Linking ecosystem services, urban form and green space configuration using multivariate landscape metric analysis

Area of Science:

• Ecological sciences
• Urban ecology
• Landscape ecology

Background:

• Landscape metrics quantify structure but face interpretation challenges, especially in urban settings.
• Urban ecosystem studies should prioritize habitat analysis over the surrounding built-up matrix.
• Existing methods struggle to isolate habitat characteristics from urban influences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance landscape metric interpretation using a multivariate approach.
• To investigate the relationship between landscape characteristics and ecosystem service provision.
• To classify urban habitats based on intrinsic attributes, independent of the surrounding matrix.

Main Methods:

• Coupled multivariate analysis (principal component and cluster analysis) with landscape metrics.
• Grouped habitat patches based on area, shape complexity, and inter-patch distance.
• Compared landscape patch classifications to modelled ecosystem service provision (carbon storage, pollination, soil erosion).

Main Results:

• Habitat patches up to 10 hectares consistently showed higher carbon storage and pollinator support per area.
• Larger patches (>10 ha) offered no additional area-based benefits for these services.
• Smaller, isolated patches exhibited inverse relationships compared to larger ones, with increased erosion risk in larger patches.

Conclusions:

• Multivariate analysis provides more reliable and consistent landscape metric interpretation than individual metrics.
• Classifying habitats independently of the urban matrix allows for a clearer understanding of factors affecting ecosystem function.
• This habitat-centric approach strengthens the link between landscape structure and ecosystem service provision.