Lecture 22: Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Management

Question 1

3 tools important for landscaping

Answer 1

1. Aerial photography
2. Remote sensing satellites
3. Geographic Information systems (GIS)

Question 2

Landscape Ecology Examines Spatial Patterns and their Relationship to Ecological Processes

Answer 2

a tool used by conservation biologists (people) to preserve biodiversity

Question 3

Aerial Photography

Answer 3

Drones, planes, and people on the ground which are taking pictures of the area and the landscape

Question 4

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Answer 4

Can get images
17 years of information

Question 5

Lanscape Ecology

Answer 5

emphasizes the causes and consequences of spatial variation in surface features and biota across a range of scales

Question 6

Landscape

Answer 6

• An area that is spatially heterogeneous in one or more features of the environment, such as the number of arrangement of different habitat types
• a landscape typically includes multiple ecosystems

Question 7

Patch

Answer 7

homogenous unit within a landscape

Question 8

Corridor

Answer 8

linear element different from the matrix, function determined by form

Question 9

Matrix

Answer 9

greatest area in the landscape, high degree of connectivity, dominant role in ecosystem dynamics

Question 10

Landscape Connectivity

Answer 10

the degree to which the landscape facilitates or impedes movement among resources

Question 11

Dispersal

Answer 11

Generally the key to recovery and resilience in the metapopulation

Question 12

Patch Connectivity

Answer 12

Affects recovery of allelic diversity

Question 13

Landscape Heterogeneity

Answer 13

• described in terms of composition and spatial arrangements elements (structure)
• Disturbances are both created and influenced by landscape heterogeneity

Question 14

Ecosystems that Make up a Landscape

Answer 14

• Dynamic
• Interactions include flow of water, energy, nutrients, or pollutants between ecosystems

Question 15

Biotic Flow

Answer 15

• animals, seeds, pollen, etc., move between ecosystems
• Patches must be connected, or the surrounding habitat (the matrix) must be suitable for dispersal.
• health of ecosystems

Question 16

Habitat Loss and Fragmentation

Answer 16

• Decrease habitat area
• Isolate populations
• Alter conditions at habitat edges

Question 17

Fragmentation

Answer 17

• results in increasing degradation and edge effects
• results in spatial isolation of populations, making them vulnerable to the problems of small populations
• Often leads to loss of top predators, giving rise to cascading effects
• If flying from one patch to another requires to much energy you’ve wasted it all even if your a top predator

Question 18

When a Habitat is Fragmented

Answer 18

• Some species go extinct in many of the fragments
• There may be inadequate resources, disruption of mutualisms, or not enough range for foraging
• some species flourish under the changed conditions

Question 19

Edges

Answer 19

• increase as fragmentation increases
• Total length of habitat boundary

Question 20

Edge Effects

Answer 20

• biotic and abiotic changes associated with this boundary
• physical environment
  changes over a certain distance into the fragment, and thus biological interactions and ecological processes change as well
• more acceptable to a predator

Question 21

Designing Nature Reserves

Answer 21

• some spatial designs are better than others for foresting biodiversity
• Large, compact and connected reserves are usually ideal
• Smaller or disconnected reserves may sometimes be more desirable
  (E.g., diseases would spread less quickly in isolated patches)
• Small and closer together is better than further apart

Question 22

Ecosystem Management

Answer 22

• A collaborative process with the maintenance of long-term ecological integrity as its core value
• Educating the public about their reliance on ecosystem services is part of the ecosystem management
• challenges are considerable