Landscape Heterogeneity And Disturbance

Landscape pattern is generated by a variety of processes, including disturbances. In turn, the heterogeneity of the landscape may enhance or retard the spread of disturbance. The complex relationship between landscape pattern and disturbance is the subject of this book. It is designed to present an illustrative analysis of the topic, presenting the perspectives of several different disciplines. The book includes conceptual considerations, empirical studies, and management examples. Important features include: hypotheses about the spread of disturbance and the effects of scale changes in landscape studies; the multidisciplinary approach; and the explicit focus on the landscape level. The intended audience comprises graduate students, academics, and professionals interested in landscape ecology. The reader will receive a state-of-the-art treatment of a current topic in landscape ecology.

Landscape pattern is generated by a variety of processes, including disturbances. In turn, the heterogeneity of the landscape may enhance or retard the spread of disturbance. The complex relationship between landscape pattern and disturbance is the subject of this book. It is designed to present an illustrative analysis of the topic, presenting the perspectives of several different disciplines. The book includes conceptual considerations, empirical studies, and management examples. Important features include: hypotheses about the spread of disturbance and the effects of scale changes in landscape studies; the multidisciplinary approach; and the explicit focus on the landscape level. The intended audience comprises graduate students, academics, and professionals interested in landscape ecology. The reader will receive a state-of-the-art treatment of a current topic in landscape ecology.

We live in a changing world; one in which there is much concern and discussion about the topics of global change, loss of biodiversity, and increasing threats to the sustainability of ecosystems. The effects these changes may have on the environment have lead governments and sCientists to make predictions as to how soon changes might occur, where, and with what impact for large and small regions of the Earth. Along with this concern for change in various regions has come the need to understand the role of boundaries between these regions and between landscape elements. Much previous ecological research has dealt with processes within relatively homogeneous landscape units or even the collective characteristics of a composite landscape. Now, however, there is an appreciation that abiotic and biotic components move across heterogeneous landscapes and that the boundaries between these units take on important control functions in this dynamic spatial system. Furthermore, landscape boundaries (or ecotones) are important not only in satisfying life-cycle needs of many organisms, but generally are characterized by high biological diversity.

This groundbreaking work connects the knowledge of system function developed in ecosystem ecology with landscape ecology's knowledge of spatial structure. The book elucidates the challenges faced by ecosystem scientists working in spatially heterogeneous systems, relevant conceptual approaches used in other disciplines and in different ecosystem types, and the importance of spatial heterogeneity in conservation resource management.

"Landscape ecology as a modern interdisciplinary science is making use increasingly of quantitative research techniques adopted from other fields. So far, no synthetic reference has been available to those wishing to acquaint themselves with new approaches to quantitative analysis of spatial heterogeneity at the landscape level. This book seeks to meet this need by providing a conceptual framework and illustrating potential applications for methods such as pattern analysis, spatial statistics, fractals modeling, broad-scale studies, and extrapolation across scales. Each technique is discussed in sufficient detail to be adaptable to a variety of research problems. Quantitative Methods in Landscape Ecology will be an important resource for researchers and students of landscape and ecosystem ecology in understanding and analyzing the dynamics of complex spatial systems."--

This work provides in-depth analysis of the origins of landscape ecology and its close alignment with the understanding of scale, the causes of landscape pattern, and the interactions of spatial pattern with a variety of ecological processes. The text covers the quantitative approaches that are applied widely in landscape studies, with emphasis on their appropriate use and interpretation. The field of landscape ecology has grown rapidly during this period, its concepts and methods have matured, and the published literature has increased exponentially. Landscape research has enhanced understanding of the causes and consequences of spatial heterogeneity and how these vary with scale, and they have influenced the management of natural and human-dominated landscapes. Landscape ecology is now considered mainstream, and the approaches are widely used in many branches of ecology and are applied not only in terrestrial settings but also in aquatic and marine systems. In response to these rapid developments, an updated edition of Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice provides a synthetic overview of landscape ecology, including its development, the methods and techniques that are employed, the major questions addressed, and the insights that have been gained.”