Landscape Ecology

Abstract

Ecological systems are spatially heterogeneous on a wide range of scales. Landscapes usually refer to broad geographic areas that comprise multiple ecosystems or land use/land cover types, which are human-environmental systems with varying degrees of anthropogenic dominance. Landscape ecology is the science of studying and improving the relationship between spatial pattern and ecological processes across scales and organizational levels. In a broad sense, landscape ecology represents both a field of study and a new ecological paradigm. As a highly interdisciplinary research field, landscape ecology integrates biophysical and analytical approaches with humanistic and holistic perspectives across natural and social sciences. As a scientific paradigm, landscape ecology is characterized by its explicit emphasis on the causes, processes, and ecological consequences of spatial heterogeneity on multiple scales. Thus, the relationship between pattern, process and scale has been a dominant theme of landscape ecological studies since the 1980s. Ecological flows in landscape mosaics, land use and land cover change, scaling, relating landscape pattern analysis with ecological processes, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and landscape sustainability are among the key research topics in modern landscape ecology. During the past several decades, the landscape ecology perspective has become pervasive in almost all areas of ecology, and increasingly important to biodiversity conservation, landscape and urban planning, and sustainability research and practice.