Abstract
Conservation planning is aided by an ability to view spatially explicit patterns of landscape transformation that are both multivariate and mapped with a fine-scale resolution. The Human Footprint is one such measure of transformation, integrating information on human access, settlement, transformation of land use/land cover, and development of energy infrastructure. We used this methodology to develop a fine-scale (90-m resolution) map of the degree of human transformation of the Northern Appalachian/Acadian ecoregion as well as develop models to project changes in key dynamic aspects of this map – roads, human population density, and land cover change due to amenities development – to identify in a comprehensive and systematic fashion locations that are currently highly transformed or vulnerable to transformation in the future. Although more than 90% of this ecoregion exhibits less than half of the maximum amount of transformation seen anywhere here, several regions, particular around urban areas and within major valleys, are already highly transformed. In addition, under reasonable scenarios of future population growth and development, threat levels for several areas currently with low levels of transformation are projected to increase, providing conservation planners a way to prioritize current conservation action to proactively achieve conservation goals for the future.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alroy, J. (2001). A multispecies overkill simulation of the end-Pleistocene megafaunal mass extinction. Science, 292, 1893–1896.
Anderson, M. G., Vickery, B., Gorman, M., Gratton, L., Morrison, M., Maillet, J., et al. (2006). The Northern Appalachian/Acadian ecoregion: Ecoregional assessment, conservation status and resource CD. The nature conservancy, eastern conservation science and the nature conservancy of Canada: Atlantic and Quebec regions. Retrieved January 31, 2010, from http://conserveonline.org/workspaces/ecs/napaj/nap
Baldwin, R. F., Ray, J. C., Trombulak, S. C., & Woolmer, G. (2007a). Relationship between spatial distribution of urban sprawl and species imperilment: Response to Brown and Leband. Conservation Biology, 21, 546–548.
Baldwin, R. F., Trombulak, S. C., Anderson, M. G., & Woolmer, G. (2007b). Projecting transition probabilities for regular public roads at the ecoregion scale: A Northern Appalachian/Acadian case study. Landscape and Urban Planning, 80, 404–411.
Baldwin, R. F., Bell, K. P., & Sanderson, E. W. (2007c). Spatial tools for conserving pool-breeding amphibians: An application of the landscape species approach. In A. J. K. Calhoun & P. G. deMaynadier (Eds.), Science and conservation of vernal pools in Northeastern North America (pp. 281–297). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Baldwin, R. F., Trombulak, S. C., & Baldwin, E. D. (2009). Assessing risk of large-scale habitat conversion in lightly settled landscapes. Landscape and Urban Planning, 91, 219–225.
Bartlett, J. G., Mageean, D. M., & O’Connor, R. J. (2000). Residential expansion as a continental threat to U.S. coastal ecosystems. Population and Environment, 21, 429–446.
Bell, K. P., & Irwin, E. G. (2002). Spatially explicit micro-level modelling of land use change at the rural-urban interface. Agricultural Economics, 27, 217–232.
Boucher, T., Hoekstra, J., Jennings, M. & Ervin, J. (2006). Global estimates of effective conservation. (Paper presented at the 9th annual conference of the Society for Conservation GIS, San Jose, CA).
Carpenter, S. R. (2002). Ecological futures: Building and ecology of the long now. Ecology, 83, 2069–2083.
Carroll, C. (2005). Carnivore restoration in the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada: A regional-scale analysis of habitat and population viability for wolf, lynx, and marten – Report 2: lynx and marten viability analysis (Wildlands Project Special Paper No. 6). Richmond, VT: Wildlands Project. Retrieved December 15, 2009, from Klamath Center for Conservation Research Web site: http://www.klamathconservation.org/docs/Carroll_LynxMarten_hi.pdf
Carroll, C. (2007). Interacting effects of climate change, landscape conversion, and harvest on carnivore populations at the range margin: Marten and lynx in the Northern Appalachians. Conservation Biology, 21, 1092–1104.
CIESIN (Center for International Earth Science Information Network). (n. d.). The last of the wild. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from CIESIN Web site: http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/wild_areas/
Davis, M. B., Spear, R. W., & Shane, L. C. K. (1980). Holocene climate of New England. Quaternary Research, 14, 240–250.
Dobson, A. P., Rodriguez, J. P., Roberts, W. M., & Wilcove, D. S. (1997). Geographic distribution of endangered species in the United States. Science, 275, 550–553.
Driscoll, C. T., Lawrence, G. B., Bulger, A. J., Butler, T. J., Cronan, C. S., Eagar, C., et al. (2001). Acidic deposition in the Northeastern United States: Sources and inputs, ecosystem effects, and management strategies. BioScience, 51, 180–198.
Driscoll, C. T., Han, Y. -J., Chen, C. Y., Evers, D. C., Lambert, K. F., Holsen, T. M., et al. (2007). Mercury contamination in forest and freshwater ecosystems in the northeastern United States. BioScience, 57, 17–28.
Evers, D. C., Han, Y. -J., Driscoll, C. T., Kamman, N. C., Goodale, M. W., Lambert, K. F., et al. (2007). Biological mercury hotspots in the Northeastern United States and Southeastern Canada. BioScience, 57, 29–43.
Forman, R. T. T., & Alexander, L. E. (1998). Roads and their major ecological effects. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 29, 207–231.
Foster, D. R., & Aber, J. D. (2004). Forests in time: The environmental consequences of 1,000 years of change in New England. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Foster, D. R., Motzkin, G., Bernardos, D., & Cardoza, J. (2002). Wildlife dynamics in the changing New England landscape. Journal of Biogeography, 29, 1337–1357.
Frumhoff, P. C., McCarthy, J. J., Melillo, J. M., Moser, S. C., & Wuebbles, D. J. (2007). Confronting climate change in the U.S. Northeast: Science, impacts, and solutions. Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from http://www.climatechoices.org/assets/documents/climatechoices/confronting-climate-change-in-the-u-s-northeast.pdf
Gustafson, E. J., Hammer, R. B., Radeloff, V. C., & Potts, R. S. (2005). The relationship between environmental amenities and changing human settlement patterns between 1980 and 2000 in the Midwestern USA. Landscape Ecology, 20, 773–789.
Haberl, H., Erb, K. H., Krausmann, F., Gaube, V., Bondeau, A., Plutzar, C., et al. (2007). Quantifying and mapping the human appropriation of net primary production in earth’s terrestrial ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104, 12942–12947.
Hagan, J. M., Irland, L. C., & Whitman, A. A. (2005). Changing timberland ownership in the Northern Forest and implications for biodiversity (No. MCCS-FCP-2005-1). Brunswick, ME: Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences.
Hunter, M. L., & Gibbs, J. P. (2007). Fundamentals of conservation biology (3rd ed.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Huston, M. A. (2005). The three phases of land-use change: Implications for biodiversity. Ecological Applications, 15, 1864–1878.
Jones, D. A., Hansen, A. J., Bly, Doherty, K., Verschuyl, J. P., Paugh, J. I., et al. (2009). Monitoring land use and cover around parks: A conceptual approach. Remote Sensing of Environment, 113, 1346–1356.
Laliberte, A. S., & Ripple, W. J. (2004). Range contractions of North American carnivores and ungulates. BioScience, 54, 123–138.
Leu, M., Hanser, S. E., & Knick, S. T. (2008). The human footprint in the West: A large-scale analysis of anthropogenic impacts. Ecological Applications, 18, 1119–1139.
Model Forest of Newfoundland and Labrador. (n. d.) Model Forest of Newfoundland and Labrador. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from http://www.wnmf.com/partnerInititives
National Geographic Society. (n. d.). Africa megaflyover: Charting the last wild places on Earth. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/megaflyover/
Newmark, W. D. (1995). Extinction of mammal populations in Western North American National Parks. Conservation Biology, 9, 512–526.
Noss, R. F., Carroll, C., Vance-Borland, K., & Wuerthner, G. (2002). A multicriteria assessment of the irreplaceability and vulnerability of sites in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Conservation Biology, 16, 895–908.
Parks, S. A., & Harcourt, A. H. (2002). Reserve size, local human density, and mammalian extinctions in U.S. protected areas. Conservation Biology, 16, 800–808.
Sanderson, E. W., Jaiteh, M., Levy, M. A., Redford, K. H., Wannebo, A. V., & Woolmer, G. (2002). The human footprint and the last of the wild. BioScience, 52, 891–904.
Sanderson, E., Forrest, J., Loucks, C., Ginsberg, J., Dinerstein, E., Seidensticker, J., et al. (2006). Setting priorities for the conservation and recovery of wild tigers: 2005–2015. The technical assessment. New York and Washington, DC: Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Fund, and Save the Tiger Fund. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from http://www.savethetigerfund.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Full_Reports&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=2714
Saunders, S. C., Mislivets, M. R., Chen, J., & Cleland, D. T. (2002). Effects of roads on landscape structure within nested ecological units of the Northern Great Lakes Region, USA. Biological Conservation, 103, 209–225.
Shafer, C. L. (1995). Values and shortcomings of small reserves. BioScience, 45, 80–88.
Theobald, D. M. (2003). Targeting conservation action through assessment of protection and exurban threats. Conservation Biology, 17, 1624–1637.
Trombulak, S. C., & Frissell, C. A. (2000). Review of ecological effects of roads on terrestrial and aquatic communities. Conservation Biology, 14, 18–30.
Vitousek, P. M. (1994). Beyond global warming: Ecology and global change. Ecology, 75, 1861–1876.
Vitousek, P. M., Mooney, H. A., Lubchenco, J., & Melillo, J. M. (1997). Human domination of earth’s ecosystems. Science, 277, 494–499.
Wilcove, D. S., Rothstein, D., Dubow, J., Phillips, A., & Losos, E. (1998). Quantifying threats to imperiled species in the United States. Bioscience, 48, 607–615.
Woodford, J. E., & Meyer, M. W. (2003). Impact of lakeshore development on green frog abundance. Biological Conservation, 110, 277–284.
Woolmer, G., Trombulak, S. C., Ray, J. C., Doran, P. J., Anderson, M. G., Baldwin, R. F., et al. (2008). Rescaling the human footprint: A tool for conservation planning at an ecoregional scale. Landscape and Urban Planning, 87, 42–53.
WRI (World Resources Institute) (2000). City lights of the world: Based on NOAA-National Geophysical Data Center, Stable Lights and Radiance Calibrated Lights of the World (1998). Accessed on January 3, 2010, from http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/maps/4_m_citylights.pdf
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Trombulak, S.C., Baldwin, R.F., Woolmer, G. (2010). The Human Footprint as a Conservation Planning Tool. In: Trombulak, S., Baldwin, R. (eds) Landscape-scale Conservation Planning. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9575-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9575-6_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-9574-9
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-9575-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)