Quantification of landscape structure and assessment of ecosystem integrity of sugar maple forests along an urban-rural land-use gradient

Urban sprawl in Southern Ontario has resulted in the loss and fragmentation of forests. I tested the hypothesis that multi-temporal Landsat imagery and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) could assist in assessing the ecosystem health of Sugar Maple forests along an urban-rural land use gradient in the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario. Soil lead concentrations, plant community composition, and lichen diversity were measured at fourteen woodlots. A landscape analysis was performed at two spatial scales to identify relationships between the variables measured in the forests and landscape structure. Land cover change was most pronounced in the Ajax and Markham areas. Soil lead concentrations were elevated in urban areas and lichen species diversity increased with distance from urbanization. Plant species conservatism increased with forest size. Exotic species were similar in rural and urban forests. Land cover was a significant predictor of lichen diversity and soil lead concentrations. GIS and remote sensing generated useful measures of the landscape which can be related to indicators of ecosystem health and function.