1. THE HUMAN FOOTPRINT IN THE WEST: A LARGE-SCALE ANALYSIS OF ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACTS.
- Author
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Leu, Matthias, Hanser, Steven E., and Knick, Steven T.
- Subjects
FOOTPRINTS ,POPULATION research ,LANDSCAPES ,ANIMAL diversity ,BIRD populations ,ANIMAL populations ,ANTHROPOMETRY ,ECOLOGICAL disturbances ,MANAGEMENT - Abstract
The article examines the effectiveness of human footprint models in stratifying landscapes for studies investigating responses of flowers and animals to human disturbance intensity gradients. The researchers delineated the actual area occupied by anthropogenic features like urbanization and power lines and then developed the human footprint model. They found bird abundance of four synanthropic species with the use of independent bird population data. They correlated the synanthropic species with human footprint intensity and evaluated the extent of human footprint in relation to terrestrial and aquatic systems. The results suggest that human footprint models serve as a tool to stratify landscapes that are beings used for investigating responses to human disturbance intensity gradients.
- Published
- 2008
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