die onderhouding van spesies. Hierdie studie is gemik daarop om die rol van gangwydte as dryfkrag vir die samestelling van invertebraatversamelings oor ʼn getransformeerde landskap in KwaZulu-Natal, Suid-Afrika, te ondersoek, asook ander moontlike omgewingsveranderlikes wat belangrik vir spesiesverpreidings kan wees. In Hoofstuk 2 het ek die bydrae van kleiner gange tot totale biodiversiteit-bewaring ondersoek deur twee belangrike bio-indikator taxa te bestudeer. Miere en miskruiers is versamel in grasland-gange van drie grootte-klasse, plantasie blokke en ‘n naby geleë BA, iMpendle Natuurreservaat. Die twee taxa het verskillende reaksies tot landskaps-vlak fragmentasie getoon. Miskruiers het ‘n verlaging in spesiesrykheid en ‘n gesamentlike verhoging in spesiesomset met verhoogde fragmentasie gewys, terwyl miere nie geaffekteer is nie, alhoewel kleiner gange het trouens meer unieke mierspesies bevat as groter gange. Die miskruierversamelings in die BA het ook opmerklik verskil van dié in die grasland-gange. Alhoewel die bewaringsdoeltreffendheid van groot gange beslis dié van kleiner gange oorskry, kom dit voor dat kleiner gange wel bydra tot die totale bewaring van miere binne hierdie produksielandskap. In Hoofstuk 3 het ek die belangrikheid van ruimtelike en omgewingsfaktore vir spesiesverspreiding oor hierdie landskap ondersoek. Miskruiers is ook in funksionele groepe verdeel volgens grootte en nes-gedrag vir aparte analise. Binne grasland-gange was tonnellende miskruierspesies sensitief vir landskaps-vlak fragmentasie, veral groter spesies, terwyl hoogte bo seevlak en vegetasie tipe mier spesiesrykheid beïnvloed het. Aangesien rollende miskruierspesies ‘n nabye assosiasie met die BA gewys het, mag die opmerklike verskil in miskruier versamelings tussen hierdie twee grondgebruike ʼn gevolg wees van die aanwesigheid van korrel-mis produserend beweiders in die BA en hulle vervanging deur nat-mis produserende beeste in die grasland-gange. Omgewingsveranderlikes uitsluitende ganggrootte wat belangrik gevind is vir miskruier spesiessamestelling was hoogte bo seevlak, vegetasie tipe en grond-hardheid. Vir mier spesiessamestelling was slegs hoogte bo seevlak belangrik. Om af te sluit, aangesien groot gange vergelykbaar was met die BA in miskruier en mier spesiesrykheid, tree ENe op as uitbreidings van BAs, mits hulle groot genoeg is. Desnieteenstaande het kleiner gange ‘n verbasende hoë spesiesrykheid gehad, veral onder miere. Die insluiting van addisionele inligting buiten spesiesdata het ons kennis van die onderliggende faktore wat miskruier spesiessamestelling dryf verbeter. Alhoewel miskruier- en mierspesies verskillend gereageer het op habitat fragmentasie, het dit voorgekom asof omgewingsheterogeniteit belangrik was vir die spesiesverspreiding van beide taxa. Die insluiting van habitatheterogeniteit binne die huidige bestuursplan mag die doeltreffendheid van bewaring binne hierdie getransformeerde landskap verbeter.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

To achieve a sustainable development, impacts onbiodiversity of urbanisation, infrastructure, land use changesand other developments must be considered on a landscape andregional scale. Landscape ecology can provide a conceptualframework for the assessment of consequences of long-termdevelopment processes like urbanisation on biodiversity on alandscape scale, and for evaluating the impacts of alternativeplanning scenarios. The aim of this study was to explore theeffects of habitat quality, quantity and connectivity on forestbird diversity in an urban-rural gradient. The purpose of theanalyses was to develop knowledge and methods for integratingbiodiversity issues in planning and assessments in anurbanising environment, on landscape and regional scales. The study area was situated in and around Stockholm, thecapital of Sweden, covering the city centre, suburbs andperi-urban areas. Data on breeding forest birds were collectedthrough bird censuses in an urban-suburban gradient. In orderto embrace also the peri-urban areas for a more completeurban-rural gradient, data on two fragmentation-sensitiveforest grouse species were obtained through a questionnaire tohunters in the whole study area. Response variables in theanalyses were forest bird species richness and diversity,relative species richness and occurrence of single sensitivespecies like selected sedentary forest birds, including theforest grouse species, and red list species. Habitat quality,quantity and connectivity were analysed using available data onabiotic conditions, including urban disturbances, andvegetation in geographical information systems. In addition, afield study on vegetation structure and composition wasperformed in a subset of the smaller sample sites.Relationships between the response variables and habitatquality, quantity and connectivity were explored usingstatistical methods like multivariate statistics and regressionmodelling. Further, for some models, spatial dependencies werequantified and accounted for. When habitat models wereretrieved, they were used for spatial predictions of habitatsuitability. They were also applied on future planningscenarios in order to predict and assess the impacts onsensitive species. In the urban-rural gradient, the foreststructure and composition changed, so that in more urban areas,coniferous forest on rich soils, wet forests and wetlandsbecame less abundant and more scattered. Sensitive birdspecies, tied to these habitat types, were shown to besensitive to habitat fragmentation caused by urbanisation.Large, well-connected habitat patches and aggregations ofsuitable habitat in the landscape had a higher probability ofoccupancy when compared to other patches. For the forest grousespecies, effects of car traffic added to the explanation oftheir distribution. By contrast, deciduous forest was stillquite common in predominantly urban areas, due to both latechanges in land use and a history of human preferences. Certainred listed bird species tied to deciduous forest did not seemto be affected by isolation, and also occurred in suitablehabitats in some highly urbanised areas. Furthermore, relativespecies richness in the urban-suburban gradient was related tomulti-layered deciduous forest habitats with a large amount ofdead wood. Such habitats were associated with natural shorelineand with old pastures and parks. From the derived statisticalmodels, describing the relationships between sensitive speciesand environmental variables, predictive habitat maps could becreated for the present situation and for planning scenarios.The predictions of the impacts on habitats of sensitive speciesmade it possible to quantify, integrate and visualise theeffects of urbanisation scenarios on aspects of biodiversity ona landscape scale.