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Landscape Ecology

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Ecological Systems

Abstract

Landscapes are spatially heterogeneous areas characterized by a mosaic of patches that differ in size, shape, contents, and history. When spatial heterogeneity is considered, the explicit treatment of scale becomes necessary and hierarchies emerge. Landscape ecology is the science of studying and improving the relationship between spatial pattern and ecological processes on a multitude of scales and organizational levels. In a broad sense, landscape ecology represents both a field of study and a scientific paradigm. As a highly interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary enterprise, landscape ecology integrates biophysical and analytical approaches with humanistic and holistic perspectives across natural and social sciences. Landscape ecology was initially developed in Europe. With theoretical developments in spatial ecology and technological advances in remote sensing and geospatial information processing, landscape ecology became an internationally recognized field of study in the 1980s. The most salient characteristics of landscape ecology are its emphasis on the pattern-process relationship and its focus on broad-scale ecological and environmental issues. Key research topics in landscape ecology include ecological flows in landscape mosaics (e.g., movements of water, nutrients, plant propagules, animals, and other materials), land use and land cover change, scaling, understanding the relationship between landscape pattern metrics and ecological processes, and landscape conservation and sustainability.

This chapter was originally published as part of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology edited by Robert A. Meyers. DOI:10.1007/978-1-4419-0851-3

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Abbreviations

Landscape:

A geographic area in which variables of interest are spatially heterogeneous. The boundary of a landscape may be delineated based on geographic, ecological, or administrative units (e.g., a watershed, an urban area, or a county) which are relevant to the research questions and objectives.

Landscape connectivity:

The degree of a landscape to facilitate or impede the exchange of organisms, energy, material, and information among landscape elements. This is sometimes referred to as landscape functional connectivity, which is a function of both landscape structural connectivity and the movement characteristics of the species or process under consideration. Landscape structural connectivity is simply a measure of how spatially connected the elements in a landscape are, without reference to any particular ecological process.

Landscape ecology:

The science of studying and improving the relationship between spatial pattern and ecological processes in a landscape on multiple scales. Landscape ecology studies the structure, function, and dynamics of landscapes of different kinds, including natural, seminatural, agricultural, and urban landscapes.

Landscape fragmentation:

The breaking-up of landscape into smaller patches by anthropogenic and natural forces or the introduction of barriers that impede exchange of organisms, energy, material, and information across a landscape. Habitat fragmentation is a similar term to landscape fragmentation, but has a more explicit focus on changes in habitat relevant for organisms of interest.

Landscape pattern:

The composition (diversity and relative abundances) and configuration (shape, size, and spatial arrangement) of landscape elements, including both spatial patchiness and gradients.

Landscape function:

The horizontal and vertical exchanges of organisms, energy, material, and information in a landscape.

Landscape structure:

The composition and spatial arrangement of landscape elements – including patches, corridors, and the matrix.

Landscape dynamics:

Temporal changes in the structure and function of a landscape, driven by natural and anthropogenic processes.

Landscape sustainability:

The ability of a landscape to maintain its basic environmental, economic, and social functions under ever-changing conditions driven by human activities and environmental changes. Landscape sustainability emphasizes the optimization of the composition and spatial configuration of the landscape so as to achieve a high level of resilience or persistency.

Metapopulation:

The total population system that is composed of multiple local populations geographically separated but connected through dispersal.

Patch dynamics:

A perspective that ecological systems are mosaics of patches, each exhibiting nonequilibrium dynamics and together determining the system-level behavior. Patches can be biotic or abiotic, ranging from a tree gap in a forest or a resource patch in a grassland to a whole ecosystem or a continent.

Pattern analysis:

The procedures with which landscape pattern is quantified, primarily, using synoptic indices and spatial statistical methods.

Scale:

The spatial or temporal dimension of a phenomenon. In landscape ecology, scale usually refers to grain and extent. Grain is the finest spatial or temporal unit in a data set, within which homogeneity is assumed, whereas extent is the total spatial area or temporal duration of a study. Grain and resolution are two related but distinct concepts. In general, fine-grained analyses require high-resolution data, but high-resolution data, after rescaling or aggregation, can also be used for coarse-grained analyses.

Scaling:

The translation of information between or across spatial and temporal scales or organizational levels.

Spatial heterogeneity:

The combination of discrete and continuous variations of one or more variables in a landscape, which can be characterized as patchiness, gradients, or a mixture of both. Spatial heterogeneity varies with scale in space and time.

Spatially explicit models:

Models that explicitly take account of the locations of processes in a two- or three-dimensional space so that the spatial arrangement of landscape elements matters.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences and Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, 874501, 85287-4501, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Jianguo (Jingle) Wu

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  1. Jianguo (Jingle) Wu
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Correspondence to Jianguo (Jingle) Wu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, 6700 AA, Netherlands

    Rik Leemans

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Wu, J.(. (2013). Landscape Ecology. In: Leemans, R. (eds) Ecological Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5755-8_11

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