Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-hn9fh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-06T06:31:01.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Landscape heterogeneity: concepts, quantification, challenges and future perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2023

Vinicius Tonetti Open the ORCID record for Vinicius Tonetti [Opens in a new window] ,
João Carlos Pena ,
Marina DA Scarpelli ,
Larissa SM Sugai ,
Fábio M Barros ,
Paula R Anunciação ,
Paloma M Santos ,
André LB Tavares  and
Milton C Ribeiro
Vinicius Tonetti*
Affiliation:
São Paulo State University (UNESP), Institute of Biosciences, Department of Biodiversity, Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil
João Carlos Pena
Affiliation:
São Paulo State University (UNESP), Institute of Biosciences, Department of Biodiversity, Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil Laboratório de Genética & Biodiversidade, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, 74690-900 Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil
Marina DA Scarpelli
Affiliation:
Queensland University of Technology, Computer Science School, Science Faculty, Brisbane, Australia
Larissa SM Sugai
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Departamento de Ecología, Terrestrial Ecology Group (TEG), Madrid, Spain
Fábio M Barros
Affiliation:
Consultoria, Planejamento e Estudo Ambientais (CPEA), São Paulo, Brazil
Paula R Anunciação
Affiliation:
Biology Department, UFLA – Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Paloma M Santos
Affiliation:
Instituto de Pesquisa e Conservação de Tamanduás no Brasil, Parnaíba, Piauí, Brazil
André LB Tavares
Affiliation:
São Paulo State University (UNESP), Institute of Biosciences, Department of Biodiversity, Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil
Milton C Ribeiro
Affiliation:
São Paulo State University (UNESP), Institute of Biosciences, Department of Biodiversity, Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil
*
Correspondence to: Dr Vinicius Tonetti, E-mail: v.tonetti@unesp.br
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The intrinsic complexity, variety of concepts and numerous ways to quantify landscape heterogeneity (LH) may hamper a better understanding of how its components relate to ecological phenomena. Our study is the first to synthesize understanding of this concept and to provide the state of the art on the subject based on a comprehensive systematic literature review of 661 articles published between 1982 and 2019. Definitions, terminologies and measurements of LH were diverse and conflicting. Most articles (534 out of 661) did not provide any definition for LH, and we found great variation among the studies that did. According to our review, only 10 studies measured the effects of different land-cover types on biotic or abiotic processes (functional LH). The remaining 651 studies measured physical attributes of the landscape without mentioning that different land-cover types may impact biotic and abiotic processes differently (structural LH). The metrics most frequently used to represent LH were the Shannon diversity index and proportion of land-cover type. Most metrics used as proxies of LH also coincided with those used to represent non-heterogeneity metrics, such as fragmentation and connectivity. We identify knowledge gaps, indicate future perspectives and propose guidelines that should be addressed when researching LH.

Keywords

functional heterogeneityhabitat heterogeneitylandscape compositionlandscape configurationlandscape ecologyspatial heterogeneitystructural heterogeneity

Information

Type
Subject Review
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , June 2023 , pp. 83 - 92
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Foundation for Environmental Conservation

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Azevedo, JCM, Jack, SB, Coulson, RN, Wunneburger, DF (2000) Functional heterogeneity of forest landscapes and the distribution and abundance of the red-cockaded woodpecker. Forest Ecology and Management 127: 271–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnosky, AD, Matzke, N, Tomiya, S, Wogan, GOU, Swartz, B, Quental, TB et al. (2011) Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived? Nature 471: 51–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barua, M (2011) Mobilizing metaphors: the popular use of keystone, flagship and umbrella species concepts. Biodiversity and Conservation 20: 1427–1440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benton, TG, Vickery, JA, Wilson, JD (2003) Farmland biodiversity: Is habitat heterogeneity the key? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18: 182–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boscolo, D, Tokumoto, PM, Ferreira, PA, Ribeiro, JW, Santos, JS (2017) Positive responses of flower visiting bees to landscape heterogeneity depend on functional connectivity levels. Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation 15: 18–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chust, G, Pretus, JL, Ducrot, D, Bedos, A, Deharveng, L (2003) Response of soil fauna to landscape heterogeneity: determining optimal scales for biodiversity modeling. Conservation Biology 17: 1712–1723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corro, EJ, Ahuatzin, DA, Jaimes, AA, Favila, ME, Ribeiro, MC, Lopez-Acosta, JC, Dattilo, W (2019) Forest cover and landscape heterogeneity shape ant–plant co-occurrence networks in human-dominated tropical rainforests. Landscape Ecology 34: 93–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutschewitz, K, Lausch, A, Kühn, I, Klotz, S (2003) Native and alien plant species richness in relation to spatial heterogeneity on a regional scale in Germany. Global Ecology and Biogeography 12: 299–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doherty, TS, Driscoll, DA (2018) Coupling movement and landscape ecology for animal conservation in production landscapes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 285: 20172272.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duelli, P (1997) Biodiversity evaluation in agricultural landscapes: an approach at two different scales. Agriculture, Ecosystems, Environment 62: 81–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duflot, R, Aviron, S, Ernoult, A, Fahrig, L, Burel, F (2014) Reconsidering the role of ‘semi-natural habitat’ in agricultural landscape biodiversity: a case study. Ecological Research 30: 75–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duflot, R, Ernoult, A, Aviron, S, Fahrig, L, Burel, F (2017) Relative effects of landscape composition and configuration on multi-habitat gamma diversity in agricultural landscapes. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 241: 62–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duflot, R, Ernoult, A, Burel, F, Aviron, S (2016) Landscape level processes driving carabid crop assemblage in dynamic farmlands. Population Ecology 58: 265–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunning, JB, Danielson, BJ, Pulliam, HR (1992) Ecological processes that affect populations in complex landscapes. Oikos 65: 169–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fahrig, L, Baudry, J, Brotons, L, Burel, FG, Crist, TO, Fuller, RJ et al. (2011) Functional landscape heterogeneity and animal biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Ecology Letters 14: 101–112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fahrig, L, Girard, J, Duro, D, Pasher, J, Smith, A, Javorek, S et al. (2015) Farmlands with smaller crop fields have higher within-field biodiversity. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 200: 219–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falcón, W, Moll, D, Hansen, DM (2020) Frugivory and seed dispersal by chelonians: a review and synthesis. Biological Reviews 95: 142–166.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finder, RA, Roseberry, JL, Woolf, A (1999) Site and landscape conditions at white-tailed deer vehicle collision locations in Illinois. Landscape and Urban Planning 44: 77–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardiner, MM, Landis, DA, Gratton, C, Difonzo, CD, O’Neal, M, Chacon, JM et al. (2009) Landscape diversity enhances biological control of an introduced crop pest. Ecological Applications 19: 143–154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garrigues, S, Allard, D, Baret, F, Morisette, J (2008) Multivariate quantification of landscape spatial heterogeneity using variogram models. Remote Sensing of Environment 112: 216–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garzia, ACM, Yu, M, Zimmerman, JK (2018) Effects of vegetation structure and landscape complexity on insect parasitism across an agricultural frontier in Argentina. Basic and Applied Ecology 29: 69–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamstead, ZA, Kremer, P, Larondelle, N, McPhearson, T, Haase, D (2016) Classification of the heterogeneous structure of urban landscapes (STURLA) as an indicator of landscape function applied to surface temperature in New York City. Ecological Indicators 70: 574–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heink, U, Kowarik, I (2010) What are indicators? On the definition of indicators in ecology and environmental planning. Ecological Indicators 10: 584–593.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, DS (1997) The Economic Importance of Insects. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodges, KE (2008) Defining the problem: terminology and progress in ecology. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 6: 35–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horning, N, Robinson, JA, Sterling, EJ, Turner, W, Spector, S (2010) Remote Sensing for Ecology and Conservation: A Handbook of Techniques, 1st edition. New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hu, C, Wright, AL, Lian, G (2019) Estimating the spatial distribution of soil properties using environmental variables at a catchment scale in the loess hilly area, China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16: 1–14.Google Scholar
Jackson, HB, Fahrig, L (2015) Are ecologists conducting research at the optimal scale? Global Ecology and Biogeography 24: 52–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeanneret, P, Schüpbach, B, Luka, H (2003) Quantifying the impact of landscape and habitat features on biodiversity in cultivated landscapes. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 98: 311–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kauffman, MJ, Varley, N, Smith, DW, Stahler, DR, MacNulty, DR, Boyce, MS (2007) Landscape heterogeneity shapes predation in a newly restored predator–prey system. Ecology Letters 10: 690–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kissling, WD, Rahbek, C, Böhning-Gaese, K (2007) Food plant diversity as broad-scale determinant of avian frugivore richness. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 274: 799–808.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LeClare, SK, Mdluli, M, Wisely, SM, Stevens, N (2020) Land-use diversity within an agricultural landscape promotes termite nutrient cycling services in a southern African savanna. Global Ecology and Conservation 21: e00885.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, C, Li, F, Wu, Z, Cheng, J (2015) Effects of landscape heterogeneity on the elevated trace metal concentrations in agricultural soils at multiple scales in the Pearl River Delta, South China. Environmental Pollution 206: 264–274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, H, Reynolds, JF (1994) A simulation experiment to quantify spatial heterogeneity in categorical maps. Ecology 75: 2446–2455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, H, Reynolds, JF (1995) On definition and quantification of heterogeneity. Oikos 73: 280–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, W, Wang, Y, Peng, J, Li, G (2005) Landscape spatial changes associated with rapid urbanization in Shenzhen, China. International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 12: 314–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mairota, P, Cafarelli, B, Boccaccio, L, Leronni, V, Labadessa, R, Kosmidou, V, Nagendra, H (2013) Using landscape structure to develop quantitative baselines for protected area monitoring. Ecological Indicators 33: 82–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marboutin, E, Aebischer, NJ (1996) Does harvesting arable crops influence the behaviour of the European hare Lepus europaeus? Wildlife Biology 2: 83–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGarigal, K, Marks, BJ (1994) FRAGSTATS: spatial pattern analysis program for quantifying landscape structure, version 20 [www document]. URL https://doi.org/10.2737/PNW-GTR-351 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGarigal, K, Tagil, S, Cushman, SA (2009) Surface metrics: an alternative to patch metrics for the quantification of landscape structure. Landscape Ecology 24: 433–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Negendra, H (2002) Opposite trends in response for the Shannon and Simpson indices of landscape diversity. Applied Geography 22: 175–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Overgaard, HJ, Ekbom, B, Suwonkerd, W, Takagi, M (2003) Effect of landscape structure on anopheline mosquito density and diversity in northern Thailand: implications for malaria transmission and control. Landscape Ecology 18: 605–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pereoglou, F, MacGregor, C, Banks, SC, Wood, J, Ford, F, Lindenmayer, DB (2016) Landscape, fire and habitat: which features of recently burned heathland influence site occupancy of an early successional specialist? Landscape Ecology 31: 255–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perfecto, I, Vandermeer, J (2010) The agroecological matrix as alternative to the land-sparing/agriculture intensification model. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107: 5786–5791.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perko, D, Hrvatin, M, Ciglič, R (2017) Determination of landscape hotspots of Slovenia. Acta Geographica Slovenica 57: 7–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perović, D, Gámez-Virués, S, Börschig, C, Klein, AM, Krauss, J, Steckel, J et al. (2015) Configurational landscape heterogeneity shapes functional community composition of grassland butterflies. Journal of Applied Ecology 52: 505–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickett, STA, Cadenasso, ML (1995) Landscape ecology: spatial heterogeneity in ecological systems. Science 269: 331–334.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Qiu, J, Turner, MG (2015) Importance of landscape heterogeneity in sustaining hydrologic ecosystem services in an agricultural watershed. Ecosphere 6: 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redon, M, Bergès, L, Cordonnier, T, Luque, S (2014) Effects of increasing landscape heterogeneity on local plant species richness: how much is enough? Landscape Ecology 29: 773–787.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Regolin, AL, Ribeiro, MC, Martello, F, Melo, GL, Sponchiado, J, Campanha, LFC et al. (2020) Spatial heterogeneity and habitat configuration overcome habitat composition influences on alpha and beta mammal diversity. Biotropica: 970–982.Google Scholar
Risser, PG (1987) Landscape ecology: the state of the art. In: MG, Turner (ed.), Landscape Heterogeneity and Disturbance (pp. 239–245). New York, NY, USA: Springer-Verlag New York.Google Scholar
Romero, S, Campbell, JF, Nechols, JR, With, KA (2009) Movement behavior in response to landscape structure: the role of functional grain. Landscape Ecology 24: 39–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sánchez-Clavijo, LM, Bayly, NJ, Quintana-Ascencio, PF (2019) Habitat selection in transformed landscapes and the role of forest remnants and shade coffee in the conservation of resident birds. Journal of Animal Ecology 89: 553–564.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Šímová, P, Gdulová, K (2012) Landscape indices behavior: s review of scale effects. Applied Geography 34: 385–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, KK, Bianchetti, RA, Chen, G, Meentemeyer, RK (2017) Assessing effect of dominant land-cover types and pattern on urban forest biomass estimated using LiDAR metrics. Urban Ecosystems 20: 265–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, A, Gerstner, K, Kreft, H (2014) Environmental heterogeneity as a universal driver of species richness across taxa, biomes and spatial scales. Ecology Letters 17: 866–880.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sugai, LSM, Sugai, JLMM, Ferreira, VL, Silva, TSF (2019) Satellite image texture for the assessment of tropical anuran communities. Biotropica 51: 581–590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suwonkerd, W, Overgaard, HJ, Tsuda, Y, Prajakwong, S, Takagi, M (2002) Malaria vector densities in transmission and non-transmission areas during 23 years and land use in Chiang Mai Province, northern Thailand. Basic and Applied Ecology 3: 197–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tews, J, Brose, U, Grimm, V, Tielbörger, K, Wichmann, MC, Schwager, M, Jeltsch, F (2004) Animal species diversity driven by habitat heterogeneity/diversity: the importance of keystone structures. Journal of Biogeography 31: 79–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troudet, J, Grandcolas, P, Blin, A, Vignes-Lebbe, R, Legendre, F (2017) Taxonomic bias in biodiversity data and societal preferences. Scientific Reports 7: 9132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tscharntke, T, Klein, AM, Kruess, A, Steffan-Dewenter, I, Thies, C (2005) Landscape perspectives on agricultural intensification and biodiversity – ecosystem service management. Ecology Letters 8: 857–874.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tscharntke, T, Tylianakis, JM, Rand, TA, Didham, RK, Fahrig, L, Batáry, P et al. (2012) Landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns and processes – eight hypotheses. Biological Reviews 87: 661–685.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, MG, Gardner, RH, O’Neill, RV (2001) Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice: Pattern and Process. New York, NY, USA: Springer.Google Scholar
Vega-García, C, Chuvieco, E (2006) Applying local measures of spatial heterogeneity to Landsat-TM images for predicting wildfire occurrence in Mediterranean landscapes. Landscape Ecology 21: 595–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, L, Tian, B, Koike, K, Hong, B, Ren, P (2017) Integration of landscape metrics and variograms to characterize and quantify the spatial heterogeneity change of vegetation induced by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 6: 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, S, Wang, S (2013) Land use/land cover change and their effects on landscape patterns in the Yanqi Basin, Xinjiang (China). Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 185: 9729–9742.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weibull, AC, Bengtsson, J, Nohlgren, E (2000) Diversity of butterflies in the agricultural landscape: role of farming system and landscape heterogeneity. Ecography 23: 743–750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiens, JA, Stenseth, NC, Horne, B, Ims, RA (1993) Ecological mechanisms and landscape ecology. Oikos 66: 369–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yaacobi, G, Ziv, Y, Rosenzweig, ML (2007) Effects of interactive scale-dependent variables on beetle diversity patterns in a semi-arid agricultural landscape. Landscape Ecology 22: 687–703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ye, X, Wang, T, Skidmore, AK, Fortin, D, Bastille-Rousseau, G, Parrott, L (2015) A wavelet-based approach to evaluate the roles of structural and functional landscape heterogeneity in animal space use at multiple scales. Ecography 38: 740–750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeh, CT, Huang, SL (2009) Investigating spatiotemporal patterns of landscape diversity in response to urbanization. Landscape and Urban Planning 93: 151–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Tonetti et al. supplementary material

Tonetti et al. supplementary material

Download Tonetti et al. supplementary material(File)
File 7.3 MB