Foundation Papers in Landscape Ecology

Landscape ecology focuses on spatial heterogeneity, or the idea that where things are and where they are in relation to other things can have important consequences for a wide range of phenomena. Landscape ecology integrates humans with natural ecosystems and brings a spatial perspective to such fields as natural resource management, conservation, and urban planning. The thirty-seven papers included in this volume present the origins and development of landscape ecology and encompass a variety of perspectives, approaches, and geographies. The editors begin with articles that illuminate the discipline's diverse scientific foundations, such as L. S. Berg's keystone paper outlining a geoecological analysis based on soil science, physical geography, and geology. Next they include selections exemplifying landscape ecologists' growing awareness of spatial pattern, the different ways they incorporated scale into their work, the progression of landscape ecology from a qualitative to a quantitative discipline, and how concepts from landscape ecology have come to permeate ecological research and influence land-use policy, conservation practices, landscape architecture, and geography. Together these articles provide a solid introduction to what is now widely recognized as an important area of research and application that encourages new ways of thinking about natural and human-dominated ecosystems

John Wiens is lead scientist at The Nature Conservancy. He was previously affiliated with Colorado State University, where he was a professor of ecology and University Distinguished Professor. He is among the editors of Issues and Perspectives in Landscape Ecology (Cambridge, 2005) and has written some 200 scientific papers. David Mladenoff is a professor of forest ecology and management at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His book Spatial Modeling of Forest Landscape Change: Approaches and Applications was published by Cambridge University Press (1999), and he has received awards for several of his landscape ecology papers. Michael Moss is associate dean of environmental sciences and professor of geography at the University of Guelph, Canada. He is currently secretary-general of the International Association for Landscape Ecology. He has coedited two volumes. Monica Turner is professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is the editor of the journal Ecosystems and of a book, Quantitative Methods in Landscape Ecology (1994). She also coauthored a major text in landscape ecology, Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice (Springer-Verlag, 2001).