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socioeconomic forcings, effects on biodiversity and future scenarios. Post-USSR land cover change in Eastern Europe. Volker Radeloff University of Wisconsin-Madison. Funded by A NEESPI Project. Background.
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socioeconomic forcings, effects on biodiversity and future scenarios Post-USSR land cover change in Eastern Europe Volker Radeloff University of Wisconsin-Madison Funded by A NEESPI Project
Background • Rapid land cover change in Eastern European since the breakdown of the USSR • Widespread agricultural abandonment followed by conversion to shrublands and forest Agricultural area change from 1991 to 1997; USDA
Background • Socio-economic trends differ markedly among neighboring countries with similar ecological conditions Change in nighttime lights 1993-2000. Yellow/red: more lights, blue: fewer lights, NOAA-NESDIS
Background A ‘natural experiment’ in Eastern Europe allows to test hypotheses on the relative importance of environmental versus socioeconomic factors as controls and forcings of land cover and land cover change and thereby on biodiversity
Objectives • Monitor land cover and land use change (LCLUC) in Eastern Europe • Examine socioeconomic and political changes as forcing functions for LCLUC • Examine effects of LCLUC on biodiversity • Simulate future LCLUC scenarios and examine potential biodiversity effects
Socio- economics Land cover Biodiversity Objectives
Approach • Current land cover from MODIS data • Separating plowed from fallow fields with spectral mixtureanalysis of MODISreflectance data Landcover in the study area
Approach • Land cover change analysis with Landsat TM/ETM+ data • 1985 to 2002 data Landsat sample scenes
Landsat TM Sep. 2000 RGB: 4,5,3
Landsat TM/ETM+2000 Classificationbased on TM & ETM+ data from 2000
Poland state farms (until 1990) Slovakia
Socio- economics Land cover Biodiversity Objectives
Approach • Regression analysis to identify forcing and controls of LCLUC • Socioeconomic variables • GDP, land ownership, urban markets, employment, population, housing, and households, agricultural statistics, “country” • Environmental variables • Climate, topography, soils
Approach Hypothesis: Agricultural abandonment is controlled at broad scales by national economic and political conditions, and by climate patterns,and at fine scales by distance to urban markets, distance to major roads, topography, and soil quality
Socio- economics Land cover Biodiversity Objectives
Approach • Wildlife habitat analysis for three species of conservation concern • European Bison • Saiga antelope • Brown Bear • Umbrella speciesfor biodiversity Radio-collared bison in the Slovak Carpathians, Dec. 2004
Approach • Radio-collar locationsas input for resource-selection functions • Habitat variables include land cover,fragmentation indices, and settlements Saiga with satellite radio-collar
Approach • Radio-collar locationsas input for resource-selection functions • Habitat variables include land cover,fragmentation indices, and settlements
Approach • Bear data is collected from local hunting departments viaan ArcGIS server • This allows onlinedigitizing of bearactivity and easydata transfer Arc/GIS server for bear mapping
Socio- economics Land cover Biodiversity Objectives
Collaborators • NGOs • WWF • Large Herbivore Foundation • Scientists • L. Balciauskas, Vilnius University, Lithuania • L. Baskin, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow • P. Hostert, and T. Kümmerle, Humboldt University • A. Lushchekina, Russian MAB Program, Moscow • K. Perzanowski, Polish Academy of Sciences • W. Schröder, Technical University, Munich
Socio- economics Land cover Biodiversity Questions?