Biodiversity patterns and the importance of landscape-levelland-use intensity and fragmentation of forest habitats in Europe

Changes have been taking place in the landscapes of Europe for thousands of years. The aim of the studies presented in this thesis was to contribute to the understanding of the relation between human landscape changes and some aspects of forest-related biodiversity. A wide variety of spatially explicit data was used for the analysis and assessment of biodiversity, land cover and land use, together with climatic variables and topography. Differences in national economic conditions were found to affect landscapes with a common ancestry in the Carpathian Mountains, resulting in different trajectories of landscape development. These results highlight the importance of human land use on landscape composition. The method of comparing landscapes with different histories can be used to develop benchmarks for landscape change studies and policy evaluation. Clear relationships were found between land use parameters and functional diversity, species richness and species richness within functional groups. The usefulness of a meta-population model was evaluated by comparison with an area-based model for predicting the occurrence of the White-backed Woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos) in Poland. The meta-population model predicted the occurrence of the species better than the area-based model. The area-based model overestimated the occurrence of White-backed Woodpeckers, especially in areas with fragmented forests. The main conclusions of this study are that economic incentives shape landscapes; biodiversity patterns in Europe reflect the history of human landscape changes; and that land use intensity and spatial configuration, and the connectivity of suitable habitats are of importance for the predictive ability of landscape suitability models.