LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE AND CHANGE IN A HARDWOOD FOREST-TALL-GRASS PRAIRIE ECOTONE

Temporal changes in land use, vegetation cover types, and landscape st ructure were examined in a hardwood forest-tallgrass prairie ecotone i n northern Oklahoma using a Geographic Information System. Our objecti ve was to examine relationships between human activity, changes in lan d use and vegetation cover type, and landscape structure in rural land scapes between 1966 and 1990. Cover types in most of the high density rural population landscape in this study require more intensive inputs and management, which resulted in a landscape with lower diversity, h igher homogeneity, and greater patch fragmentation compared to the low density rural population landscape. Both native grasslands and forest s were less fragmented in the low density rural population landscape w hereas forests were increasingly fragmented in the high density rural population landscape, Native grasslands were less fragmented than fore sts for all years in both the low density rural population and high de nsity rural population landscapes, Our study suggests conservationists should focus their concerns on fragmentation and losses in biological diversity that accompany increased human activity in densely populate d rural landscapes that surround urban centers, Extensively managed la ndscapes dominated by native vegetation that are under less pressure f rom expanding human influence are in less peril.