Land Use Change and Biodiversity: A Synthesis of Rates and Consequences during the Period of Satellite Imagery.

The expansion and intensification of human land use in recent decades is resulting in major changes in biodiversity. Biodiversity, a term that has entered into common usage only in the last twenty years, refers to the diversity of life at all levels of organization, from genetic to species to ecosystem (Levin 2000). Although we refer throughout this chapter most commonly to species diversity, land use change alters biodiversity at all of these levels. For example, reduced habitat from land use change decreases population sizes and reduces genetic diversity within a species. At the other extreme, land use change commonly leads to more homogenous landscapes reducing ecosystem diversity (Flather et al., 1998). The advent of remotely sensed data from satellites has provided a basis for quantifying rates of land use change around the world and consequences on biodiversity. Global satellite-based data sets, useful for analyses of rates of land use change since the 1970s, are now becoming available. These analyses reveal that in these recent decades, land use continues to intensify in formerly occupied areas and expand into what were formerly natural habitats. This paper aims to summarize what we have learned about interactions between land use and biodiversity, especially during the period of satellite data availability. The goal of this chapter is to synthesize current knowledge on the influences of recent land use change on biodiversity. We first review the ways by which land use change affects biodiversity. We then summarize the use of remote sensing for studying land use change and its influence on biodiversity. Then, drawing heavily on NASA LCLUC case studies, we examine the consequences of land use change for biodiversity. Finally, we highlight promising conservation and management efforts aimed at better sustaining biodiversity and human communities undergoing land use change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]