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This study investigated how structural changes of a historical traditionally used forest landscape in Central Europe have affected traits of vegetation and wild bee communities. We compared the extent of gaps in the forest using aerial photographs between 1945 and 2020. And we found historic vegetation and bee surveys from 1975 and 1990, which we repeated in 2010 and 2020. We characterised the vegetation of the closed forest, the forest gaps and the small-scale meadows adjacent to the forest as well as the wild bee community by traits and investigated trait changes with Kruskal-Wallis tests. By NMDS we characterised sample plots and transect walks of timepoints with traits and species. Area of forest gaps decreased by 88% from 1945 to 2020 and by 74% from 1975 to 2020. In the traits of vegetation, Ellenberg Indicator Values (EIV) for moisture and soil nutrients significantly increased in closed forest, forest gaps and meadows adjacent to forest. The EIVs for light and temperature, and the number of red list species decreased. The number of wild bee species that specialise in visiting flowers with long tubes and hylophilic species declined. The number of eremophilic species, species with longer phenologies, and recently Red list species increased. In the NMDS figure of forest gaps and of adjacent meadows, different species and traits characterised more recent and older sample plots of vegetation and confirm the results of the Kruskal Wallis tests. Wild bee communities of 2010 and 2020 were characterised by frequent species, while those of 1975 and 1990 were not characterised by any species. The traits characterised the wild bee communities of the older and younger transect walks in accordance with the results of the Kruskal Wallis tests. In addition, oligolectic bees characterised the older transect walks. The loss of forest gaps represents a direct loss of habitat for many plant and wild bee species. In addition, the qualitative changes in vegetation indicate a deterioration in habitat quality for plants of open forests and wild bees. Among wild bees, specialists were negatively affected by the changes described. These developments were reflected in the initial downward trend in Red List bee species. The increase in bee species with longer phenology, in eremophilic species, the decrease in hylophilic species, and the recent increase in red-listed species can indicate climate change. Therefore, this study underlines the importance of the preservation and development of ecologically valuable forest gaps, particularly in historical traditionally used forests with a typical species composition. [Display omitted] • loss of 88% in forest gaps from 1945 to 2020. • increase in EIV for nitrogen and moisture of vegetation from 1975 to 2020. • decrease in EIV for light, for temperature and Red List species of vegetation. • decline in specialised and hylophilic wild bee species from 1975 to 2020. • increase in eremophilic wild bee species and species with a longer phenology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Results of spatial and temporal comparison of malaria hotspots and coldspots could improve the health measures of malaria control and eradication strategies. The study aimed to reveal the spatially and temporally independent correlations between the potentially most effective background variables and the number of autochthonous malaria cases., Methods: Relationships between malaria cases and background variables were studied in 2 km × 2 km sized quadrates (10 Central European and 10 African). In addition to the current habitat structure of the African sites, annual precipitation, and annual mean temperature, data of the above parameters detected in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and currently in the Central European sites were included in the analyses (n = 40). Mann-Whitney tests, Principal Component Analysis, and Generalized Linear Models were used for the examinations., Results: In addition to the apparent significant positive correlation of malaria cases with annual rainfall and mean temperature, several correlations were found for habitat parameters. The cover of marshlands in the 19th-century habitat structure of Central European quadrates was considerably the same as in the recent African ones. The extent of rural residential areas was significantly smaller in the 19th-century habitat structure of Central European quadrats than in present-day African ones. According to the revealed correlations, the surface cover of rural residential areas is the main driver of the number of autochthonous malaria cases that we can directly impact., Conclusions: The study confirmed with historical comparison that not only the annual rainfall and mean temperature, the cover of marshlands and other habitats with breeding sites, but also the elements of the rural human environment play a significant role in the high number of autochthonous malaria cases, probably through the concentration and enhancing sites for vector mosquitoes. The latter confirms that a rapid urbanization process could reduce malaria cases in the most infected areas of Africa. Until the latter happens, extensive biological control of Anopheles larvae and chemical control (both outdoor and indoor) of their imagoes, further mosquito nets, repellents, and carbon dioxide traps will need to be applied more widely in the most heavily infested areas., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Copyright of Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Formatio Circumiectus is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rolniczego im. Hugona Kollataja w Krakowie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) and the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IÖR) have published a book and an exhibition titled "The Shape of Space: Landscapes of Germany as Reflections of Society" as part of a collaborative project. The project focuses on issues of landscape change, settlement and energy infrastructure, open space landscapes, and the transition to the so-called Urbanocene. The book primarily features aerial photographs that provide a realistic impression of the various land use types and resulting appearances. It addresses the enormous land consumption in Central Europe and the increasing technical infrastructure that already shapes more than a third of the country's territory. The transformation of the environment due to climate change and its societal consequences are also discussed. [Extracted from the article]

Human-induced land use changes are nowadays the second largest contributor to atmospheric carbon dioxide after fossil fuel combustion. Existing historic land change reconstructions on the European scale do not sufficiently meet the requirements of greenhouse gas (GHG) and climate assessments, due to insufficient spatial and thematic detail and the consideration of various land change types. This paper investigates if the combination of different data sources, more detailed modelling techniques, and the integration of land conversion types allow us to create accurate, high-resolution historic land change data for Europe suited for the needs of GHG and climate assessments. We validated our reconstruction with historic aerial photographs from 1950 and 1990 for 73 sample sites across Europe and compared it with other land reconstructions like Klein Goldewijk et al. (2010, 2011), Ramankutty and Foley (1999), Pongratz et al. (2008) and Hurtt et al. (2006). The results indicate that almost 700 000 km² (15.5 %) of land cover in Europe has changed over the period 1950-2010, an area similar to France. In Southern Europe the relative amount was almost 3.5% higher than average (19 %). Based on the results the specific types of conversion, hot-spots of change and their relation to political decisions and socio-economic transitions were studied. The analysis indicates that the main drivers of land change over the studied period were urbanization, the reforestation program resulting from the timber shortage after the Second World War, the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Common Agricultural Policy and accompanying afforestation actions of the EU. Compared to existing land cover reconstructions, the new method considers the harmonization of different datasets by achieving a high spatial resolution and regional detail with a full coverage of different land categories. These characteristics allow the data to be used to support and improve ongoing GHG inventories and climate research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the potential of archives of historic aerial photographs for European archaeology. Their roles in primary site discovery, in monitoring condition and material change, and in understanding landscape development with particular reference to the implementation of the European Landscape Convention are discussed. The major sources are briefly described and their characteristics outlined. The impacts that differing national and regional research traditions and heritage policy have on the use of these archival collections is discussed in the framework of issues of variable accessibility and approaches to ensuring appropriate uses, including identifying limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Even if a landscape is characterized by the occurrence of no particular natural or cultural attractions, it is of undeniable cultural and historical value since it documents a long-term relationship between humans and the place where they have spent their lives. One way to identify and quantify the values of normal, unexceptional types of landscapes is by using the concept of the physical storage structure of landscapes. The elements of physical storage structures, natural landscapes and cultural elements of landscape, and the location and method of cover remain relatively constant over time. The proposed principle for determining the landscape memory structure can be a suitable procedure for identifying and quantifying the values of so-called “ordinary” cultural landscapes according to the European Landscape Convention. However, it should be stressed that the use and meaning of the term “landscape memory” is strictly purposeful and rather metaphorical what does this mean – purposeful and metaphorical is a combination that needs to be explained in this paper. The study was conducted in the Stíčany cadastral territory (159ha), located in an intensively cultivated cultural landscape in the Pardubice Region. The definition was made on the basis of an interpretation of the Stable Cadastre maps and aerial photographs as surface, line and point elements of the landscape structure, with minimal variability of the characteristics over the period from 1839 until 2002. The largest proportion of the landscape memory consists of arable land (76.1% of the arable land in 1839 was still arable land in 2002), which confirms the priority of arable landscapes as long-term agricultural activities. A large proportion of the landscape memory is formed by built-up areas and communications (43.3%). The least stable areas are permanent grasslands (only 9.7% of the grassland survived the period from 1839 to 2002), which means that there have been big changes within this category. Only 16.1% of the areas of permanent landscape structures retained the same covers throughout the period. The cover in more than one half of the area (59.8%) remained the same in the period from 1839 until 2002. The character of the cover of 39.4% of all surface features of the landscape changed in this period. Almost two-fifths of the land area “lost its memory” over a period of more than 160 years. Our study also demonstrates and quantifies the impact of mining on loss of landscape memory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Grassland age is increasingly recognised to be an indicator for present-day biodiversity, e.g. plant species richness, and is also important for other landscape functions. We developed a methodological approach to systematically assess the spatial distribution of grassland age in marginal European landscapes. This approach – applied to the Lahn-Dill Highlands (1270km2), a marginal landscape in Hesse, Germany – comprises three steps: (1) in a two-stage stratification process, we pre-stratified the study area according to recent land-cover patterns and their changes between 1955 and 1995 (stratification I) and classified grassland types by combining data on soil moisture, base-richness, and elevation (stratification II). From 50 grassland types, we randomly selected 1000 representative grassland patches. (2) We determined the age of these patches by means of aerial photograph interpretation of a chronosequence dating back to 1953 and classified each patch with respect to the age classes young (<18years), mid-aged (18–47years), and old (>47years). (3) Based on this information, we calculated grassland type-specific probabilities for grassland patches to belong to the respective age classes. These probabilities were projected to districts by direct extrapolation. An exemplary validation of extrapolation results for two test areas was performed. The results revealed that 49% of the investigated patches were old grassland. The remaining patches were mid-aged (36%) or young grassland (15%). The extrapolation results indicated accordingly a predominance of old grassland at the district scale. Occurrences of mid-aged grassland were concentrated in districts with a pronounced land-cover change, whereas young grassland is apparently evenly distributed across the study area. Validation results suggest that our approach is suitable for a realistic estimation of grassland age in marginal European landscapes. The method may be applied in landscape models of various disciplines that rely on large-scale information on grassland age. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Cartographic Institute of Catalonia (ICC) produces commercial aerial photographic maps of locations in Europe and South America. These maps are often so large that it is necessary to produce one map from two or more photographs, which are combined two at a time in a process called mosaicking. The objective is to make the final map appear to be the product of a single photograph by producing a seam that is invisible even to an expert cartographer. The problem and a variation are modeled via bottleneck shortest paths and cycles. Optimization algorithms are developed for both, and the first has been implemented with demonstrable impact on the company. The second represents a new class of constrained shortest cycle problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the geological relevance of aerial photographs of England and continental Europe. Provision of the photographs by James Pickering from Leicestershire, England; Visibility of aerial indications of subsurface phenomena or 'crop marks'; Interpretations of 'crop marks.'