Transitional land uses produced through urbanisation continue to change the landscape and fragment ecological structures including green spaces across Europe (Nilsson et al., 2013). Green spaces offer significant benefits to humans, contributing to wellbeing and life satisfaction (Taylor, 2002). The understanding of how these unique green spaces spaces function and provide benefits to humans, and how landscape change in peri-urban contexts affects their performance, is important. The scope of this research is to contribute to an understanding of landscape fragmentation within some of Europe's polycentric urban regions, their peri-urban green spaces, and the associated impacts upon human quality of life. Two urban regional case studies, Paisley near Glasgow, Scotland, and Vantaa, near Helsinki, Finland were analysed and compared. The results indicate that humans interacting with more physically or ecologically fragmented peri-urban green spaces have higher self-reported life satisfaction levels. Though no statistically significant characteristics were apparent between life satisfaction and fragmented green space characteristics, this research was able to identify those specific structural attributes and physical characteristics of interstitial peri-urban green spaces within a polycentric region in a fragmented state that contribute to the physical, social, and psychological aspects of human wellbeing. The statistically significant eco-spatial characteristics of polycentric peri-urban interstitial green spaces that are reported to impact human wellbeing are the size, proximity, maintenance and management, and the level of greenness within its vegetation composition and setting. Overall, a spatially diverse, fragmented, peri-urban landscape whose green spaces are extensively sized, naturalistically shaped with horizontal vegetation and normal sized edges, most often parks or woodlands or forests which are integrated and physically connected to another green space which is moderately clean and somewhat safe as well as being located close to or adjacent to a heavy-trafficked road provide the most human wellbeing benefits.

<p>This thesis employs a network perspective in studying ecosystems and natural resource management. It explores the structural characteristics of social and/or ecological networks and their implications on societies’ and ecosystems’ ability to adapt to change and to cope with disturbances while still maintaining essential functions and structures (i.e. resilience).</p><p>Paper I introduces terminology from the network sciences and puts these into the context of ecology and natural resource management. Paper II and III focus on habitat fragmentation and how it affects an agricultural landscape in southern Madagascar. Two ecosystem services were addressed: (1) crop pollination by bees, and (2) seed dispersal by ring-tailed lemurs. It is shown that the fraction of the studied landscape presently covered by both crop pollination and seed dispersal is surprisingly high, but that further removal of the smallest habitat patches in the study area could have a severe negative impact on the landscape’s capacity to support these ecosystem services.</p><p>In Papers IV and V, the network approach is used to study social networks and the impact they may have on the management of natural resources. In Paper IV it is found that social networks of low- to moderate link densities (among managers) significantly increase the probability for relatively high and stable utility returns whereas high link densities cause occasional large-scale ecological crises between periods of stable and excessively high utility returns. In Paper V, social networks of a rural fishing community in eastern Africa were analyzed. The results indicate that patterns of communication partly explain the distribution of ecological knowledge among villagers, and that gear type used by small-scale coastal fishermen strongly correlates with their patterns of communication. The results also show that groups most central in the network, and hence potentially most influential, are dominated by one type of fishermen.</p>

This thesis employs a network perspective in studying ecosystems and natural resource management. It explores the structural characteristics of social and/or ecological networks and their implications on societies’ and ecosystems’ ability to adapt to change and to cope with disturbances while still maintaining essential functions and structures (i.e. resilience). Paper I introduces terminology from the network sciences and puts these into the context of ecology and natural resource management. Paper II and III focus on habitat fragmentation and how it affects an agricultural landscape in southern Madagascar. Two ecosystem services were addressed: (1) crop pollination by bees, and (2) seed dispersal by ring-tailed lemurs. It is shown that the fraction of the studied landscape presently covered by both crop pollination and seed dispersal is surprisingly high, but that further removal of the smallest habitat patches in the study area could have a severe negative impact on the landscape’s capacity to support these ecosystem services. In Papers IV and V, the network approach is used to study social networks and the impact they may have on the management of natural resources. In Paper IV it is found that social networks of low- to moderate link densities (among managers) significantly increase the probability for relatively high and stable utility returns whereas high link densities cause occasional large-scale ecological crises between periods of stable and excessively high utility returns. In Paper V, social networks of a rural fishing community in eastern Africa were analyzed. The results indicate that patterns of communication partly explain the distribution of ecological knowledge among villagers, and that gear type used by small-scale coastal fishermen strongly correlates with their patterns of communication. The results also show that groups most central in the network, and hence potentially most influential, are dominated by one type of fishermen.

Der Beitrag stellt neue Indikatoren zur Analyse und zum Monitoring der Zerschneidung von Freiräumen sowie zur Fragmentierung von Wald- und Forstflächen vor, die bestehende bundesweite Indikatorensysteme ergänzen sollen. Die Ergebnisse werden beispielhaft auf der Ebene von Gemeinden, Kreisen und Raumordnungsregionen präsentiert. Sie zeigen u. a., dass es deutschlandweit nur noch ca. 140 zusammenhängende Wälder mit einer Größe von mehr als 50 km² gibt.

This research deals with the challenges of the conservation of tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) in the Chitwan National Park of Nepal and aims to be a model for tiger conservation in the tropical areas of other tiger range countries. Despite the high level of public concern and major investments during the last few decades for conservation, wild tigers continue to be under grave threat, and their preservation now requires, more than ever before, using reliable ecological knowledge for their conservation interventions. In this dissertation, I investigated various factors that affect on tiger conservation in this park: population status of prey, dietary patterns of tiger and its impact on sympatric carnivores (e.g., leopard) and increasing human-wildlife conflicts, effects of habitat structures and human disturbances on prey and predator species abundance and distribution.

Submitted by Valquíria Barbieri (kikibarbi@hotmail.com) on 2018-05-10T22:49:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Jean Carlos Ferreira.pdf: 3848679 bytes, checksum: 2141b756f4e0ff134b03f7eb4c3fc868 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jordan (jordanbiblio@gmail.com) on 2018-05-24T14:26:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Jean Carlos Ferreira.pdf: 3848679 bytes, checksum: 2141b756f4e0ff134b03f7eb4c3fc868 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-24T14:26:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Jean Carlos Ferreira.pdf: 3848679 bytes, checksum: 2141b756f4e0ff134b03f7eb4c3fc868 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-15 / Devido ao aumento gradativo do número de processos de licenciamento ambiental com objetivo de recuperar áreas degradadas, prevê-se uma situação de insolvência para os próximos anos na gestão ambiental. Deste modo, torna-se imperiosa a concepção de novas tecnologias baseadas na web que permitam inovação no sistema de gestão dos recursos naturais, principalmente para a recuperação de áreas degradadas. Assim, nesta pesquisa investigou-se a aplicação dos sistemas inteligentes como uma alternativa para à tomada de decisões durante a elaboração e gestão de projetos de recuperação de áreas degradadas. O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar os impactos para a melhoria do processo de elaboração e avaliação de projetos de recuperação de áreas degradadas com a utilização do Sistema de Elaboração de Projetos de Recuperação de Áreas Degradadas. A simulação dos experimentos dos projetos de recuperação de áreas degradadas priorizou empreendimentos em propriedades rurais, os quais são responsáveis pelo maior número de processos para regularização e licenciamento ambiental. As aplicações dos experimentos no Sistema de Elaboração de Projetos de Recuperação de Áreas Degradadas resultaram, nas configurações para os projetos de qualquer situação em áreas rurais ou urbanas, na descrição dos experimentos, nas regras para permitir as recomendações técnicas através das combinações das perguntas e respostas, na descrição atual do fluxo dos processos de regularização e licenciamento ambiental com projetos de recuperação de áreas degradadas e na descrição de um sistema de gestão ambiental, exclusivo para áreas degradadas. Conclui-se, que o Sistema de Elaboração de Projetos de Recuperação de Áreas Degradadas, apresenta um impacto positivo, tanto para aqueles que analisam os projetos, quanto para os que os elaboram, e demonstrou-se uma solução educativa eficiente no gerenciamento de processos com projetos de recuperação de áreas degradadas. É uma ferramenta da inteligência artificial para auxiliar à tomada de decisões, com um banco de dados inicial, em desenvolvimento e classificado como sistema especialista de planejamento. Pois a análise mais aprofundada sobre os impactos ambientais da área degradada, compete ao especialista, recomendar as alternativas que levem ao sucesso da recuperação do passivo ambiental. Este sistema poderá ter conexão com outros sistemas utilizados na gestão ambiental, e visará garantir maior eficiência e efetividade como um todo, alinhando-se, sobretudo, às novas regras trazidas pela legislação. / Due to the gradual increase in the number of environmental licensing procedures in order to recover degraded areas, is expected to become insolvent in the coming years in environmental management. Thus, it becomes imperative to design new web-based technologies that enable innovation in the management of natural resources system, principally for the recovery of degraded areas. Thus, in this study we investigated the application of intelligent systems as an alternative to the decision-making during the development and management of degraded areas recovery projects. The objective of this research is to analyze the impacts to improve the process of preparing and assessment of degraded areas recovery projects using the System Preparation of Degraded Area Recovery Project. The simulation experiments of degraded areas recovery projects prioritized projects in rural properties, which are responsible for the greatest number of processes for regulation and environmental licensing. The applications of experiments in the Degraded Area Recovery Project Development System resulted in the settings for projects of any situation in rural or urban areas, in the description of the experiments, the rules to allow the technical recommendations through combinations of questions and answers in the present description of the flow of regularization processes and environmental licensing with degraded areas recovery projects and the description of an environmental management system, unique to degraded areas. It follows that the Area Recovery Project Development System Degraded, has a positive impact, both for those who analyze the projects, and for those who make them, and proved to be an efficient solution in educational management processes recovery projects of degraded areas. It is an artificial intelligence tool to aid decision making, with an initial database, developing and classified as expert planning system. For further analysis of the environmental impacts of the degraded area, it is for the expert, recommend alternatives that lead to successful recovery of environmental liabilities. This system may have connection with other systems used in environmental management and will aim at ensuring greater efficiency and effectiveness as a whole, lining up, especially with the new rules introduced by legislation.

Highways, expressway and other infrastructure have a negative impact on the surrounding population of animals. These linear structures in the landscape create impassable barriers and thus cause more or less isolated subpopulations (called barrier effect). Therefore, the newly constructed building of European highways and passages specially built for the animals, known as green bridges (ecoduct). Effectiveness of transitions is influenced by several factors (width of the bridge, the frequency of passing cars, the speed limit, etc.). This thesis deals with the efficiency of artificial crossings for wildlife and provides an overview of the results published so far.

Submitted by JÚLIO HEBER SILVA (julioheber@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-05-22T20:00:54Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Daniel de Paiva Silva - 2014.pdf: 10957994 bytes, checksum: 6f0100ece2bde63eead33101bf358768 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Rejected by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com), reason: Sei que já enviou o comprovante, mas não conta a ata e o TECA não está onde deveria. on 2017-05-25T11:39:37Z (GMT) / Submitted by JÚLIO HEBER SILVA (julioheber@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-05-25T18:42:10Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Daniel de Paiva Silva - 2014.pdf: 10957994 bytes, checksum: 6f0100ece2bde63eead33101bf358768 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-05-26T14:45:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Daniel de Paiva Silva - 2014.pdf: 10957994 bytes, checksum: 6f0100ece2bde63eead33101bf358768 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-26T14:45:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Daniel de Paiva Silva - 2014.pdf: 10957994 bytes, checksum: 6f0100ece2bde63eead33101bf358768 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-28 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The world we live in faces fast and intense environmental changes, deeply related to human activities, which directly or indirectly are related to the current biodiversity crisis. Thus, the existence of quality biological, ecological, and distributional data is of utmost importance for the support of active conservation practices. Nonetheless, both Linnean (lack of taxonomical data) and Wallacean (lack of distributional data) shortfalls are important setbacks hindering the effectiveness of conservationist decisions. The data harbored in museums and overall collections is excellent to support conservational measures. Nonetheless, usually this data is biased and needs to be adequately filtered before being used. Insect and arthropod species are under sampled, what impedes them to be properly considered under Conservation Biogeography frameworks. In such scenario, even insect groups with relatively known biology and ecology are neglected in practical conservation actions. Despite that, with the advent of new computational tools allied with good theories and good distributional data of insect species, it is possible to contemplate those biological groups in concrete and efficient conservation actions. Therefore, in the first part of this thesis, considering bees from the Megachile genus (Chapter 1) and from the Meliponini tribe (Chapter 2), we evaluated potential biases affecting those data, but also evaluate potential areas for new field surveys. The Wallacean shortfalls are commonly used to justify the implementation of new field surveys. Therefore, in the second part of this thesis, we used the new occurrences of the bee species [Aglae caerulea (Apidae: Eulgossini) – Chapter 3; and the exotic species, Lithurgus huberi (Apidae: Lithurgini) – Chapter 4] allied with distribution modelling to predict these species potential distributions and indicate areas for future new samplings. On the third and last part of the thesis, we considered a regional spatial scale and habitat loss and fragmentation questions to address their effects on the bee biodiversity from the Cerrado biome found within the Goiás state. In Chapter 5, we evaluated the effects of anthropic areas amount and their isolation on two orchid-bee species from the Cerrado (Eulaema nigrita and Eufriesea auriceps), which apparently are not affected by the increase of anthropic areas in this biome. Later, in the last chapter (Chapter 6), we evaluated the response of all bee community we sampled in Cerrado areas within state of Goiás, as well as the sub groups of eusocial and solitary species, to the landscape structure of our sampling areas, considering different local spatial scales. / O mundo vive rápidas e intensas mudanças ambientais intimamente relacionadas às atividades humanas e que, direta ou indiretamente, estão relacionadas à atual crise de biodiversidade. Assim, a existência de dados biológicos, ecológicos e distribucionais de qualidade é de extrema importância dar suporte a tomada de ações práticas de conservação. Entretanto, os déficits Linneanos (falta de dados taxonômicos) e Wallaceanos (falta de dados distribucionais) são importantes problemas que impedem a efetiva tomada de decisões conservacionistas. Neste contexto, dados provenientes de museus e coleções, após cuidadosa filtragem, são excelentes para apoiarem tais ações. Em geral, esta informação é enviesada e necessita de cuidado adequado antes de ser utilizada. Espécies de artrópodes e insetos são sub amostrados, impedindo sua utilização em propostas práticas de conservação utilizadas na Biogeografia da Conservação. Neste cenário, mesmo grupos cuja ecologia e biologia são bem conhecidas, acabam não sendo utilizados. Apesar disso, o advento de novas ferramentas computacionais aliados a boas teorias e bons dados de distribuição das espécies de insetos, é possível a contemplação do uso de vários grupos entomológicos em ações concretas de conservação. Assim, na primeira parte da presente tese, considerando abelhas do gênero Megachile (Capítulo 1) e da tribo Meliponini (Capítulo 2), nós analisamos os eventuais vícios de amostragem existentes nos dados de ocorrência das espécies destes gêneros, descrevendo o estado atual do conhecimento da distribuição destas abelhas e áreas para potenciais amostragens futuras. Os déficits Wallaceanos são frequentemente utilizados como justificativa para a realização de novos inventários biológicos. Deste modo, na segunda parte desta tese, nós utilizamos novas ocorrências de duas espécies de abelhas (Agale caerulea (Apidae: Euglossini) – Capítulo 3; e a espécie invasora Lithurgus huberi (Apidae: Lithurgini) – Capítulo 4) com abordagens de modelagens de distribuição potencial para predizer suas distribuições e indicar locais ideias para novas coletas. Na terceira e última parte desta tese, considerando-se uma escala espacial mais regional, nós consideramos questões de perda de habitats e fragmentação sobre a biodiversidade de abelhas do Cerrado goiano. No capítulo 5, nós avaliamos os efeitos da quantidade de habitat e isolamento sobre duas espécies de abelhas das orquídeas do Cerrado (Elaema nigrita e Eufriesea auriceps), que, aparentemente não são afetadas pelo aumento de áreas antrópicas no bioma. Por fim, no último capítulo (Capítulo 6), nós avaliamos a resposta de toda a comunidade de abelhas coletadas em áreas de Cerrado de Goiás, bem como a resposta das espécies de grupos de abelhas solitárias e eusociais, à estrutura da paisagem dos nossos pontos de coletas, em diferentes escalas espaciais locais.

In recent decades expanding land-use change has caused extensive deforestation of the tropical rainforestinducing large-scale transformation of the landscape patterns across the South American continent. Landscapechange is a modification process of the natural forest cover into fragments which generate various ecologicalimpacts. Habitat loss is identified to be a major threat to biodiversity, as it exposes species to the risk ofextinction. This study investigates 80 locations within tropical rainforest biomes to examine the landscape changewhich has occurred from 1993 – 2014. The intention is to identify the impacts of landscape fragmentation onhummingbird species diversity by spatial landscape analysis in GIS and regression modeling. The analysis foundthat there is no relationship between deforestation and reduction of hummingbird diversity. The results indicatethat hummingbird species are not particularly sensitive to landscape change as they have high resilience in regardto forest fragmentation. A potential threshold value of deforestation degree could be identified, up to whichhummingbird species richness increased, but locations subjected to over 40% fragmentation were estimated tohave lower hummingbird diversity. However, by using the spatial explicit biological data, the analysis indicatethat an extinction debt may exist in the landscape, and that future extinctions may be expected to occur in thefollowing decades as consequence of deforestation. Other factors may be as important determining variables forspecies richness: the spatial scale of the study, the habitat connectivity, hummingbird generalist tendencies.Conclusively, identification of the key factors of deforestation impacts on species diversity is essential for futureefficiency in conservation planning and sustainability of the tropical rainforest biodiversity.

Le paludisme est un des maladies vectorielles les plus communes qui est situé principalement dans les régions tropicales. La zone étudiée est la région transfrontière Guyane française-Brésil. Le niveau et la dynamique intra-annuelle de la transmission y sont variables, avec un taux d’incidence qui est relativement élevé dans l’Amérique du Sud. Les facteurs environnementaux, en particulier l'occupation et l'usage du sol, influent significativement sur la présence, la densité et la distribution spatiale des moustiques du genre Anophèles, vecteurs de la maladie. Les données sur l'environnement, la population et les systèmes de santé sont rarement comparables de part et d’autre de la frontière Guyane-Brésil, excluant une vision bilatérale homogène. La télédétection permet de caractériser spatialement l’environnement de manière quasi continue et complète. L’objectif de ce travail est de caractériser par télédétection des milieux favorables au développement des vecteurs et les interactions hommes-vecteurs pour la zone transfrontalière Guyane-Brésil. Un indicateur spatialisé d’aléa de transmission du paludisme a été développé à l’échelle locale. Il permet de spatialiser la contribution de l'interaction entre milieux forestiers et non-forestiers sur la transmission du paludisme. Ce modèle a été mis en œuvre à l’échelle de la région amazonienne. Cet indice permet de quantifier et d’expliquer l’influence du paysage dans les interrelations homme - vecteurs adultes. L’identification des gîtes larvaires potentiels a été testée à une échelle régionale, à partir de la fusion d’images satellites optiques et radar, afin de mettre en évidence la distribution spatiale de zones humides pérennes et de grandes tailles (lacs, rivières, étangs, etc.) et les interfaces avec les milieux urbaines et forestiers. La distribution et la densité des vecteurs sont affectées par les propriétés physiques et chimiques des gîtes larvaires potentiels qui sont liées à la typologie des sols. Un modèle conceptuel de l’évaluation des sols adapté à la zone amazonienne présente que les caractéristiques géomorphologiques (altitude, courbure, etc.) sont indicateurs de l’évolution des sols. Une typologie des sols a été réalisée à l’échelle régionale à partir de données altimétriques et de ce modèle conceptuel. Les méthodologies, les cartes d’occupation et d’usage du sol, les cartes d’aléa du paludisme mises en place dans le cadre de cette thèse seront intégrés à l’Observatoire transfrontalier (Guyane-Brésil) qui est en cours de création. Ce travail de thèse contribue ainsi à l’exploitation des nouvelles connaissances sur le mécanisme de transmission du paludisme qui peuvent être utilisées pour définir les nouvelles stratégies de prévention aux échelles locale et régionale. / Malaria remains one of the most common vector-borne diseases what is predominantly located in the tropics. The study area is the cross-border area between French Guiana and Brazil where the level and intra-annuel dynamic of malaria transmission are variable, with the incidence rates which are relatively high in South America. The environmental risk factors, in particular, land use and land cover, significantly influence the presence, density and spatial distribution of disease vectors, Anopheles mosquitoes. Environmental information, population data and health systems database are rarely comparable on both sides of the Guyana-Brazil border which exclude the homogeneous and bilateral vision. Remote sensing permits to spatially characterize the environment on both sides of the border in an almost continuous and complete manner. The objective of this study is to characterize the favorable environment for the development of vectors and the vector-human interaction in the cross-border area between French Guiana and Brazil using remote sensing. A spatial landscape-based hazard index of malaria transmission was developed at the local scale. Such index allows spatializing the contribution of interaction between forest and non-forest areas on malaria transmission which was then implemented in the entire Amazon region. It quantifies and explains the influence of landscape on the interaction between human population and adult vectors. The identification of potential breeding sites of vectors was tested on a regional scale using the optical and SAR fusion for highlighting the spatial distribution of perennial and large wetlands (lakes, rivers, ponds etc.) and the interfaces with urban and forest environments. The distribution of vectors’ density is affected by physical and chemical properties of potential breeding sites which are related to soil typology. A conceptual model of soil evolution adapted to the Amazon region presents that geomorphological characteristics (altitude, curvature, etc.) are indicators of soil evolution. A soil classification was realized at the regional scale using altimetry data and the conceptual model. The methods, land use and land cover and malaria hazard maps established in this thesis will be integrated in the Observatory Sentinel of cross-border which is being built. This study also contributes to the exploitation of new knowledge about malaria transmission mechanism which can be used to define novel prevention strategies at the local and regional scales.