How Landscape Ecology Informs Global Land-Change Science and Policy

Landscape ecology is a discipline that explicitly considers the influence of time and space on the environmental patterns we observe and the processes that create them. Although many of the topics studied in landscape ecology have public policy implications, three are of particular concern: climate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBioscience Vol. 66; no. 6; pp. 458 - 469
Main Authors MAYER, AUDREY L., BUMA, BRIAN, DAVIS, AMÉLIE, GAGNÉ, SARA A., LOUDERMILK, E. LOUISE, SCHELLER, ROBERT M., SCHMIEGELOW, FIONA K.A., WIERSMA, YOLANDA F., FRANKLIN, JANET
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Oxford University Press 01.06.2016
Subjects
Agricultural expansion
Anthropogenic factors
Climate change
Desertification
Ecosystem studies
Environmental changes
Environmental policy
Human influences
Land use
Landscape ecology
Overview Articles
Public policy
Urban agriculture
Urban sprawl
Urbanization
land use
landscape ecology
urbanization
climate change
policy
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Summary:Landscape ecology is a discipline that explicitly considers the influence of time and space on the environmental patterns we observe and the processes that create them. Although many of the topics studied in landscape ecology have public policy implications, three are of particular concern: climate change; land use–land cover change (LULCC); and a particular type of LULCC, urbanization. These processes are interrelated, because LULCC is driven by both human activities (e.g., agricultural expansion and urban sprawl) and climate change (e.g., desertification). Climate change, in turn, will affect the way humans use landscapes. Interactions among these drivers of ecosystem change can have destabilizing and accelerating feedback, with consequences for human societies from local to global scales. These challenges require landscape ecologists to engage policymakers and practitioners in seeking long-term solutions, informed by an understanding of opportunities to mitigate the impacts of anthropogenic drivers on ecosystems and adapt to new ecological realities.
ISSN:0006-3568
1525-3244
DOI:10.1093/biosci/biw035