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Landscape Change and Associated Increase in Habitat Fragmentation During the Last 30 Years in Coastal Sand Dunes of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

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Abstract

The Eastern Barrier of Dunes (EBD) and Southern Barrier of Dunes (SBD) extend along the coast of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. These regions have been severely altered by anthropic activities for years, mainly through the development of cities and afforestation with exotic species. We quantified the effect of anthropic activities on the landscape of coastal dunes, evaluating its temporal evolution during the last 30 years. Using Landsat satellite images from 1985, 1996, 2005, and 2015, we performed supervised classifications and obtained thematic maps for coastal dune barriers. Over these maps, we quantified the main classes of natural habitats and anthropic environments and analyzed changes in their extent and arrangement over time. Temporal analyses showed a gradual replacement of anthropic environments over natural habitats. During the last 30 years, the area impacted by anthropic activities went from 13 to 31.7% on the EBD and from 3.6 to 5.9% on the SBD. In the SBD, fragmentation along the main natural habitats increased over the years, whereas fragmentation along the EBD, although higher than that in SBD, remained constant through time. Drastic reductions of the extent of natural habitats were recorded at or near areas where anthropic environments developed. Both coastal dune barriers showed a clear advance of anthropic fragmentation over coastal dune habitats, with EBD being the most impacted by human activities.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the “Laboratorio de Ecofisiología” of the Departamento de Biología, IIMyC-CONICET, and Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata for their support.

Funding

This study was supported by grants of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET, PIP 5844), FONCYT (PICT 201-0427), and from Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Project EXA903/18).

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  1. Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC, CONICET), Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Dean Funes 3250, 3th Floor, 7600, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    Ailin Austrich, Matías S. Mora & Marcelo J. Kittlein

  2. División Mastozoología, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” CONICET, Angel Gallardo 470, C1405DJR, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Fernando J. Mapelli

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  1. Ailin Austrich
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  2. Fernando J. Mapelli
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Correspondence to Ailin Austrich.

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Communicated by Dan Friess

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Austrich, A., Mapelli, F.J., Mora, M.S. et al. Landscape Change and Associated Increase in Habitat Fragmentation During the Last 30 Years in Coastal Sand Dunes of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Estuaries and Coasts 44, 643–656 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00798-x

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