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Pete August
University of Rhode Island
Landscape Ecology is a discipline that studies how
and why living organisms are distributed in the environment
in the ways that they are. Landscape ecologists are
especially interested in how the components of a landscape – forests,
villages, rivers – interact. Landscape ecology
draws from many other disciplines in the natural and
physical sciences. Hydrology, community ecology, forestry,
wildlife biology, geology and soil science are examples
of fields of study that provide landscape ecologists
important research tools or scientific insights. Scale –the
extent of the area under study – is a very important
concept in landscape ecology. The processes that create
and maintain complex landscapes at one scale can be
very different from other scales. The habitat patches
that define a beetle’s landscape are very different
from the habitat patches that define a landscape in
a large watershed or region. Landscape ecology occurs
in all ecological settings on land, on our coasts,
and in our oceans. Landscape ecology draws knowledge
and insight from field biology and natural history,
as well as cutting edge technologies such as satellite
remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS).
Landscape
ecologists are very interested in knowing how human
activities change landscapes and how landscape
function is altered by human activity. If we understand
how landscape elements that humans create (such as
roads, farms, neighborhoods) interact with natural
components of our landscapes (such as forests, wetlands,
estuaries, lakes, and rivers) we can direct future
human activities in ways that minimize negative impacts
to the environment.
Landscape ecology is the nexus of
ecology, resource management, and land use planning.
The discipline spans
a broad continuum of activities – theoretical
ecology, mathematical modeling, field biology, experimental
science, urban and rural land use planning, and landscape
design. The knowledge our ecological research produces
makes us better at resource management and planning.
The practical questions asked by land use planners
and resource managers provide direction for much of
our research.
About Pete August
I am a Professor in the Department of Natural Resources Science at the University
of Rhode Island (URI). I teach graduate and undergraduate classes in GIS and
landscape ecology. I am the Chair of the United States Chapter of the International
Association of Landscape Ecologists and the Director of the URI Coastal Institute.
The Coastal Institute strives to develop solutions to critical problems in coastal
ecosystems.
I "discovered" landscape ecology in the early-80's when I was working
as a mammal ecologist on a research project with the Illinois Natural History
Survey to restore a large wetland complex along the Des Plaines River in northern
Illinois. On that project I learned the value of GIS technology and the wisdom
of taking a "landscape ecological" perspective in my research. The
Illinois Natural History survey was a logical place to make these connections;
it has been a leader in using GIS to solve ecological problems and it sponsored
one of the first formal gathering of landscape ecologists in North America
(Risser, P.G., J.R. Karr, and R.T.T. Forman. 1984. Landscape ecology: directions
and approaches. Special Publ. No. 2, Ill. Natural Hist. Surv., Champaign).
I attended my first US-IALE symposium in 1992 (Corvallis, Oregon). Those meetings
confirmed for me that this was discipline and a group of scientists who were
asking important questions and whose work would make a tangible difference
in conservation and resource management.
For me, the scientific complexity and the immediate practical relevance of
landscape ecology makes it an incredibly exciting, and important field of research
and application. It is the place where natural history, modeling, experimental
science, design, policy, creative planning, and cutting-edge technology all
come together. Most of the research my students and I do focuses on measuring
human impacts to coastal ecosystems, and conservation planning. It is important
to me that our work has value and relevance to resource managers and conservationists.
Perhaps the most useful thing I do as a landscape ecologist is to volunteer
my time working with my community land trust and The Nature Conservancy to
help them achieve their conservation goals. From land trusts and the TNC I
continually learn of the knowledge needs of on-the-ground practitioners of
landscape ecology. Meeting these information needs has directed much of my
professional research and outreach activity during the last two decades.
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