PARENT SESSION
Organized Oral Session 42: Applying ecological theories to multiple spatio-temporal scales and to different landscapes in Europe
Organizer(s): J Loeffler and U Steinhardt
Thursday, August 11, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 511a, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Scale dependence of landscape indicators.
Mander, Ulo*,1, Uuemaa, Evelyn1, Roosaare, Juri1, 1 Institute of Geography, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
ABSTRACT- We investigated scale dependence of landscape metrics and the relationship between land use parameters and FRAGSTATS-based landscape metrics (Edge Density, Patch Density, Mean Shape Index, Mean Euclidean Nearest Neighbor Index, Contagion, Patch Richness Density, and Shannon Diversity Index) and nutrient/organic-matter based water quality indicators (BOD7 and CODKMnO4 values, Total-N and Total-P concentrations in water) in 24 catchments with various land use patterns in Estonia. We used the Basic Map of Estonia (1:10 000), the Base Map of Estonia (1:50 000) and the CORINE Land Cover Map (1:200 000). In scale analysis we calculated landscape metrics on artificial and real landscapes. Scale analysis showed that responses of landscape metrics to changing grain size vary among landscapes and metrics. Analysis of artificial landscapes showed that Mean Euclidean Nearest Neighbor Distance and Contagion are directly dependent on grain size and should therefore be used carefully. When finding relationships between landscape metrics and water quality indicators, significant differences between the relationships derived from the Base Map and the CORINE land Cover Map were found. In the case of the Base Map, landscape metrics correlated strongly with land use and showed no expected relationships with water quality data. Correlation between the landscape metrics calculated on the basis of the CORINE Land Cover Map and water quality data was stronger than in the case of the Base Map.
Key words: catchment, landscape indicators, landscape metrics, nutrients