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In the Alpine region, the continuous consumption of open spaces for settlement areas and technical infrastructure and the associated soil sealing can be observed. This leads primarily to the loss of agricultural land. Depending on the extent of development, there is also increased landscape fragmentation, which is associated with the isolation of natural habitats and the restriction of ecological connectivity, as well as other negative consequences. The OpenSpaceAlps project has addressed this issue and, based on cooperative procedures in several pilot regions, has developed approaches and solution strategies for the sustainable safeguarding of open spaces. This handbook supports the activities and decision-making of various stakeholders, first and foremost planners in public planning authorities. Based on an analysis of the challenges and framework conditions in the Alpine region, the handbook presents and compares central "principles" of open space planning. Furthermore, integrated planning strategies for different spatial categories are discussed.
The composition and richness of herbivore and plant assemblages change along climatic gradients, but knowledge about associated shifts in specialization is scarce and lacks controlling for the abundance and phylogeny of interaction partners. Thus, we aimed to test whether the specialization of phytophagous insects in insect‐plant interaction networks decreases toward cold habitats as predicted by the ‘altitude niche‐breadth hypothesis’ to forecast possible consequences of interaction rewiring under climate change. We used a non‐invasive, standardized metabarcoding approach to reconstruct dietary relationships of Orthoptera species as a major insect herbivore taxon along a broad temperature gradient (~12°C) in Southern Germany. Based on Orthoptera surveys, feeding observations, collection of fecal pellets from >3,000 individuals of 54 species, and parallel vegetation surveys on 41 grassland sites, we quantified plant resource availability and its use by herbivores. Herbivore assemblages were richer in species and individuals at sites with high summer temperatures, while plant richness peaked at intermediate temperatures. Corresponding interaction networks were most specialized in warm habitats. Considering phylogenetic relationships of plant resources, however, the specialization pattern was not linear but peaked at intermediate temperatures, mediated by herbivores feeding on a narrow range of phylogenetically related resources. Our study provides empirical evidence of resource specialization of insect herbivores along a climatic gradient, demonstrating that resource phylogeny, availability, and temperature interactively shape the specialization of herbivore assemblages. Instead of low specialization levels only in cold, harsh habitats, our results suggest increased generalist feeding due to intraspecific changes and compositional differences at both ends of the microclimatic gradient. We conclude that this nonlinear change of phylogeny‐based resource specialization questions predictions derived from the ‘altitude‐niche breadth hypothesis’ and highlights the currently limited understanding of how plant‐herbivore interactions will change under future climatic conditions.
Snow is a vital environmental parameter and dynamically responsive to climate change, particularly in mountainous regions. Snow cover can be monitored at variable spatial scales using Earth Observation (EO) data. Long-lasting remote sensing missions enable the generation of multi-decadal time series and thus the detection of long-term trends. However, there have been few attempts to use these to model future snow cover dynamics. In this study, we, therefore, explore the potential of such time series to forecast the Snow Line Elevation (SLE) in the European Alps. We generate monthly SLE time series from the entire Landsat archive (1985–2021) in 43 Alpine catchments. Positive long-term SLE change rates are detected, with the highest rates (5–8 m/y) in the Western and Central Alps. We utilize this SLE dataset to implement and evaluate seven uni-variate time series modeling and forecasting approaches. The best results were achieved by Random Forests, with a Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) of 0.79 and a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 258 m, Telescope (0.76, 268 m), and seasonal ARIMA (0.75, 270 m). Since the model performance varies strongly with the input data, we developed a combined forecast based on the best-performing methods in each catchment. This approach was then used to forecast the SLE for the years 2022–2029. In the majority of the catchments, the shift of the forecast median SLE level retained the sign of the long-term trend. In cases where a deviating SLE dynamic is forecast, a discussion based on the unique properties of the catchment and past SLE dynamics is required. In the future, we expect major improvements in our SLE forecasting efforts by including external predictor variables in a multi-variate modeling approach.
This article presents an open space concept of areas that are kept permanently free from buildings, technical infrastructure, and soil sealing. In the European Alps, space is scarce because of the topography; conflicts often arise between competing land uses such as permanent settlements and commercial activity. However, the presence of open spaces is important for carbon sequestration and the prevention of natural hazards, especially given climate change. A GIS-based analysis was conducted to identify an alpine-wide inventory of large-scale near-natural areas, or simply stated, open spaces. The method used identified the degree of infrastructure development for natural landscape units. Within the Alpine Convention perimeter, near-natural areas (with a degree of infrastructural development of up to 20%) account for a share of 51.5%. Only 14.5% of those areas are highly protected and are mostly located in high altitudes of over 1500 m or 2000 m above sea level. We advocate that the remaining Alpine open spaces must be preserved through the delimitation of more effective protection mechanisms, and green corridors should be safeguarded through spatial planning. To enhance the ecological connectivity of open spaces, there is the need for tailored spatial and sectoral planning strategies to prevent further landscape fragmentation and to coordinate new forms of land use for renewable energy production.