Journal
APPLIED GEOGRAPHY
Volume 62, Issue -, Pages 247-255Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2015.05.002
Keywords
Forest management; Land-cover cartography; Landscape metrics; Landsat; Natural park
Categories
Funding
- DGA-La Caixa El Parque Natural del Moncayo como observatorio del cambio global [Moncayo Natural Park as a global change observatory] [GA-LC-031/2010]
- Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad [ELENA: CGL2012-31668]
- Government of Spain Eventos climaticos extremos: Caracterizacion, variabilidad espacio-temporal e impacto en los sistemas naturales
- Extreme climate events: characterization, spatio-temporal variability and impacts in natural systems
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Monitoring the change in land cover in natural places, such as ecotones, has become an important tool for forest management, especially in protected areas. The present work analyses the spatial and temporal changes in forest cover in Moncayo Natural Park (Spain) from 1987 to 2010 using remote sensing techniques, geographical information systems (GIS) and quantitative indices of landscape ecology. Four Landsat images were used to map nine representative land cover categories in this preserved area in both years. The overall classification accuracies in land cover cartographies in 1987 and 2010 were 87.65% and 84.56%, respectively. Landscape metrics obtained at the landscape level show an increase in fragmentation and, as a result, an increase in landscape spatial diversity. Focusing on the class level, the results show a forest expansion of sessile oaks (Quercus petraea) and beech forest (Fagus sylvatica), two important bioclimatic indicators in this natural park, because they are the southernmost locations for these species in Europe. The decrease of mainly introduced pine forest and the transformation of mixed shrub areas into natural forested areas explain the aforementioned increase in fragmentation. These results are in agreement with the strategies for nature conservation designed by forest managers during the period evaluated. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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