Scale dependence in multitemporal mapping of forest fragmentation in Bolivia: implications for explaining temporal trends in landscape ecology and applications to biodiversity conservation

Landsat TM and ETM data were used to create forest/non-forest maps with which spatial patterns of forest fragmentation created by road building, agricultural colonisation and hydrocarbon exploration in Chapare (Bolivia) since the 1980s were analysed. Different spatial patterns of forest fragmentation were identified and analysed using landscape ecology metrics. These patterns are a function of their deforestation histories which, in turn, can be explained by a variety of Bolivian government policies. The relationships between landscape metrics and different simulated spatial resolutions of image data (from 30 to 1100 in) were also examined and most metrics were found to be highly dependent on pixel size. The implications of these findings for biodiversity conservation in humid tropical lowlands are considered. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.