1/14/25 OSC 4001

Ecology —> study of interactions between living organisms and their environment

  • Auguste Comte’s hierarchy of the sciences

    • Math>Astronomy>Physics>Chemistry>Biology>Sociology

  • Ecological phenomena have high variability and rely heavily on the rules of biology

Landscape Ecology → spatial configuration of landscapes can have important effects on a wide variety of ecological processes

  • The study of both the causes of ecological pattern and the effects of pattern on ecological processes

  • emphasizes broad spatial scales and the ecological effects of the spatial patterning of ecosystems

  • space is important

Ecological study based on levels of biotic organizations (green = ecology)

  • Cell

  • Organ

  • Individual

  • Population

  • Community

  • Ecosystem

  • Biome

  • Biosphere

Seascape Ecology → The application of landscape ecological theory and practice in the marine environment

What is a landscape?

  • An area composed of multiple

Scale

  • profound and pervasive issue

    • important

  • most ecological study assumed that phenomena can be extrapolated or predicted over space without considering size or position

History

  • Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) - naturalist, geographer, and explorer

    • Essay on the Geography of Plants (1807)

      • described plant associations by elevation and environment

      • laid the groundwork for biogeography

      • worked extensively in South America

      • also described the Humboldt Current

  • Sir Arthur George Tansley (1871-1955)

    • Botonist and ecologist

    • introduced term “ecosystem” in The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms (1935)

    • Emphasized

  • Carl Troll (1899-1975) - geographer, cartographer, and biologist

    • coined term landscape ecology in 1939

    • used aerial photography to analyze landscapes - new technology

The European School

  • heavy focus on human-influenced landscapes

    • long and pervasive history of land use in Europe

  • Landscape history

  • urban and landscape architecture and design

  • quantitative and qualitative approaches and methods

  • Emphasis on application- management, conservation, sustainable development, policy

The North American School

  • focus on theory and quantitative modeling of natural or semi-natural ecosystems

    • structure, function, dynamics of ecological landscapes

  • Richard T.T. Forman (1935, still a prof at Harvard)

  • Island Biogeography

    • Backbone of landscape models

  • Spatial ecology

    • species interactions in space

  • Hierarchy theory

    • New tools to address scale