Experimental landscape ecology

Experimentation in landscape ecology is widely conducted using diverse approaches to answer a broad range of questions. By assessing the response to controlled manipulations alternate hypotheses can be clearly refuted, model parameters quantified, and conditions are often ripe for unexpected insights. Results from landscape experiments complement the many well developed observational and modeling approaches more commonly used in landscape ecology. To better understand how landscape experimentation has been conducted and to identify future research directions, we reviewed and organized the diversity of experiments. We identified fifteen distinct landscape experiment types, which we categorized into four broad groups including (I) identifying landscape structure, (II) identifying how ecological processes vary within existing landscapes, (III) identifying how landscape structure influences ecological processes, and (IV) identifying landscape pattern formation factors. Experiment types vary along axes of scalable to real landscapes and generalizability, suitability for analysis through traditional experimental design and flexibility of experimental setup, and complexity of implementation and resource requirements. The next generation of experiments are benefiting from more explicit inclusion of scaling theories and tighter coupling between experiments and cyberinfrastructure. Future experimental opportunities for landscape ecologists include expanded collaborations among experiments, better representations of microbial-soil structure relationships at microscales, and direct evaluations of landscape interactions with global changes. The history, current practice, and future needs of landscape ecological research strongly support an expanded role of experimental approaches that complements the rich observational and modeling strengths of the field.     

自然辩证法在园林景观中的运用——以徐州园林景观为例

自然辩证法是关于自然界和科学技术发展的一般规律以及人类认识自然和改造自然的一般方法的科学。将辩证法的思想自然地运用到园林景观中去,不仅增加园林小品的美感和层次性,同时也使园林景观有了正确的理性认识和逻辑思维的引导。文章以徐州园林景观设计个案为例,从规划层面和设计手法层面上论述自然辩证法在园林景观中的应用,可供当代造园借鉴。     

Integrating landscape ecology into landscape practice in Central African Rainforests

Context

We describe how large landscape-scale conservation initiatives involving local communities, NGOs and resource managers have engaged with landscape scientists with the goal of achieving landscape sustainability. We focus on two landscapes where local people, practitioners and landscape ecologists have co-produced knowledge to design conservation interventions.

Objective

We seek to understand how landscape ecology can engage with practical landscape management to contribute to managing landscapes sustainably.

Methods

We focus on two large tropical landscapes: the Sangha Tri-National landscape (Cameroon, Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic) and the Batéké-Léfini Landscape (Gabon and Republic of Congo). We evaluate (1) a participatory method used in the Sangha Tri-National landscape that embeds interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners within a landscape to apply transdisciplinary learning to landscape conservation and (2) a participatory landscape zoning method where interdisciplinary teams of conservation practitioners analyse local land and resource use in the Batéké-Léfini landscape.

Results

We find that landscape ecology’s tradition of understanding the historical context of resource use can inform landscape conservation practice and natural resource mapping. We also find that the Sangha Group provides an example for landscape ecology on how to integrate local people and their knowledge to better understand and influence landscape processes.

Conclusions

Place-based engagement as well as the uptake of co-produced knowledge by policy makers are key in enabling sustainable landscapes. Success occurs when researchers, local communities and resource managers engage directly with landscape processes.

     

浅析景墙在景观环境中的功能属性

通过挖掘景墙在景观环境中的功能,阐述了相关场所对景墙功能的要求,以及相应功能的表达方式,最后对景墙的应用提出了不足和展望。     

Can landscape indices predict ecological processes consistently?

The ecological interpretation of landscape patterns is one of the major objectives in landscape ecology. Both landscape patterns and ecological processes need to be quantified before statistical relationships between these variables can be examined. Landscape indices provide quantitative information about landscape pattern. Response variables or process rates quantify the outcome of ecological processes (e.g., dispersal success for landscape connectivity or Morisita's index for the spatial distribution of individuals). While the principal potential of this approach has been demonstrated in several studies, the robustness of the statistical relationships against variations in landscape structure or against variations of the ecological process itself has never been explicitly investigated. This paper investigates the consistency of correlations between a set of landscape indices (calculated with Fragstats) and three response variables from a simulated dispersal process across heterogeneous landscapes (cell immigration, dispersal success and search time) against variation in three experimental treatments (control variables): habitat amount, habitat fragmentation and dispersal behavior. I found strong correlations between some landscape indices and all three response variables. However, 68% of the statistical relationships were highly inconsistent and sometimes ambiguous for different landscape structures and for differences in dispersal behavior. Correlations between one landscape index and one response variable could range from highly positive to highly negative when derived from different spatial patterns. I furthermore compared correlation coefficients obtained from artificially generated (neutral) landscape models with those obtained from Landsat TM images. Both landscape representations produced equally strong and weak statistical relationships between landscape indices and response variables. This result supports the use of neutral landscape models in theoretical analyses of pattern-process relationships.     

Bridging landscape preference and landscape design: A study on the preference and optimal combination of landscape elements based on conjoint analysis

Landscape preference is the focus of landscape research, in which the relationship between landscape elements and landscape preference is an important issue. Most previous studies have analysed correlation between the landscape preference scored by the public and scores on the quality of landscape elements by experts; some have compared the effects of individual landscape elements on landscape preference by photo simulation. In this study, landscape preference is regarded as the selection preference of landscape element combination. The conjoint analysis method is used to further explore the ranking and optimal combination of the significant degrees of impact of landscape elements on landscape preference when multiple landscape element combinations are used. The results show that the influence degrees of landscape elements on landscape preference in urban parks followed the order water, square, openness of the landscape, vegetation, road and seats. The optimal combination of landscape elements is the open landscape with flowing water, a shaded square, rich vegetation, a road and seats. This study demonstrates the advantages of the conjoint analysis method over the univariate method in controlling multiple variables, improving experimental efficiency and obtaining more meaningful results. A combination of urban park landscape elements based on landscape preference is helpful to inspire landscape architects to make choices among multiple landscape elements, provides evidence-based design methods for landscape design and offers basic parameters for the wide application of the parametric design or computational design of landscape architecture.     

Culture and changing landscape structure

Culture changes landscapes and culture is embodied by landscapes. Both aspects of this dynamic are encompassed by landscape ecology, but neither has been examined sufficiently to produce cultural theory within the field. This paper describes four broad cultural principles for landscape ecology, under which more precise principles might be organized. A central underlying premise is that culture and landscape interact in a feedback loop in which culture structures landscapes and landscapes inculcate culture. The following broad principles are proposed:

1. Human landscape perception, cognition, and values directly affect the landscape and are affected by the landscape.
2. Cultural conventions powerfully influence landscape pattern in both inhabited and apparently natural landscapes.
3. Cultural concepts of nature are different from scientific concepts of ecological function.
4. The appearance of landscapes communicates cultural values.

Both the study of landscapes at a human scale and experimentation with possible landscapes, landscape patterns invented to accommodate ecological function, are recommended as means of achieving more precise cultural principles.     

Introducing landscape ecology

Our new journal has been developed by SPB Academic Publishing cooperating with the International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE), which is affiliated with the International Association for Ecology (INTECOL). IALE membership includes landscape designers, architects, and planners, as well as soil scientists, geographers, modellers, biogeographers, and those biologists who call themselves ecologists. The journal is intended to be the official voice of IALE and to represent these various disciplines' interests and research on the landscape. Landscape sets the scale and orientation of the journal. Ecology indicates its breadth and wholistic approach.A central task of the editor and editorial board is to set the boundaries of the subject matter contained in the journal. These boundaries will be fuzzy, like those in nature, and will shift with time.In this introductory comment, I want to repeat some of the ideas presented at the second meeting of the USA chapter of IALE, at Charlottesville, Virginia, USA on March 11, 1987. The comments seem as relevant at the birth of a new journal as at the close of a meeting of a newly organized landscape ecology society. My comments were divided into three parts: first, general, philosophical matters; second, space and time; and third, human interactions with the landscape.     

Design in science: extending the landscape ecology paradigm

Landscape ecological science has produced knowledge about the relationship between landscape pattern and landscape processes, but it has been less effective in transferring this knowledge to society. We argue that design is a common ground for scientists and practitioners to bring scientific knowledge into decision making about landscape change, and we therefore propose that the pattern–process paradigm should be extended to include a third part: design. In this context, we define design as any intentional change of landscape pattern for the purpose of sustainably providing ecosystem services while recognizably meeting societal needs and respecting societal values. We see both the activity of design and the resulting design pattern as opportunities for science: as a research method and as topic of research. To place design within landscape ecology science, we develop an analytic framework based on the concept of knowledge innovation, and we apply the framework to two cases in which design has been used as part of science. In these cases, design elicited innovation in society and in science: the design concept was incorporated in societal action to improve landscape function, and it also initiated scientific questions about pattern–process relations. We conclude that landscape design created collaboratively by scientists and practitioners in many disciplines improves the impact of landscape science in society and enhances the saliency and legitimacy of landscape ecological scientific knowledge.     

Plant invasions in the landscape

Biological invasions and changes in land-use are two components of global change affecting biodiversity worldwide. There is overriding evidence that invasions can dramatically change the landscape and that particular land-use types facilitate invasions. Still, these issues have not formally percolated into risk analysis of biological invasions, and only recently has the influence of the surrounding landscape on invasive species spread started to be considered. In this paper we review the literature on the influence of the surrounding landscape on the local level of plant invasions (i.e., abundance and richness of alien plants in plant communities). Our review confirms that there are more alien plant species and they are more abundant at fragment edges than in the interior of fragments. The decline on the level of invasion towards the interior of fragments is sharp. To a lesser extent, there is higher invasion in small isolated fragments than in large connected patches. However, despite their relevance, the influence of connectivity and shape of the fragments have been scarcely explored. Besides the fact that a site has more invaders if surrounded by a human-dominated landscape than by a natural one, the past history and the configuration of that landscape are also important. Invasion within land-uses is often associated with the historical legacy of changes in land-use, indicating that current land-uses might represent an invasion credit to future invasions. Accurate accounts of the invasion process and effective conservation programs will depend on such considerations.     

关于城市园林绿化的几点思考

随着人们生活水平的提高,对居住环境的要求也越来越高。加快城市绿化建设,改善城市的生态环境,成为了现代城市建设的新要求。主要介绍了城市园林绿化的含义和意义,以及就现在城市园林绿化建设存在的问题,提出了解决措施。     

三维虚拟大师VRP在园林景观设计中的应用

介绍三维虚拟大师VRP在园林景观设计中的应用。VRP能与5DSMAX无缝对接,有很强的表现能力,具有实用性、灵活性,可大大提高设计师表现园林景观设计成果的合理性、准确性,在今后的园林景观规划设计中有很好的应用前景。     

Sampling to characterize landscape pattern

Current reseach suggests that metrics of landscape pattern may reflect ecological processes operating at different scales and may provide an appropriate indicator for monitoring regional ecological changes. This paper examines the extent to which a 1/16 areal subset of the landscape using equally spaced 40-km² hexagons can characterize the spatial extent of land cover types and landscape pattern (number of types of edges, patch shape complexity, dominance, and contagion). For 200-m resolution data the hexagon subset gives a reasonable estimate of overall landscape cover but may not be adequate for monitoring uncommon land cover types such as wetlands. For agriculture and forest, their proportion of the full landscape units is only outside the 95% confidence interval of the hexagon estimate 4–8% of the time, whereas the proportions for wetland and barren areas are outside the confidence interval 11–34% of the time. The hexagon subset also does not appear to be adequate as the sole basis for monitoring landscape pattern. The values for contagion, dominance, and shape complexity calculated on the full landscape units are outside the 95% confidence interval of the hexagon estimate 27–76% of the time. Other statistical analyses include regressions between full landscape and hexagon subsets, mean differences and standard errors along with tests on number of positive and negative values, and percent relative error of hexagon estimates.Although the research described in this article has been funded in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under Interagency Agreement DW89934921-01-0 with the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-84OR21400 with Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., it has not been subjected to Agency review. Therefore, it does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.Research supported by the Landscape Characterization Project, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under Interagency Agreement DW89934921-01-0 with the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-84OR21400 with Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., Environmental Sciences Division Publication No. 4090.     

郑州城市园林绿化配置现状浅析

城市园林绿化在城市建设中具有重要的作用,随着城市经济社会的发展,郑州城市园林绿化配置也存在一系列的问题。文章通过分析郑州城市道路绿化改造升级、树种苗木选配以及公园景观建设等园林绿化配置现状,提出相关对策与建议。     

Landscape indices describing a Dutch landscape

The data set of a human modified Dutch landscape was used to evaluate whether landscape pattern indices developed in the United States are fit to describe a Dutch landscape. The grid based data set contains the development of land use over the period 1845–1982. The indices were divided in two groups: pattern indices and change indices. In the first group the proportion of each land use type (P), patch number (N), mean patch size (A) and two indices of patch shape (S1 and S2) were tested; in the second group the rate of change (C) was tested.Not all indices considered in this case study are suitable for the Dutch landscape. The dominance index (D) seems not to be sensitive enough to respond in a clear way to changes in the landscape studied. Shape index seems to be a complicated index, particularly in a human modified landscape like the Dutch, where the shape of natural patches is fixed by their man-made neighbours. The trends observed in the two shape indices considered in this study are not satisfactory since each index considers another aspects of shape (either the interior-to-edge ratio or the complexity of the patch perimeter).None of the indices appears to give information on changes in the geographical position of the patches, which implies that nothing can be induced with respect to the real landscape dynamics.The indices have to be considered in combination to produce meaningful information. The combination of proportion of each land use (P) and the data of the transitions shows how the development in land use has been. Number of patches (N) together with the mean size of patches (A) gives a good indication of the pattern development.Further research is necessary to develop a useful method how to quantify the change in landscape pattern and to give an ecological meaning to the index value in relation to the process of changing pattern.     

Governing the landscape: potential and challenges of integrated approaches to landscape sustainability in Indonesia

Landscape Ecology - In recent years, landscape sustainability, the maintenance and improvement of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being in landscapes, has become a core objective...     

Integrating landscape ecology and conservation physiology

The need to understand how anthropogenic landscape alteration affects fauna populations has never been more pressing. The importance of developing an understanding of the processes behind local extinction is widely acknowledged, but inference from spatial patterns of fauna distribution continues to dominate. However, this approach is limited in its ability to generate strong predictions about future distributions and local extinctions, especially when population-level responses to landscape alteration are subject to long time lags. We review the potential for indices of physiological stress and condition to contribute to understanding of how landscape pattern affects species persistence. Such measures can indicate habitat quality from the perspective of the individual animal, and can reveal environmental stressors before their negative consequences begin to manifest at a population level. Spatial patterns of chronic stress may therefore yield valuable insight into how landscape alteration influences species. We propose that the emerging disciplines of conservation physiology and macrophysiology have much to offer spatial ecology, and have great potential to reveal the physiological pathways through which habitat alteration affects fauna populations and their persistence in fragmented landscapes.     

景观生态理念在高速公路景观中的运用——以宁波象山港大桥接线工程为例

分析高速公路绿化中生态景观组成的几个重要部分,并根据景观生态学理论、以宁波象山港大桥接线工程为例介绍景观生态理念在高速公路景观中的运用.     

A novel use of the lacunarity index to discern landscape function

Discerning the function of a landscape involves comparing landscape use with spatial patterns. To do this requires both quantification of landscape use and landscape pattern and a means of comparing the two. An index of lacunarity has been used to quantify spatial pattern (specifically, habitat contagion). We demonstrate a new way of using the lacunarity index to quantify landscape function as well. We calculated lacunarity to describe landscape patchiness of experimental landscapes with respect to patterns of habitat and non-habitat areas (the previous use of lacunarity) as well as to describe patterns of patch use by animals in those landscapes, irrespective of habitat-patch patterns (a novel application of lacunarity). We demonstrate a disparity between landscape pattern and landscape use. This finding suggests that drawing generalizations of, and making predictions about, how animals respond to landscape spatial structure may not be straightforward.