Do landscape patterns reflect ecosystem service provision? – A comparison between protected and unprotected areas throughout the Lake Neusiedl region. eco.mont (Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research)|eco.mont Vol. 6 No. 2 6 2|

Résumé 0

Nowadays, anthropogenic landscape fragmentation and land-use change are recognized as major driving forces for the ongoing worldwide loss of biodiversity. Though nature conservation areas, such as Austria’s national parks, serve as retreat habitats for a broad range of biota, they are embedded in a complex of landscapes where diverse conflicts of interests meet, for instance tourism, agriculture and nature conservation. As a first step to improving the multifunctional quality of landscapes in terms of connectivity and flows of energy, material and information across the boundaries of protected zones, the status quo of such landscape mosaics has to be evaluated. The main aim of this study was to test if protected areas generally supply a higher share of environment-related ecosystem services than the surrounding landscape. We also investigated to which extent the structural composition and configuration of landscape sections reflects their volume of ecosystem service provision. We selected our study sites within the Austrian-Hungarian transnational study region around Lake Neusiedl and developed a methodological framework for assessing and mapping ecosystem services based on expert knowledge, spatial information and field data. The crucial linkage between landscape structure and its contribution for sustaining distinct ecological key functions was investigated through comprehensive use of landscape metrics, habitat and connectivity mapping. We were able to verify that levels of ecosystem service provision as well as the share and function of ecologically viable landscape elements were higher within the national park and that a statistical correlation between the aforementioned assessments exists. The outcomes of this study may support local stakeholders with valuable information on the service provision capacity and functional state inside and outside protected landscapes and illustrate hot and cold spots of network patterns. This in turn will allow the development of well-focused and efficient planning measures to strengthen ecosystematic functioning in terms of sustainable landscape development vis-à-vis society.