TY  - JOUR
A1  - Halbgewachs, Magdalena
A1  - Wegmann, Martin
A1  - da Ponte, Emmanuel
T1  - A spectral mixture analysis and landscape metrics based framework for monitoring spatiotemporal forest cover changes: a case study in Mato Grosso, Brazil
JF  - Remote Sensing
N2  - An increasing amount of Brazilian rainforest is being lost or degraded for various reasons, both anthropogenic and natural, leading to a loss of biodiversity and further global consequences. Especially in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, soy production and large-scale cattle farms led to extensive losses of rainforest in recent years. We used a spectral mixture approach followed by a decision tree classification based on more than 30 years of Landsat data to quantify these losses. Research has shown that current methods for assessing forest degradation are lacking accuracy. Therefore, we generated classifications to determine land cover changes for each year, focusing on both cleared and degraded forest land. The analyses showed a decrease in forest area in Mato Grosso by 28.8% between 1986 and 2020. In order to measure changed forest structures for the selected period, fragmentation analyses based on diverse landscape metrics were carried out for the municipality of Colniza in Mato Grosso. It was found that forest areas experienced also a high degree of fragmentation over the study period, with an increase of 83.3% of the number of patches and a decrease of the mean patch area of 86.1% for the selected time period, resulting in altered habitats for flora and fauna.
KW  - Landsat
KW  - Google Earth Engine
KW  - spectral mixture analysis
KW  - deforestation
KW  - forest degradation
KW  - landscape metrics
KW  - forest fragmentaion
KW  - Mato Grosso
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-270644
SN  - 2072-4292
VL  - 14
IS  - 8
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Thorn, Simon
A1  - Seibold, Sebastian
A1  - Leverkus, Alexandro B
A1  - Michler, Thomas
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Noss, Reed F
A1  - Stork, Nigel
A1  - Vogel, Sebastian
A1  - Lindenmayer, David B
T1  - The living dead: acknowledging life after tree death to stop forest degradation
JF  - Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
N2  - Global sustainability agendas focus primarily on halting deforestation, yet the biodiversity crisis resulting from the degradation of remaining forests is going largely unnoticed. Forest degradation occurs through the loss of key ecological structures, such as dying trees and deadwood, even in the absence of deforestation. One of the main drivers of forest degradation is limited awareness by policy makers and the public on the importance of these structures for supporting forest biodiversity and ecosystem function. Here, we outline management strategies to protect forest health and biodiversity by maintaining and promoting deadwood, and propose environmental education initiatives to improve the general awareness of the importance of deadwood. Finally, we call for major reforms to forest management to maintain and restore deadwood; large, old trees; and other key ecological structures.
KW  - forest degradation
KW  - biodiversity
KW  - deadwood
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-218575
VL  - 18
IS  - 9
SP  - 505
EP  - 512
ER  -