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Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2010

Jianguo Wu
Affiliation:
Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
Richard J. Hobbs
Affiliation:
Professor of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, Western Australia
Jianguo Wu
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Richard J. Hobbs
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Western Australia
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Summary

Landscapes are diverse, complex, beautiful, and inspirational. Spatial heterogeneity is the most salient feature that characterizes all landscapes. While the physical environment exhibits various spatial patterns on different scales, biological organisms are organized into populations and communities across landscapes. Like other biological organisms, humans live and act on landscapes, and thus have influenced, and been influenced by, landscapes. Unlike other biological organisms, however, humans represent an unparalleled force that has profoundly altered the structure and function of landscapes and even the entire biosphere. A number of worldwide environmental problems, such as land degradation, biodiversity loss, and global climate change, clearly attest to this destructive power of anthropogenic activities. Most, if not all, of the pressing ecological and environmental problems that humanity is faced with today are directly related to human alterations of landscapes. In most cases, humans strive to increase their appropriation of ecosystem goods and services from landscapes while compromising the abilities of ecosystems to perform other functionalities and resulting in serious ecological and socioeconomic consequences. Thus, landscape ecology is essential not only for understanding how Nature works in spatially heterogeneous environments, but also for providing practical guidelines and solutions for maintaining and developing sustainable landscapes.

Landscape ecology has made tremendous progress in theory and practice in recent decades. In the same time, as a rapidly developing discipline it is faced with new problems and challenges.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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  • Preface
    • By Jianguo Wu, Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA, Richard J. Hobbs, Professor of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, Western Australia
  • Edited by Jianguo Wu, Arizona State University, Richard J. Hobbs, Murdoch University, Western Australia
  • Book: Key Topics in Landscape Ecology
  • Online publication: 12 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511618581.001
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Save book to Dropbox

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  • Preface
    • By Jianguo Wu, Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA, Richard J. Hobbs, Professor of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, Western Australia
  • Edited by Jianguo Wu, Arizona State University, Richard J. Hobbs, Murdoch University, Western Australia
  • Book: Key Topics in Landscape Ecology
  • Online publication: 12 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511618581.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
    • By Jianguo Wu, Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA, Richard J. Hobbs, Professor of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, Western Australia
  • Edited by Jianguo Wu, Arizona State University, Richard J. Hobbs, Murdoch University, Western Australia
  • Book: Key Topics in Landscape Ecology
  • Online publication: 12 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511618581.001
Available formats
×