<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Historical gardens established around manors form an integral part of the European cultural landscape. Recent studies have revealed that manor gardens may serve as local hotspots of biodiversity and provide cultural ecosystem services within urban areas but also in rural landscapes. As a consequence of dramatic land-use changes in recent centuries, followed by a significant loss and degradation of natural habitats, manor gardens often serve as refugia for organisms within the cultural landscape. To compare the proportion of natural habitats in manor gardens with the surrounding landscape, intensively used and semi-natural landscapes were distinguished within a grid using Coordinated Information on the Environment (CORINE) land cover data for the Czech Republic. One hundred manor gardens were randomly selected, followed by a grid overlay of data from the Natura 2000 mapping system. Proportions of natural habitats were calculated for each garden in relation to the surrounding landscape. The results confirmed that manor gardens, compared with the surrounding landscape, play an important role in the conservation of natural habitats, especially in areas with a high level of human impact. For the gardens studied, occurrences of the following natural habitat types from the Natura 2000 system were recorded: forests (25.4 % of the garden area), secondary grasslands (4.4 %), streams and water bodies (1.6 %) and wetlands and riverine vegetation (0.5 %). The proportion of natural habitats within the gardens compared to the surrounding areas was significantly higher in the majority of cases.</p></abstract>

Historical gardens established around manors form an integral part of the European cultural landscape. Recent studies have revealed that manor gardens may serve as local hotspots of biodiversity and provide cultural ecosystem services within urban areas but also in rural landscapes. As a consequence of dramatic land-use changes in recent centuries, followed by a significant loss and degradation of natural habitats, manor gardens often serve as refugia for organisms within the cultural landscape. To compare the proportion of natural habitats in manor gardens with the surrounding landscape, intensively used and semi-natural landscapes were distinguished within a grid using Coordinated Information on the Environment (CORINE) land cover data for the Czech Republic. One hundred manor gardens were randomly selected, followed by a grid overlay of data from the Natura 2000 mapping system. Proportions of natural habitats were calculated for each garden in relation to the surrounding landscape. The results confirmed that manor gardens, compared with the surrounding landscape, play an important role in the conservation of natural habitats, especially in areas with a high level of human impact. For the gardens studied, occurrences of the following natural habitat types from the Natura 2000 system were recorded: forests (25.4 % of the garden area), secondary grasslands (4.4 %), streams and water bodies (1.6 %) and wetlands and riverine vegetation (0.5 %). The proportion of natural habitats within the gardens compared to the surrounding areas was significantly higher in the majority of cases.

The Potential of Manor Gardens for Natural Habitats Conservation

Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening

Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

Journal of Landscape Ecology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The Potential of Manor Gardens for Natural Habitats Conservation"}

Historical gardens established around manors form an integral part of the European cultural landscape. Recent studies have revealed that manor gardens may...

The Potential of Manor Gardens for Natural Habitats Conservation

Publié en ligne: 16 mars 2019

Pages: 59 - 72

Reçu: 27 sept. 2018

Accepté: 29 nov. 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jlecol-2019-0005

Mots clés
manor gardens, natural habitats conservation, human impact, NATURA 2000, Czech Republic

© 2019 Markéta Šantrůčková et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Potential of Manor Gardens for Natural Habitats Conservation

Publié en ligne: 16 mars 2019

Pages: 59 - 72

Reçu: 27 sept. 2018

Accepté: 29 nov. 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jlecol-2019-0005

Mots clésmanor gardens, natural habitats conservation, human impact, NATURA 2000, Czech Republic

© 2019 Markéta Šantrůčková et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mots clés
manor gardens, natural habitats conservation, human impact, NATURA 2000, Czech Republic