 |
|
|
|
Bunnell, J. F., R. A. Zampella, R. G. Lathrop, and J. A. Bognar. 2003. Landscape changes in the Mullica River Basin of the New Jersey Pinelands, USA. Environmental Management 31:696-708. (Summary)
We prepared detailed, land-cover maps within randomly selected aerial-photograph plots for the Mullica River Basin, a major watershed in the Pinelands National Reserve. Using these land-cover maps, we quantified changes in landscape composition and land-cover patch size, patch area, and patch number, and characterized land-cover transitions between 1979 and 1991. We also evaluated the relationship between land-cover transitions and Pinelands Commission management-area designations. The management-area designations permit varying levels of land-use intensities. Although landscape composition was similar in 1979 and 1991, the total area and number of developed-land, managed-grassland, and barren-land patches increased. Fragmentation of forest land and the entire landscape, represented by an increase in the number of patches and a decrease in the total area and patch sizes for forest land and all patches regardless of cover type, occurred during the study period. Loss of forest land to development and associated cover types and the conversion of one agricultural type to another represented the major land-cover transitions that occurred during the study period. Land-cover transitions during the period were generally consistent with the Pinelands Commission management-area designations, which indicated that the regional-planning effort successfully directed land-use activities to appropriate areas of the basin.
|
|
|
|
