Synopses & Reviews
This book presents the state of the art of the fundamentals of landscape ecology. It integrates different ecological approaches, in which the spatial arrangement of living organisms and their aggregations are considered as an important component of environmental complexity. A reconciliation between the ecosystem approach and the landscape approach is discussed. Geobotanical, animal and human perspectives are considered and compared with regional (broad-scale) process-oriented landscape ecology. It presents methods and applications for land evaluation and management of the real world, with particular emphasis on the scalar property of ecological processes and their patterns. This book represents a development of the author's previous book (Principles and Methods in Landscape Ecology) with greater emphasis on applications. The first part is devoted to the fundamentals of landscape ecology, critically revisited. The second part focuses on landscape evaluation (resilient properties, fragility characteristics, connectivity aspects, and healthy conditions). The last part concentrates on management approaches.
Review
`This book should be useful to educators, researchers, horticulturists and government officials responsible for land use issues.' Current Books on Gardening & Botany, 2001 `The author succeeds in conveying both the successes and current state of affairs in landscape ecology. Importantly, this is allied to a sense of the potential of landscape ecology as a conceptual and practical framework for addressing many of the contentious issues in conservation and land management that are currently being faced world-wide.' Dr Christopher Young, University of Wolverhampton, UK
Synopsis
In my office I am encased in bookshelves which hold an accumulation of literature on ecology that represents the papers and books over the last 50 years. My students enjoy rummaging through this collection be- cause it contains a record of the history of ecology and is full of sur- prises. Some of the most recent material pertains to landscape ecology, a subject that literally emerged fully active at the Veldhoven Interna- tional Congress organized by the landscape ecologists of The Nether- lands in 1981. The subject has developed quickly. It has one or more journals, which publish short works. It has a series of text books. And, it has just begun a series on monographs. One of the textbooks in land- scape ecology is titled Principles and Methods in Landscape Ecology and was written by the Italian ecologist Almo Farina in 1998. My stu- dents like this text especially well because it is direct, to the point and comprehensive. "Farina" is on loan much of the time. In the present volume Almo Farina again addresses the subject of Landscape Ecology but from a different perspective than he took in his textbook. Landscape in Action focuses on the application of the princi- ples and concepts to problem solving. The two books make a pair, with the first technical and conceptual and the second applied to problems of land and water at large scale.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-292) and indexes.
Table of Contents
Foreword; F.B. Golley. Preface. Part I: Principles, Theory, and Methods. 1.1. The Birth of Landscape Ecology: An Important Heritage. 1.2. Towards an Unified Thgeory. 1.3. Definition of Landscape. 1.4. The Dimension of Landscape. 1.5. Landscape Typologies and Functions. 1.6. Emerging Properties of Landscape. 1.7. Ecological Concepts Incorporated into the Landscape Paradigm. 1.8. Processes in Landscape. Part II: Landscape Evaluation. 2.1. Exploring Evaluation Procedures. 2.2. Landscape Evaluation and Scale. 2.3. Concepts and Procedures of Landscape Evaluation. 2.4. Tools for Evaluating the Structure and Functions and Land Mosaics. Part III: Management and Conservation of Landscapes. 3.1. Some Concepts in Management and Conservation. 3.2. Landscape Approach to Management and Conservation: Exploring New Dimensions. 3.3. Large Scale Landscape Management. 3.4. Multiple Scale Investigation and Management. 3.5. Constraints in Managing. 3.6. Types of Management. 3.7. Managing Patterns. 3.8. Managing Processes. 3.9. Managing Functional Areas. 3.10. Conserving the Landscape. 3.11. Perspectives in Management and Conservation. Acting in Landscape Ecology: Concluding Remarks. References. Glossary & Acronyms. Species Index. Author Index. Subject Index.