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1. Land use changes result in increased phylogenetic clustering and preferential loss of species-rich sites for Michigan floral assemblages.

   https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2967584/v1  

   Figueroa, Héctor Fox; Grady, CJ; Cortez, Maria_Beatriz_de Souza; Beach, Jim; Stewart, Aimee; Soltis, Douglas E; Soltis, Pamela S; Smith, Stephen A (May 2023, Research Square)

   Abstract Distribution models are widely used to understand landscape biodiversity patterns, facilitate evolutionary and ecological studies, and for making informed conservation decisions. While it is common to examine consequences of climate change, impacts of land use on distributions, a major factor in limiting ranges and corridors between populations, are less well understood. Here, we use distribution models to quantify changes in biodiversity due to land use for Michigan floral assemblages. We leveraged a distribution model dataset (1930 species) integrated with dated phylogenetic information and USGS land use maps to parse Michigan areas with unsuitable habitat. Additionally, we quantify the degree of high-quality habitat lost for each species, identifying those most strongly impacted by land use changes. Approx. 39% of Michigan terrestrial habitat fell within “unsuitable” land use categories. Sites predicted to harbor the most species based on climatic variables were those sites that lost the greatest proportion due to land use changes. Further, excluded sites were preferentially those composed of more phylogenetically even communities. Overall, the impact of land use changes on community species richness was the preferential loss of sites with the predicted highest biodiversity. For phylodiversity metrics, land use changes increased the degree of community phylogenetic clustering. This results in overall decreased phylodiversity, leading to assemblages less equipped to respond to rapid climatic changes. Our results confirm land use to be a major, but somewhat overlooked, factor impacting local diversity dynamics and illustrate how local-scale land use impacts regional-scale richness and phylodiversity patterns, likely leading to increased community fragility. 

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2. Land Use Changes in the Southeastern United States: Quantitative Changes, Drivers, and Expected Environmental Impacts

   https://doi.org/10.3390/land11122246  

   Nedd, Ryan; Anandhi, Aavudai (December 2022, Land)

   Land use change analysis provides valuable information for landscape monitoring, managing, and prioritizing large area conservation practices. There has been significant interest in the southeastern United States (SEUS) due to substantial land change from various economic activities since the 1940s. This study uses quantitative data from the Economic Research Service (ERS) for landscape change analysis, addressing land change among five major land types for twelve states in the SEUS from 1945 to 2012. The study also conducted a literature review using the PSALSAR framework to identify significant drivers related to land type changes from research articles within the region. The analysis showed how each land type changed over the period for each state in the time period and the percentage change for the primary drivers related to land use change. The literature review identified significant drivers of land use and land cover change (LULCC) within the SEUS. The associated drivers were categorized into natural and artificial drivers, then further subdivided into eight categories related to land type changes in the region. A schematic diagram was developed to show land type changes that impacted environmental changes from various studies in the SEUS. The results concluded that Forest land accounted for 12% change and agricultural land for 20%; population growth in the region is an average of 2.59% annually. It also concluded that the need for research to understand past land use trends, direction and magnitude of land cover changes is essential. Significant drivers such as urban expansion and agriculture are critical to the impending use of land in the region; their impacts are attributed to environmental changes in the region and must be monitored. 

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3. Land Availability, Utilization, and Intensification for a Solar Powered Economy

   https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-64241-7.50314-1  

   Li, Yiru; Miskin, Caleb; Agrawal, Rakesh (August 2018, Computer-aided chemical engineering)

   Solar energy, though promising as the energy source for a fossil fuel-deprived future, is a dilute resource and harvesting it requires vast tracts of land. In this study, we develop an extensive process system model for land requirement analysis in each of the 48 contiguous states of the United States for a solar powered economy to address the likely land competition. Land requirement analysis in this study takes into account several issues that are usually ignored. Efficiencies of major energy conversion steps from primary energy to end use are accounted and intermittent solar availability, actual solar farm output and land availability are all considered. In addition, we prefer local photons for local use for consideration of minimizing transmission loss and energy security. Under this preferred scenario, our land requirement analysis shows that 16 of the 48 contiguous states have insufficient available land and that the land competition for energy and food will be intense. Thus, in a solar economy, land use intensification will be required to avoid conflict between our competing land use needs. 

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4. Evaluation of predicted loss of different land use and land cover (LULC) due to coastal erosion in Bangladesh

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1144686  

   Islam, Md Sariful; Crawford, Thomas W.; Shao, Yang (April 2023, Frontiers in Environmental Science)

   Coastal erosion is one of the most significant environmental threats to coastal communities globally. In Bangladesh, coastal erosion is a regularly occurring and major destructive process, impacting both human and ecological systems at sea level. The Lower Meghna estuary, located in southern Bangladesh, is among the most vulnerable landscapes in the world to the impacts of coastal erosion. Erosion causes population displacement, loss of productive land area, loss of infrastructure and communication systems, and, most importantly, household livelihoods. With an aim to assess the impacts of historical and predicted shoreline change on different land use and land cover, this study estimated historical shoreline movement, predicted shoreline positions based on historical data, and quantified and assessed past land use and land cover change. Multi-temporal Landsat images from 1988–2021 were used to quantify historical shoreline movement and past land use and land cover. A time-series classification of historical land use and land cover (LULC) were produced to both quantify LULC change and to evaluate the utility of the future shoreline predictions for calculating amounts of lost or newly added land resources by LULC type. Our results suggest that the agricultural land is the most dominant land cover/use (76.04% of the total land loss) lost over the studied period. Our results concluded that the best performed model for predicting land loss was the 10-year time depth and 20-year time horizon model. The 10-year time depth and 20-year time horizon model was also most accurate for agricultural, forested, and inland waterbody land use/covers loss prediction. We strongly believe that our results will build a foundation for future research studying the dynamics of coastal and deltaic environments. 

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5. Land-Use Type as a Driver of Large Wildfire Occurrence in the U.S. Great Plains

   https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12111869  

   Donovan, Victoria M.; Wonkka, Carissa L.; Wedin, David A.; Twidwell, Dirac (June 2020, Remote Sensing)

   Wildfire activity has surged in North America’s temperate grassland biome. Like many biomes, this system has undergone drastic land-use change over the last century; however, how various land-use types contribute to wildfire patterns in grassland systems is unclear. We determine if certain land-use types have a greater propensity for large wildfire in the U.S. Great Plains and how this changes given the percentage of land covered by a given land-use type. Almost 90% of the area burned in the Great Plains occurred in woody and grassland land-use types. Although grassland comprised the greatest area burned by large wildfires, woody vegetation burned disproportionately more than any other land-use type in the Great Plains. Wildfires were more likely to occur when woody vegetation composed greater than 20% of the landscape. Wildfires were unlikely to occur in croplands, pasture/hay fields, and developed areas. Although these patterns varied by region, wildfire was most likely to occur in woody vegetation and/or grassland in 13 of 14 ecoregions we assessed. Because woody vegetation is more conducive to extreme wildfire behaviour than other land-use types in the Great Plains, woody encroachment could pose a large risk for increasing wildfire exposure. Regional planning could leverage differential wildfire activity across land-uses to devise targeted approaches that decrease human exposure in a system prone to fire. 

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