Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
methods for scaling landscape patterns and processes need to be developed
and tested.
5. Methodological advances: Landscape variables are often spatially
autocorrelated and spatially dependent, which poses serious challenges for
using traditional statistical methods based on the assumption of independence
of observations. The spatial autocorrelation and dependence that traditional
statistical methods try to get rid of are usually what landscape analyses intend
to get at. Thus, spatial statistical methods that directly deal with spatial
autocorrelation and dependence have increasingly been used in landscape
ecology. Also, most landscape ecological problems need to be studied over
large and multiple scales in a spatially explicit manner. This need poses
problems such as the lack of replicability or “pseudoreplication” [
49
]. To get
to the processes and mechanisms of landscape phenomena, landscape ecology
has developed a suite of spatially explicit modeling approaches [
50
,
51
]. In
both spatial analysis and modeling of landscapes, remote sensing and GIS
(geographic information systems) have become indispensable.
6. Relating spatial pattern measures to ecological processes: To understand the
relationship between pattern and process, quantifying landscape pattern is
necessary. Indeed, landscape pattern analysis has been a major part of land-
scape ecological research for the last few decades. A number of landscape
metrics (
Table 11.3
) and spatial statistical methods have been developed and
applied for describing and comparing the spatial patterns of landscapes,
monitoring and predicting changes in landscape patterns, and relating spatial
pattern to ecological processes at a particular scale or across a range of scales
[
47
,
53
,
54
]. Nevertheless, a sound ecological understanding of these spatial
analysis methods is yet to be fully developed [
55
].
7. Integrating humans and their activities into landscape ecology: Socioeconomic
processes are the primary drivers for land use and land cover change which in
turn determines the structure, function, and dynamics of most landscapes.
Social and economic processes have increasingly been integrated into land-
scape ecological studies. The need for incorporating humans, including their
perceptions, value systems, cultural traditions, and socioeconomic activities,
into landscape ecology has made it a highly interdisciplinary and transdisci-
plinary enterprise [
38
,
56
]. That said, effectively integrating human-related
processes into ecology may remain one of the ultimate challenges for landscape
ecologists in years to come.
8. Optimization of landscape pattern: If spatial pattern significantly influences
ecological processes in the landscape, then there must be certain patterns that
are better than others in terms of promoting ecosystem functioning and
services. This is a question of landscape pattern optimization (e.g., optimiza-
tion of land use pattern, optimal landscape management, optimal landscape
design, and planning). For example, can landscape patterns be optimized in
terms of both the composition and configuration of patches and matrix
characteristics to maximize biodiversity and ecosystem services? Are there
optimal ways of “spatially meshing nature and culture” to promote landscape
