IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v8y2019i1p8-d194870.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Future Land Use Change on Large Carnivores Connectivity in the Polish Carpathians

Author

Listed:
  • Dominik Kaim

    (Faculty of Geography and Geology, Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland)

  • Elżbieta Ziółkowska

    (Faculty of Biology, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland)

  • Marcin Szwagrzyk

    (Faculty of Geography and Geology, Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland)

  • Bronwyn Price

    (Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Land Change Science, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland)

  • Jacek Kozak

    (Faculty of Geography and Geology, Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland)

Abstract

The Polish Carpathians, like many mountain areas in Europe, are currently facing dynamic land use changes that will shape their future landscapes. As there are many different possible scenarios of potential change, we compared three different land use scenarios up until the year 2060 and assessed their impact on the potential habitat connectivity of two large carnivores—wolf ( Canis lupus ) and lynx ( Lynx lynx ). We first analysed the main directions of change within and outside the pan-European wildlife corridor located in the western part of the Polish Carpathians. Then we calculated and compared least-cost paths among randomly selected points for each land use scenario separately. Our results showed that the main direction of change—forest cover increase—may positively influence habitat connectivity for both wolf and lynx. However, due to the future spread of settlements, this positive impact might be locally limited. Therefore, to realise the potential conservation opportunities resulting from on-going land use changes, adequate orientation of spatial planning towards habitat connectivity is crucial.

Suggested Citation

  • Dominik Kaim & Elżbieta Ziółkowska & Marcin Szwagrzyk & Bronwyn Price & Jacek Kozak, 2019. "Impact of Future Land Use Change on Large Carnivores Connectivity in the Polish Carpathians," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:8:y:2019:i:1:p:8-:d:194870
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/8/1/8/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/8/1/8/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jacek Kozak & Elżbieta Ziółkowska & Peter Vogt & Monika Dobosz & Dominik Kaim & Natalia Kolecka & Krzysztof Ostafin, 2018. "Forest-Cover Increase Does Not Trigger Forest-Fragmentation Decrease: Case Study from the Polish Carpathians," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-24, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tauheed Ullah Khan & Abdul Mannan & Charlotte E. Hacker & Shahid Ahmad & Muhammad Amir Siddique & Barkat Ullah Khan & Emad Ud Din & Minhao Chen & Chao Zhang & Moazzam Nizami & Xiaofeng Luan, 2021. "Use of GIS and Remote Sensing Data to Understand the Impacts of Land Use/Land Cover Changes (LULCC) on Snow Leopard ( Panthera uncia ) Habitat in Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Daniel Pavlačka & Dominik Kaim & Krzysztof Ostafin & Jaroslav Burian, 2023. "Changes in spatial discontinuity in settlement patterns in the Czech‐Polish border area: A case study of Těšín Silesia," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(3), pages 565-587, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michał Sobala & Oimahmad Rahmonov, 2020. "The Human Impact on Changes in the Forest Range of the Silesian Beskids (Western Carpathians)," Resources, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Michał Sobala & Urszula Myga-Piątek & Bartłomiej Szypuła, 2020. "Assessment of Changes in a Viewshed in the Western Carpathians Landscape as a Result of Reforestation," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-17, November.
    3. Changjun Gu & Pei Zhao & Qiong Chen & Shicheng Li & Lanhui Li & Linshan Liu & Yili Zhang, 2020. "Forest Cover Change and the Effectiveness of Protected Areas in the Himalaya since 1998," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-24, July.
    4. Yue Lin & Wenzhan An & Muye Gan & AmirReza Shahtahmassebi & Ziran Ye & Lingyan Huang & Congmou Zhu & Lu Huang & Jing Zhang & Ke Wang, 2021. "Spatial Grain Effects of Urban Green Space Cover Maps on Assessing Habitat Fragmentation and Connectivity," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-18, October.
    5. Claudia Troiano & Maria Buglione & Simona Petrelli & Sofia Belardinelli & Antonino De Natale & Jens-Christian Svenning & Domenico Fulgione, 2021. "Traditional Free-Ranging Livestock Farming as a Management Strategy for Biological and Cultural Landscape Diversity: A Case from the Southern Apennines," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-16, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:8:y:2019:i:1:p:8-:d:194870. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.