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Stream Habitat Fragmentation Caused by Road Networks in Spanish Low-order Forest Catchments

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Management of Mountain Watersheds

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Abstract

Designing and maintaining optimal road networks is one of the most crucial factors in forest management influencing cost-effective timber harvesting, fire control and safety, forest inventory and monitoring, game control, residential access and recreational use in mountain watersheds (Lugo and Gucinski, 2000; Janowsky and Becker, 2003; Demir et al., 2009). Planning for multi-functional road networks with minimum environmental impacts is an essential aim of forest management nowadays (Gumus et al., 2008; Eastaugh and Molina, 2011). However, forest roads continue to be a major source of impact on natural ecosystems (Spelleberg, 1998; Trombulak and Frissell, 2000; Seiler, 2001). In the United States, around one fifth of its surface area is ecologically impacted by roads (Forman and Alexander, 1998). Forest managers need an improved understanding about the potential environmental impact of road networks in different settings on which to base appropriate planning, maintenance and decommissioning of roads. In this sense, studying the impact of roads on stream ecosystems is a good compromise solution. Streams are especially suitable indicators of environmental change because they are extremely sensitive systems that integrate changes occurring over the entire catchment area (Williamson et al., 2008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology Trinity College, School of Natural Sciences, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Jorge García Molinos

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  1. Jorge García Molinos
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Czech Technical University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Josef Krecek

  2. Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK

    Martin J. Haigh

  3. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy

    Thomas Hofer

  4. Finnish Forest Research Institute, Muhos, Finland

    Eero Kubin

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Molinos, J.G. (2012). Stream Habitat Fragmentation Caused by Road Networks in Spanish Low-order Forest Catchments. In: Krecek, J., Haigh, M.J., Hofer, T., Kubin, E. (eds) Management of Mountain Watersheds. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2476-1_10

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