Transfer and extension of forest landscape ecology: A matter of models and scale

Abstract

Forest landscape ecology involves examining relationships in spatial geometry among forest elements at broad spatial and temporal scales and higher levels of ecological organization-whether the focus is on physical processes such as hydrology, biological functions such as primary productivity, biophysical processes such as forest fire, or human activities such as forest harvest. In short, forest landscape ecology is a subset of the more general field of landscape ecology, which seeks to understand how spatial patterns and relationships influence forest process. Although, in principle, an understanding of how spatial relationships among individual trees in a stand influence stand growth and productivity could qualify as forest landscape ecology, in practice, the spatial extents of forest landscape ecology are much larger than forest stands; they involve large watersheds and geographical regions. Hence, forest landscape ecology, as used here, should be understood as the study of how spatial patterns and interactions influence the processes and dynamics of heterogeneous forested areas much larger than homogeneous stands of even-aged trees. The science of landscape ecology is defined primarily by its focus on how spatial patterns and interactions influence ecological process, not solely by spatial extents that are large from a human perspective. (At least, that is how it should be defined; the point is debated within the community of landscape ecologists.) Nevertheless, when applied to forests, forest landscape ecology deals almost exclusively with large spatial extents. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved.