Small landscape elements and landscape change in Livadi Elassonas area: effects on ornithofauna and herpetofauna – a preliminary analysis

The landscape in the Dolihi area of Livadi Elassonas has undergone major modifications during the past decades. This is confirmed by aerial photographs of the period 1960-1995, and by a QuickBird image taken in 2003. The modifications include new land uses, loss of small scale elements of the landscape, as well as changes in the size of cultivated land. These modifications have possibly affected the presence, the biodiversity and the abundance of various species found in the particular landscape. Since past inventories of biodiversity in the area are not available, the assessment of future impacts of further landscape modifications had to be based on present data. For the identification of the impacts on avifauna and herpetofauna a double approach was adopted that was based on four main landscape types: 1. Sparse shrubland (dehesa). 2. Grassland with some Pyrus amygdaliformis. 3. Riverside vegetation and 4. Agricultural landscape with some hedgerows. The first approach included a comparison for each habitat type between sample areas that were present in 1960 and 2003 with sample areas that were present in 1960 but were largely reduced or modified in 2003. In those sample pairs, which had the same origin, a comparative inventory of avifauna and herpetofauna was made. The second approach included the inventory of avifauna in 2004, with the purpose of assessing the monitoring methodology, and the repeatability of the results of the inventory in the sample areas of the same landscape type. The results show that both avifauna and herpetofauna have been influenced by the modifications in the landscape. However, the quantitative measurement of the biodiversity and abundance of avifauna possibly requires a different landscape analysis that would be based on the segregation of evergreen – deciduous, as well as open-type and closed-type landscape. New land uses such as forested agricultural areas with Robinia pseudoacacia require special research.