Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
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.
Definition of the Subject
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 relation-
ship 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, understand-
ing the relationship between landscape pattern metrics and ecological processes,
and landscape conservation and sustainability.
Introduction
Landscape ecology is an interdisciplinary field that aims to understand and improve
the relationship between spatial pattern and ecological processes on a range of
scales [
1
]. Although the term appeared in the 1930s, landscape ecology was not
