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Diversity
Special Issues
Landscape Ecology and Agroecosystems Management
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Landscape Ecology and Agroecosystems Management

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Biogeography and Macroecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2022) | Viewed by 3696

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ingrid Belčáková

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Technical University in Zvolen, T.G.Masaryka 24, 960 01 Zvolen, Slovakia
Interests: landscape planning; ecology; botany; biogeography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agroecosystems are generally defined as a spatially and functionally coherent unit of agricultural activity, and include both the living and nonliving components involved in the system as well as their interactions. The core of an agroecosystem depends on the human activity of agriculture.

Very often agroecosystems have a simplier species composition accompanied by simpler energy and nutrient flows than natural ecosystems. They are composed of cropland and grassland. To a very large degree, agroecosystems are managed ecosystems; only a small amount of grassland habitats exist in a natural state.

Generally speaking, the management of agroecosystems is an economic as well as an ecological task. Based on the FAO Common Vision for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, agroecology offers a unique approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of food and agricultural systems. It seeks to optimize the interactions between plants, animals, humans, and the environment while taking into consideration the social aspects that need to be addressed for a sustainable and fair food system. In this context, the importance of an interdisciplinary, agroecosystem approach involving landcape ecology should be stressed. Landscape ecological principles focusing on spatial and temporal heterogeneity cannot be underestimated.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to invite researchers to submit proposals for papers that deal with landscape ecology and agroecosystem management. Potential topics include, but are not limited, to:

  1. Diversity of agroecosystems from a biological perspective: different types of diversity of species and genetic resources.
  2. Management of ecosystems from a landscape ecology point of view: best practices and examples.
  3. The benefits of ecological farming towards agroecological diversification.
  4. Culture and food traditions as context features for agroecosystems management.
  5. Agroecological systems, foundational practices, and innvovative approaches.
  6. Agriculture and its impacts on landscape structure.
  7. Agroforestry approaches in agriculture.

Dr. Ingrid Belčáková
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 4497 KiB  
Article
Monitoring Plant Diversity to Support Agri-Environmental Schemes: Evaluating Statistical Models Informed by Satellite and Local Factors in Southern European Mountain Pastoral Systems
by Antonio T. Monteiro, Paulo Alves, Claudia Carvalho-Santos, Richard Lucas, Mario Cunha, Eduarda Marques da Costa and Francesco Fava
Diversity 2022, 14(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14010008 - 24 Dec 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3149
Abstract
The spatial monitoring of plant diversity in the endangered species-rich grasslands of European mountain pastoral systems is an important step for fairer and more efficient Agri-Environmental policy schemes supporting conservation. This study assessed the underlying support for a spatially explicit monitoring of plant [...] Read more.
The spatial monitoring of plant diversity in the endangered species-rich grasslands of European mountain pastoral systems is an important step for fairer and more efficient Agri-Environmental policy schemes supporting conservation. This study assessed the underlying support for a spatially explicit monitoring of plant species richness at parcel level (policy making scale) in Southern European mountain grasslands, with statistical models informed by Sentinel-2 satellite and environmental factors. Twenty-four grassland parcels were surveyed for species richness in the Peneda-Gerês National Park, northern Portugal. Using a multi-model inference approach, three competing hypotheses guided by the species-scaling theoretical framework were established: species–area (P1), species–energy (P2) and species–spectral heterogeneity (P3), each representing a candidate spatial pathway to predict species richness. To evaluate the statistical support of each spatial pathway, generalized linear models were fitted and model selection based on Akaike information criterion (AIC) was conducted. Later, the performance of the most supported spatial pathway(s) was assessed using a leave-one-out cross validation. A model guided by the species–energy hypothesis (P2) was the most parsimonious spatial pathway to monitor plant species richness in mountain grassland parcels (P2, AICc = 137.6, ∆AIC = 0.0, wi = 0.97). Species–area and species–spectral heterogeneity pathways (P1 and P3) were less statistically supported (ΔAICc values in the range 5.7–10.0). The underlying support of the species–energy spatial pathway was based on Sentinel-2 satellite data, namely on the near-infrared (NIR) green ratio in the spring season (NIR/Greenspring) and on its ratio of change between spring and summer (NIR/Greenchange). Both predictor variables related negatively to species richness. Grassland parcels with lower values of near-infrared (NIR) green ratio and lower seasonal amplitude presented higher species richness records. The leave-one-out cross validation indicated a moderate performance of the species–energy spatial pathway in predicting species richness in the grassland parcels covered by the dataset (R2 = 0.44, RMSE = 4.3 species, MAE = 3.5 species). Overall, a species–energy framework based on Sentinel 2 data resulted in a promising spatial pathway for the monitoring of species richness in mountain grassland parcels and for informing decision making on Agri-Environmental policy schemes. The near-infrared (NIR) green ratio and its change in time seems a relevant variable to deliver predictions for plant species richness and further research should be conducted on that. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Ecology and Agroecosystems Management)
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