The current cultural landscapes of Baden-Württemberg cannot be understood and designed without including the role of historical land use. However, the after-effects of historical land use or past land use change and landscape design on the species inventory currently found in our landscapes have been quite insufficiently studied.
In the project proposed here, the effect of historical land use on the current spatial distribution of biodiversity of vascular plants in Baden-Württemberg will be quantified by evaluating historical maps (e.g. from the Historical Atlas of Baden-Württemberg as well as historical archives) in combination with field surveys of current biodiversity via vegetation surveys and compared to the effect of current land use on biodiversity.
The central question of the project is whether and under which circumstances historical land use and land use changes explain current biodiversity patterns in the landscape better than current land use. Biodiversity metrics and their spatial distribution, as well as feedbacks between land use and spatial biodiversity patterns, are the focus of consideration. A special focus in this project is on the expression of time-lagged, ecological responses in relation to land use and other environmental changes.
