Habitat quality and connectivity in agricultural landscapes: The role of land use systems at various scales in time

Connectivity is a key concept of landscape ecology as it relates to flows and movements of organisms as driven by landscape structure. More and more aspects of landscape heterogeneity are considered in measuring connectivity, as the diversity of crops in agricultural landscapes. In this paper, we explored the value of considering changes and cumulated effects of connectivity over time. As an example, we analysed connectivity among patches influenced by maize over 7 years in an agricultural landscape in Brittany, France. Clear temporal patterns appeared: maize is concentrated in certain parts of the landscape, but over the period the whole area, 70% of the landscape, used for maize was connected. Instead of discrete patches, maize may produce large clusters allowing movement from patch to patch from year to year. This reinforces the importance of understanding land use allocation rules within farms and landscapes to evaluate the ecological effects of agriculture. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.