Recent Shrinkage and Fragmentation of Bluegrass Landscape in Kentucky

Remote Sensing

James Fox¹  Jia Yang²  Ray Smith³  Bo Tao³  Yanjun Yang³  Wei Ren³  AlexC. Ruane⁴  Jinze Liu⁵ 

[1] Civil Engineering Department, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA;Department of Forestry, Mississippi State University, MS 39762, USA;Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Kentucky, KY 40546, USA;Goddard Institute for Space Studies, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NY 10025, USA;Laboratory for High Performance Scientific Computing and Computer Simulation, Department of Computer Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA;

关键词: grassland shrinkage;    fragmentation;    urban sprawl;    cropland expansion;    Kentucky;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs12111815

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The Bluegrass Region is an area in north-central Kentucky with unique natural and cultural significance, which possesses some of the most fertile soils in the world. Over recent decades, land use and land cover changes have threatened the protection of the unique natural, scenic, and historic resources in this region. In this study, we applied a fragmentation model and a set of landscape metrics together with the satellite-derived USDA Cropland Data Layer to examine the shrinkage and fragmentation of grassland in the Bluegrass Region, Kentucky during 2008–2018. Our results showed that recent land use change across the Bluegrass Region is characterized by grassland decline, cropland expansion, forest spread, and suburban sprawl. The grassland area decreased by 14.4%, with an interior (or intact) grassland shrinkage of 5%, during the study period. Land conversion from grassland to other land cover types has been widespread, with major grassland shrinkage occurring in the west and northeast of the Outer Bluegrass Region and relatively minor grassland conversion in the Inner Bluegrass Region. The number of patches increased from 108,338 to 126,874. The effective mesh size, which represents the degree of landscape fragmentation in a system, decreased from 6629.84 to 1816.58 for the entire Bluegrass Region. This study is the first attempt to quantify recent grassland shrinkage and fragmentation in the Bluegrass Region. Therefore, we call for more intensive monitoring and further conservation efforts to preserve the ecosystem services provided by the Bluegrass Region, which has both local and regional implications for climate mitigation, carbon sequestration, diversity conservation, and culture protection.

【 授权许可】

Unknown