Biotope diversity

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The habitat diversity (also habitat diversity or diversity ~) is a rating scale for evaluation in the landscape conservation . In addition to genetic and species diversity, it forms the third level of biodiversity .

Biotope diversity means the occurrence of numerous different biotope types per area next to one another in the considered landscape area or section. If it is a question of area types with different vegetation structures, e.g. B. meadows, forests, bushes, herbaceous vegetation side by side, this is often described as "structural diversity". Biotope diversity increases species diversity because each type of biotope has its own community, so that when there are numerous types of biotope, more species can colonize the same area next to each other. Of course, this does not apply indefinitely, because both species and communities have a minimum area below which either no occurrence at all or only a suboptimal or impoverished one is possible. Biotope diversity can also be of direct importance, especially in zoological species protection , because numerous animal species require complex habitats with numerous sub-habitats within reach, e.g. B. Water and land habitats for amphibian species or roosts and hunting habitats for bats. If biotope types appear regularly together and if they have a common, characteristic community, one speaks of biotope complexes. Sometimes you can even define the border area between two biotope types as your own, linear biotope type. This is then called ecotone .

When analyzing biotope diversity, two complementary fields have to be distinguished: An area can already be very diverse for geomorphological, pedological or natural reasons, i.e. by nature ("primary landscape structure "). This explains z. B. the high biodiversity of the mountains or the Ice Age influences of relief landscapes. In addition, human (anthropogenic) land use can be very small-scale or large-scale, unifying. In traditional cultural landscapes , traditional rural land use can result in a small mosaic of meadows , fields , rain areas , hedges and orchards, even with fairly uniform site conditions ("secondary landscape structure"). Modern, industrial agriculture with its large production units (fields) then reduces the diversity of biotopes by standardizing use.

The term biotope diversity (or combined biotope and species diversity) is mostly used in a purely qualitative and descriptive manner as a characteristic of the value of landscapes for nature conservation. A quantitative measurement and further calculations e.g. B. a diversity index are not common here. An exception to this is a field of application that was developed by American landscape ecology and later introduced to Europe. So-called landscape metrics are used for the large-scale assessment of landscapes on the basis of GIS-supported aerial photo evaluations, i.e. for assessing entire landscapes using remote sensing, without on-site mapping. It can, for. B, different types of vegetation or use can be distinguished based on the different color values ​​of the pixels. Based on the spatial arrangement of homogeneously colored and structured surfaces, complex dimensions can then be determined, which are used to characterize entire landscapes. Common diversity indices, e.g. B. the Shannon index and the associated evenness are calculated. This approach has, however, repeatedly been criticized as being too simplistic from the ecological side.

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Individual evidence

  1. z. B. Norbert Sauberer, Dietmar Moser, Georg Grabherr Biodiversity in Austria: Spatial Patterns and Indicators of Species and Habitat Diversity. Haupt Verlag, 2008.
  2. cf. z. BKH Riitters, RV O'Neil, CT Hunsaker, JD Wickham, DH Yankee, SP Timmins, KB Jones, BL Jackson (1995): A factor analysis of landscape pattern and structure metrics. Landscape Ecology vol. 10 no. 1: 23-39.
  3. z. B. C. Filip, K. Richter, M. Pietsch: Biotope type diversity = habitat diversity? - A critical lighting of GIS-supported spatial diversity analyzes from a species group-specific point of view . In: Strobl, Blaschke, Griesebner (eds.): Applied Geoinformatics 2008, ISBN 978-3879074952 , pp. 534-543.