Bachelor Thesis

Landscape fragmentation inside protected areas

Leon Prucker (02/2022-08/2022)

Support: Alexandra Lawrence, Qi Lai

Fragmentation caused by human development is a major issue in biodiversity and ecosystem conservation efforts. Protected areas (PAs) are being fragmented into smaller patches by economic activity and infrastructure. The Natura 2000 network (N2k) of PAs in the European Union was established to coordinate European conservation efforts and protect Europe’s most valuable ecosystems. The metrics of effective mesh density (Seff) and PA area were used to investigate spatial patterns in fragmentation across the N2k network. I conducted GIS-based analysis to measure fragmentation levels across nine different biogeographical regions. Additionally, I conducted generalized linear model analysis to investigate relationships between Seff, area, altitude, latitude, and longitude. My results show that levels of fragmentation differ between most biogeographical regions. The most fragmented are the Continental and Atlantic regions, while the Alpine and Steppic regions are least fragmented. Furthermore, altitude shows to be the strongest predictor of low Seff, followed by latitude and longitude. The strongest predictor of PA area is also altitude, while latitude and longitude showed indistinct results. These results indicate that level of fragmentation is high where economic activity is at its peak and that regions with adverse climatic and topographical conditions for human development show low levels of fragmentation. PA area was also observed to be large when geographic variables were not suitable for human activity. Hence, I argue that efforts need to be taken to ensure future economic development without fragmenting nearby ecosystems in the process.