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Louis Iverson
USDA Forest Service
Landscape Ecology is the study of the patterns across
a landscape, and the processes occurring that create
and maintain those patterns. It encompasses a host of
disciplines, and integrates them spatially to derive
new, and often very applicable, science. Taken to the
extreme, and depending on the questions being addressed
and the organisms involved, a landscape can range in
size from the surface of a leaf to the globe. Often these
landscapes are studied with the knowledge of biological
and sociological systems and with the help of computer
models, geographic information systems, and remote sensing.
I
believe that this field, more than any other, concerns
itself with understanding and reaching applied solutions
to most of the serious environmental issues of the
day. Whether it is an issue associated with climate
change, environmental degradation and restoration,
conservation of endangered habitats and organisms,
invasive species, smart urban growth and development,
wildfire management, forest and agriculture sustainability,
or water quality and quantity, all have landscape ecology
as a fundamental component for study. This connection
to applied issues is a primary motivation behind landscape
ecology and a real incentive to get into the field.
Please consider doing just that!
About Louis Iverson
I am a Research Landscape Ecologist with the USDA Forest Service in the
Northeastern Research Station, located in Delaware, OH. I am also an Adjunct
Professor in the School of Natural Resources at the Ohio State University.
I
had the great fortune of getting in on the exciting initial thrusts of landscape
ecology in this continent. By being a new hire at the Illinois
National History
Survey in 1982 under Paul Risser, I was a part of the initial workshop setting
the stage for landscape ecology in 1983 (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). This was an especially exciting time
for me as we were also building a GIS using an early version of ArcInfo. The
research opportunities in landscape ecology seemed endless, and they still
are today with ever increasing sources of data, software, and hardware. Since
then, I have been hooked! I've greatly enjoyed the opportunity to study
many questions and landscapes, ranging from predicting moisture retention on
topographically diverse, forested stands to estimating potential impacts of
climate change on U.S. trees and birds to estimating the biomass and potential
carbon sequestration in Southeast Asia.
I have also been grateful for the many opportunities to serve the field as
an involved person in the society. I am currently a vice president of the International
Association for Landscape Ecology, but was Chair, Treasurer, and Program Chair
of the US-Chapter before this. These experiences have been very rewarding and
I encourage this as a great way to contribute to the field.
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