Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Rural land use bifurcation in the urban-rural gradient

Rural land use bifurcation in the urban-rural gradient The classic urban-rural gradient concept assumes a decline in land use intensity from an intensively developed urban core outward to residential suburbs, culminating in lightly developed rural areas. The concept provides a common framework directing urban socio-ecological research. Given that rural land use includes woodlands and croplands, and croplands appear as ecologically depauperate as urban lands, we investigated land-use patterns along urban-rural gradients for 30 large metropolitan areas in the eastern United States. We predicted a bifurcation at the rural end of the gradient between woodland and cropland land use that does not correspond with human population density (expected to be relatively low in rural areas regardless of land use type). Our data indicated that ‘rural’ was a poor substitute for ‘natural’ as the rural end of the gradients bifurcated at the rural end between woodland and cropland – croplands being demonstratively poor ecological habitats. Indeed, we found that when defined by habitat quality, the habitat known to be biotically homogenized (urban and cropland) remained steady along the urban-rural gradient. Our results do not undermine the utility of the urban-rural gradient framework, but do suggest that the gradient and/or human population density do not necessarily indicate shifts in habitat quality. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Urban Ecosystems Springer Journals

Rural land use bifurcation in the urban-rural gradient

Download PDF
7 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer_journal/rural-land-use-bifurcation-in-the-urban-rural-gradient-wQLIu0Jc92
Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
Subject
Life Sciences; Urban Ecology; Environmental Management; Ecology; Nature Conservation
ISSN
1083-8155
eISSN
1573-1642
DOI
10.1007/s11252-018-0734-1
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The classic urban-rural gradient concept assumes a decline in land use intensity from an intensively developed urban core outward to residential suburbs, culminating in lightly developed rural areas. The concept provides a common framework directing urban socio-ecological research. Given that rural land use includes woodlands and croplands, and croplands appear as ecologically depauperate as urban lands, we investigated land-use patterns along urban-rural gradients for 30 large metropolitan areas in the eastern United States. We predicted a bifurcation at the rural end of the gradient between woodland and cropland land use that does not correspond with human population density (expected to be relatively low in rural areas regardless of land use type). Our data indicated that ‘rural’ was a poor substitute for ‘natural’ as the rural end of the gradients bifurcated at the rural end between woodland and cropland – croplands being demonstratively poor ecological habitats. Indeed, we found that when defined by habitat quality, the habitat known to be biotically homogenized (urban and cropland) remained steady along the urban-rural gradient. Our results do not undermine the utility of the urban-rural gradient framework, but do suggest that the gradient and/or human population density do not necessarily indicate shifts in habitat quality.

Journal

Urban Ecosystems – Springer Journals

Published: Feb 6, 2018

References

  • Invasiveness, invasibility and the role of environmental stress in the spread of non-native plants
    Alpert, P; Bone, E; Holzapfel, C
  • Land use and avian species diversity along an urban gradient
    Blair, RB
  • Southern resource assessment
    Conner, RC; Hartsell, AJ
  • Human influences on forest ecosystems: the southern wildland-urban interface assessment
    Cordell, HK; Macie, EA
  • What’s new about old fields? Land abandonment and ecosystem assembly
    Cramer, VA; Hobbs, RJ; Standish, RJ
  • Irreversible impact of past land use on forest soils and biodiversity
    Dupouey, JL; Dambrine, E; Laffite, JD
  • Urban ecology
    Evans, KL
  • Farmland conversion to non-agricultural uses in the US and Canada: current impacts and concerns for the future
    Francis, CA; Hansen, TE; Fox, AA; Hesje, PJ; Nelson, HE; Lawseth, AE; English, A
  • Landscape simplification filters species traits and drives biotic homogenization
    Gámez-Virués, S; Perović, DJ; Gossner, MM; Börschig, C; Blüthgen, N; de Jong, H; Simons, NK; Klein, AM; Krauss, J; Maier, G; Scherber, C; Steckel, J; Rothenwöhrer, C; Steffan-Dewenter, I; Weiner, CN; Weisser, W; Werner, M; Tscharntke, T; Westphal, C
  • Urban ecology
    Gaston, KJ
  • How landscape structure, land-use intensity and habitat diversity affect components of total arthropod diversity in agricultural landscapes
    Hendrickx, F; Maelfait, JP; Wingerden, W
  • Global trends in population, energy use and climate: implications for policy development, rangeland management and rangeland users
    Holechek, JL
  • Final collapse of the Newman-Pearson decision theoretic framework and the rise of the neoFisherian
    Hurlbert, SH; Lombardi, CM
  • Carbon fluxes and nitrogen availability along an urba-rural gradient in a desert landscape
    Koerner, B; Klopatek, J
  • Biotic homogenization of Central European urban floras depends on residence time of alien species and habitat types
    Lososová, Z; Chytry´, M; Tichy´, L
  • A review of the relationships between human population density and biodiversity
    Luck, GW
  • Urban ecology
    Luck, GW; Smallbone, LT
  • The use of gradient analysis studies in advancing our understanding of the ecology of urbanizing landscapes: current status and future directions
    McDonnell, MJ; Hahs, AK
  • Ecosystem structure and function along urban-rural gradients: an unexploited opportunity for ecology
    McDonnell, MJ; Pickett, STA
  • Urbanization as a major cause of biotic homogenization
    McKinney, ML
  • Effects of urbanization on species richness: a review of plants and animals
    McKinney, M
  • Global threat to agriculture from invasive species
    Paini, DR; Sheppard, AW; Cook, DC; Barro, PJ; Worner, SP; Thomas, MB
  • R: a language and environment for statistical computing
  • Inconsistent definitions of ‘urban’ result in different conclusions about the size of urban carbon and nitrogen stocks
    Raciti, SM; Hutyra, LR; Finzi, AC
  • Time for a change: dynamic urban ecology
    Ramalho, CE; Hobbs, RJ
  • Estimating historical changes in global land cover: croplands from 1700 to 1992
    Ramankutty, N; Foley, JA
  • Global forecasts of urban expansion to 2030 and direct impacts on biodiversity and carbon pools
    Seto, KC; Guneralp, B; Hutyra, LR
  • Land-use dynamics beyond the American urban fringe
    Theobald, DM
  • i-Tree. v5.x edn
  • Homogenization of forest plant communities and weakening of species–environment relationships via agricultural land use
    Vellend, M; Verheyen, K; Flinn, KM
  • Beyond urban–rural classifications: Characterising and mapping territories-in-between across Europe
    Wandl, DIA; Nadin, V; Zonneveld, W
  • Vegetation of the great Smoky Mountains
    Whittaker, RH
  • Ordination of plant communities
    Whittaker, RH