We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Ancient Burial Mounds - Stepping Stones for Semi-Natural Habitats in Agricultural Landscape.
- Authors
Apostolova, Iva I.; Palpurina, Salza P.; Sopotlieva, Desislava G.; Terziyska, Tsvetelina S.; Velev, Nikolay I.; Vassilev, Kiril V.; Nekhrizov, Georgi B.; Tsvetkova, Nadya N.
- Abstract
Recent agricultural intensification followed by land homogenization require for connectivity of remaining semi-natural habitats for biodiversity preservation. This study is the first attempt to assess the importance of Bulgarian ancient burial mounds (kurgans) as refuges for seminatural vegetation and for the connectivity to other semi-natural lands based on remote sensing data. A set of 509 kurgans were selected and their main vegetation cover and the landscape within 200 m surrounding buffer were studied. The general kurgan characteristics as height and diameter of the base resemble dimensions reported for Ukraine and Hungary. Our results show the high level of kurgan isolation in Bulgaria. More than the half of the studied kurgans surroundings are occupied by over 75% of agricultural and urban or other artificial landscape. This finding emphasizes the kurgans' role for preservation of semi-natural habitats and their inhabitants. We highlight the importance of Bulgarian kurgans that save a cumulative area of semi-natural type equal to the 0.09% of the whole country territory. Kurgans could be treated as relictual landscape in highly modified matrix. The importance of kurgans for biodiversity conservation should encourage the local community to increase the education and activities for proper management ensuring their further protection.
- Subjects
BULGARIA; UKRAINE; HUNGARY; HABITAT conservation; BIODIVERSITY conservation; LANDSCAPES; AGRICULTURAL intensification; MOUNDS (Archaeology)
- Publication
Ecologia Balkanica, 2020, Vol 12, Issue 2, p42
- ISSN
1313-9940
- Publication type
Article