Landscape Ecological Structure in the Eastern Part of the North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve, Latvia

Latvia is a country where the forest area has increased and habitat fragmentation has reversed compared with many other European countries. In order to examine the effect of this expansion on biodiversity, vegetation maps dating from 2002 and the years 1930-1936 were used for comparative landscape structure analyses while archive materials from forest plans, and data from the national forest management database were used for land use analysis. Four landscape ecoregions in the eastern side of the North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve were selected for analysis. Landscape structure indicators derived from landscape ecology were used for the ecological assessment of land use changes. The total number of forest patches had decreased over the study period, but mean patch size had increased for all types of landscape element. This general change was found to vary between different landscape units in the study area. The biggest change in the area of forest patches occurred in the Rūjiena drumlin field, where the amount of forest patches decreased least and forest area increased the most. This study showed that the internal structure of the forest matrix changed substantially. This finding has implications for biodiversity protection if this trend of land use change continues.