What is Landscape Ecology?
Landscape Ecology is a rapidly emerging discipline concerned with the study of the effects of spatial pattern on ecological process. All ecological systems possess spatial complexity at some scale, and thus Landscape Ecology is applicable to all areas of ecology encompassing a wide range of scales (from fine scales to broad regional scales), systems (both terrestrial and aquatic), and disciplines. Ecology has traditionally either ignored spatial complexity or has focused on how ecological processes give rise to spatial pattern. Landscape Ecology thus provides a complementary approach, by explicitly focusing on how spatial pattern affects ecological process. Landscape Ecology is becoming increasingly relevant for applied areas of ecology, such as conservation biology, ecological restoration, biological control, invasive species biology, and ecosystem management.
