How fast do landscapes change? A workflow to analyze temporal changes in human-dominated landscapes

Anthropogenic activities alter natural habitats, with impacts on species that live in human-modified systems. Often abrupt, anthropogenic influences not only alter the availability and distribution of suitable habitats for species, but also the ability of species to perceive variations within the landscape. Researchers studying the drivers of species distribution and behavior often use “static” land-cover maps as descriptors of habitat, which are most typically characterized at predictably cyclical seasonal scales. Changes that occur over shorter temporal scales are rarely quantified, and there is a lack of understanding of how landscapes change within seasons.