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Colleen Hatfield
Rutgers University
When people hear the term landscape ecology, they
often think it is the same or a variation of landscape
architecture.
Landscape architects are primarily focused on landscape
design and planning whereas a landscape ecologist studies
landscape pattern, and the causes and the consequences
of that pattern. For example, when you walk on your
favorite trail in the woods, you are surrounded by
pattern. Flowering
plants are often clustered together with similar flowering
patches scattered along the trail and in the woods.
Why are there clusters – are they located under
a favorite bird perch or are they there because it
is wetter? Are
the patches haphazardly spread around or are they regularly
spaced? Are the patches close enough that a single
bee could visit several patches thus carrying pollen
between
patches or are the patches too far apart for the bee
and thus there is limited pollen transfer? These are
the types of questions that are asked in landscape
ecology. Landscape patterns have consequences for how
individuals,
such as the bee, find resources. They also have consequences
for how populations, such as the cluster of flowering
plants, persist and how the forest community, including
all of the plants and animals, stay the same or change
over time.
Landscape patterns are everywhere, from how
fungus and moss spread out on a rotting log to how biomes
are distributed across the globe. Therefore landscape
ecology studies are done at a wide range of spatial
extents tailored to capture the pattern of interest.
Landscape ecology also addresses how patterns change
through time, why they have changed and the consequences
of that change. Scale is also a central theme in landscape
ecology. For example, members of an ant colony could
spend their entire lives in a small grassy patch, but
the same grassy patch is just big enough for a couple
nibbles for a grazing gazelle. The ants and gazelle
will observe landscape pattern differently. How organisms
see the landscape or how landscape patterns change
with increasing spatial extent are examples of questions
related to scale.
A landscape ecologist often draws
from many different fields of study to understand landscape
pattern. They
may have to draw from natural history, population,
community and ecosystem ecology, soils, geology and
hydrology. Conversely, many of these fields also draw
on the concepts and principles central to landscape
ecology to better understand their systems. But landscape
ecology is not restricted to colleges or research institutions.
Land managers need to understand landscape pattern
to conserve and/or restore their resources. Landscape
pattern is fundamental to land planners and a growing
number of landscape architects are drawing from landscape
ecology to understand the implications of their designs
and planning. Landscape ecology also informs policy
decisions such as how much buffer is needed to protect
wetlands or riparian areas, or spatial arrangement
of habitat that must be preserved for endangered species.
Not
surprisingly, because landscape ecology covers such a
broad range of topics, the tools that we use
to study landscape pattern are also diverse. Tools
of the trade can include mathematical and computer
models, geographic information systems, remote sensing,
observational and experimental data, historic data,
sociologic survey data, planning and design concepts.
However, this is not a complete list and that is what
makes landscape fun, the opportunity to pull tools
from a large tool box.
About Colleen Hatfield
I am an assistant professor in Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources
at Rutgers University. I am also the Landscape Ecology Program Leader with the
Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis at Rutgers and am a member on
several state and national advisory boards.
I think I was destined to
study landscape ecology. I grew up where pinion/juniper/sage vegetation transitioned
into desert vegetation all within
the view of the Rocky
Mountains. It is a place where the sky is big, vistas are long and landscape
patterns are readily apparent. The ability to see the intermingling of different
vegetation types, land forms and how they changed over space hardwired me to
think of ecological processes in a spatial context and at different scales.
However, it was not until my first landscape ecology meeting in 1988 that I
found like-minded people. I was so excited to see the range of questions being
asked, the tools being developed and a vision for how landscape ecology could
expand our understanding of landscape pattern. Landscape ecology has come a
long way since that meeting with increasingly sophisticated tools and more
people utilizing the concepts of landscape ecology to understand pattern. We
still have a long way to go though and as is often the case, the more we know
the more we realize we don’t know.
The students in my lab and I are primarily working on how organisms respond
to landscape pattern. Our work includes a broad range to topics including studies
of how organisms utilize the spatial connectivity of stream networks to move
through the environment, how riparian vegetation is influenced by spatial and
temporal patterns in land cover, how the bird community responds to restored
marshes, and if more species in a community can make a difference in whether
an invading species can become a member of the community. I have also been
actively involved in studies that have informed policy at the state and national
level and have drawn extensively on landscape ecology to develop and shepherd
these efforts. With colleagues at Rutgers, I participated in a study that provided
the scientific information for the creation of the first stewardship area in
the country. Wetlands are one of the few regulated natural resources and I
have worked closely with policy makers to effectively evaluate the importance
of wetlands in maintaining water quality and regional biodiversity.
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