Global assessment of landscape pattern changes from 1992 to 2020

Context Landscape patterns are driven by complex natural and anthropogenic factors and are important for a range of environmental processes, including species movement and wildfire risks. Previous assessments of global-scale landscape pattern change have focused on a single land use and land cover (LULC) type or landscape-level measurements, hence there is a lack of knowledge on landscape pattern change across multiple LULC classes. Objectives We assessed global-scale change in landscape patterns for the six LULC classes used in the HILDA + dataset (urban, cropland, pasture/rangeland, forest, unmanaged grass/shrubland, and sparse/no vegetation) from 1992 to 2020. Methods Six class-level landscape metrics which showed predictable scaling behaviour with landscape extent were calculated for each LULC class and year of the study period. Landscape metrics were quantified for five landscape extents (100, 400, 1600, 6400 and 25600 km ² ). Trends in global landscape patterns over time were evaluated with a particular focus on area and fragmentation. Results Unmanaged grass/shrubland LULC expanded in area and showed increased fragmentation, while pasture/rangeland and forest LULC tended to decline in area and exhibit decreased fragmentation. Even though there was high spatial heterogeneity in landscape pattern change for all LULC classes, neighbouring 100 km ² landscapes often showed the same directional change in area and fragmentation. Conclusions These findings highlight the variability in landscape pattern change at global scales and indicate that drivers of landscape pattern vary across the globe at local to regional scales, with implications for environmental processes such as biodiversity loss and carbon storage.