We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
The influence of topography and fire in controlling landscape composition and structure in Sierra de Gredos (Central Spain).
- Authors
Viedma, Olga
- Abstract
Mediterranean landscapes are dynamic systems that undergo temporal changes in composition and structure in response to disturbances, such as fire. Neither landscape patterns nor driving factors that affect them are evenly distributed in space. Accordingly, disturbances and biophysical factors interact in space through time. The aim of this paper is to assess the relative influence of topography and fire on the landscape patterns of a large forested area located in Sierra de Gredos (Central Spain) through time. A series of Landsat MSS images from 1975 to 1990, and a digital elevation model (DEM) were used to map fires, assess topographical complexity and evaluate changes in landscape composition and structure. Functional regions across the entire landscape were identified using different classification criteria (i.e., percentage burned area and topographic properties) to model topographic and fire impacts at regional scales. A canonical variance partition method, with a time series split-plot design, quantified the relative influence and co-variation of topography and fire on land cover patterns through time. Main results indicated that analyzing portions of the landscape under similar environmental conditions and fire histories, the effects of different fire regimes on the spatio-temporal dynamics of main land covers can be highlighted. However, the impact of fire on landscape patterns was high variable among regions due to the different regeneration abilities of main land covers, the topographic constraints and the fire histories of each region. Hence, broad patterns of fire related variance and co-variation with topography emerged across the entire area due to the different conditions of each landscape portion in which this large Mediterranean landscape was divided.
- Subjects
GREDOS Mountains (Spain); SPAIN; ECOLOGICAL disturbances; STRUCTURAL engineering; ENVIRONMENTAL impact analysis; TIME series analysis
- Publication
Landscape Ecology, 2008, Vol 23, Issue 6, p657
- ISSN
0921-2973
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10980-008-9228-5