Landscape Ecology

Development of Landscape Ecology

The term landscape ecology was introduced by Carl Troll in 1939. It was defined as the study of causal relationships between ecological communities and their heterogeneous, patchy environments. The recognition of and emphasis on spatial heterogeneity separated landscape ecology from other classical ecological fields and inspired tremendous research interest in this “spatial ecology.” Other basic concepts of landscape ecology were also formed during this early stage, including scale, hierarchy, and landscape dynamics.

In 1982, the International Association of Landscape Ecology was founded. Landscape ecology, as an emerging academic discipline, began to draw increasing attention from scholars in the fields of ecology, geography, and sociology as well as from designers in landscape architecture and urban planning across the world. The [Page 1706][Page 1707]theoretical concepts of landscape ecology evolved rapidly beginning in the 1980s, especially in the exploration of scale and its consequences for pattern and process recognition. Different sets of landscape metrics were created and widely implemented to quantify landscape spatial heterogeneity. Modeling techniques flourished, including neutral models and process-based models. Disturbance and ecosystem succession were extensively investigated and modeled with advanced remote sensing and spatial analysis techniques. Humans and their activities have been increasingly viewed as a landscape component rather than simply an external factor.

Figure 1 Landscape ecology

Source: Wu, J. (2006). Landscape ecology, crossdisciplinarity, and sustainability science (Figure 1). Landscape Ecology, 21, 1–4. Reprinted with kind permission of Spring Science and Business Media.

Theoretical Approaches

Two landscape ecology approaches are well known; one is the society-centered, holistic view of the European tradition, and the other is the ecology-centered, spatial view of the North American tradition. The former concerns mainly cultural landscapes and focuses on landscape planning that increases the beauty and productivity of urbanized societies, while the latter pays particular attention to natural or human-modified ecosystems and concentrates on the deduction, synthesis, and simulation of landscape pattern-process interactions. Several scholars have advocated that the two distinctive approaches are complementary and, therefore, may be integrated. Others favor the diversity of research methodology and have suggested that while landscape ecology is a transdisciplinary field, individual studies may not have to be cross-disciplinary.

Fundamental Concepts

Despite the differences in the European and North American traditions, the academic disciplines associated with landscape ecology have much in common. Both include the following assumptions: