Landscape ecology: concepts, methods and applications pdf
Landscape ecology studies the variations that landscapes undergo at a spatial level, usually at a large scale, and also over time. Its field of study is the interactions between spatial patterns and the different ecological processes, in which the impact of humans is often felt, and the action of humans on the landscape is such that a multidisciplinary approach is required for its study. Therefore, when analyzing a given habitat and defining a conservation strategy, landscape ecology draws on biological and geographical knowledge, as well as on social sciences.landscape ecology is usually applied to large-scale landscapes, but nothing prevents it from being applied to more specific landscapes, provided that this smaller scale makes sense as a unit of analysis. The important thing, in each case, is to carry out a suitable land use planning that favors environmental preservation. In EcologíaVerde we tell you what landscape ecology is and show you all the details about it.
Landscape ecology mosaic
Landscape ecology is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary science, especially in Mexico. Despite its theoretical and applied relevance, we lack works that synthesize its current and future situation in Mexico, particularly within the biological sciences. In this review we identify: a) regions, general ecosystems and biological groups evaluated in Mexico; b) some theoretical-conceptual and applied contributions developed by Mexican authors; c) knowledge gaps and theoretical-methodological challenges, and d) some future perspectives. We found 472 scientific articles on the subject (1992-2016), mostly conducted with plants, mammals and birds in tropical ecosystems of southeastern Mexico. Of particular note are assessments on patterns and causes of land-use change and their consequences for biodiversity-key work for identifying threats and possible conservation strategies. Unfortunately, many of the proposed theoretical models lack empirical evidence. In addition, geographic and taxonomic bias, as well as the scarcity of longitudinal, multiscale and comparative studies, have limited the progress of this discipline. Landscape ecology thus offers many challenges and research opportunities that, as they are addressed, will allow the development of a science with greater predictive capacity to solve many of the environmental problems in Mexico and the world.
Landscape ecology pdf
Landscape ecology is a discipline between regionally oriented geography and biology, which studies both natural and anthropic landscapes, paying special attention to human groups as transforming agents of their physical-ecological dynamics. This discipline or this branch has received contributions from both physical geography and biology, since while geography provides the structural views of the landscape (the study of the horizontal structure or the mosaic of subecosystems that make up the landscape), biology provides the functional view of the landscape (the vertical relationships of matter and energy). [1][2][3] This concept began to develop in 1898, with the geographer, father of Russian edaphology, Vasily Vasilievich Dokuchaev and was later continued by the German geologist Carl Troll. Incidentally, it is a discipline closely related to other areas such as geochemistry, geobotany, forestry, and soil science.
The landscape regionalization approach considers that the landscape is the joint result of environmental factors (e.g., relief, climate, biotic factors), and that no hierarchy of these factors can be found to explain its structure.
Landscape ecology slides
Landscape ecology analyzes the interactions between the temporal and spatial aspects of the landscape and its flora, fauna and cultural components. The landscape is composed of a structure or mosaic. The simplest way to understand this is to imagine viewing the landscape from an airplane.
This mosaic is made up of patches (hills, for example), a matrix (flat areas) and corridors (rivers, vegetation…). In addition to the structure or mosaic, the landscape is composed of the function, that is, the movement or flow of water, materials, fauna or people through the structure; and of the change or transformation of the model over time. In this sense, an essential term appears: the dynamics of the landscape mosaic or, in plain words, the evolution of the landscape from an aerial view.