Habitat Integrity in Protected Areas Threatened by LULC Changes and Fragmentation: A Case Study in Tehran Province, Iran

Parvaneh Sobhani, Hassan Esmaeilzadeh, Shahindokht Barghjelveh, Seyed Mohammad Moein Sadeghi and Marina Viorela Marcu
Additional contact information
Parvaneh Sobhani: Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Evin, Tehran 1983969411, Iran
Hassan Esmaeilzadeh: Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Evin, Tehran 1983969411, Iran
Shahindokht Barghjelveh: Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Evin, Tehran 1983969411, Iran
Seyed Mohammad Moein Sadeghi: Department of Forest Engineering, Forest Management Planning and Terrestrial Measurements, Faculty of Silviculture and Forest Engineering, Transilvania University of Brasov, Şirul Beethoven 1, 500123 Brasov, Romania
Marina Viorela Marcu: Department of Forest Engineering, Forest Management Planning and Terrestrial Measurements, Faculty of Silviculture and Forest Engineering, Transilvania University of Brasov, Şirul Beethoven 1, 500123 Brasov, Romania

Land, 2021, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-25

Abstract: The integration and connection of habitats in protected areas (PAs) are essential for the survival of plant and animal species and attaining sustainable development. Investigating the integrity of PAs can be useful in developing connections among patches and decreasing the fragmentation of a habitat. The current study has analyzed spatial and temporal changes to habitat to quantify fragmentation and structural destruction in PAs in Tehran Province, Iran. To achieve this purpose, the trends in land use/land cover (LULC) changes and the quantitative metrics of the landscape ecology approach have been examined. The results revealed that in Lar National Park, low-density pasture has the top increasing trend with 4.2% from 1989 to 2019; in Jajrud PA, built-up has the top increasing trend with 1.5% during the studied years; and among the land uses in TangehVashi Natural Monument, bare land has the top increasing trend with 0.6% from 1989 to 2019. According to the findings, habitat fragmentation and patch numbers have expanded in the studied areas due to the development of economic and physical activities. The results also indicate that the current trend of habitat fragmentation in PAs will have the highest negative impacts, especially in decreasing habitat integrity, changing the structure of patterns and spatial elements, and increasing the edge effect of patches.

Keywords: fragmentation; landscape ecology approach; land use/land cover changes; patch number (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/1/6/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/1/6/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:6-:d:707824

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().