Appreciating ecological complexity: Habitat contours as a conceptual landscape model

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Organisms respond to their surroundings at multiple spatial scales, and different organisms respond differently to the same environment. Existing landscape models, such as the "fragmentation model" (or patch-matrix-corridor model) and the "variegation model," can be limited in their ability to explain complex patterns for different species and across multiple scales. An alternative approach is to conceptualize landscapes as overlaid species-specific habitat contour maps. Key characteristics of this approach are that different species may respond differently to the same environmental conditions and at different spatial scales. Although similar approaches are being used in ecological modeling, there is much room for habitat contours as a useful conceptual tool. By providing an alternative view of landscapes, a contour model may stimulate more field investigations stratified on the basis of ecological variables other than human-defined patches and patch boundaries. A conceptual model of habitat contours may also help to communicate ecological complexity to land managers. Finally, by incorporating additional ecological complexity, a conceptual model based on habitat contours may help to bridge the perceived gap between pattern and process in landscape ecology. Habitat contours do not preclude the use of existing landscape models and should be seen as a complementary approach most suited to heterogeneous human-modified landscapes.

Original languageEnglish
JournalConservation Biology
Volume18
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)1245-1253
Number of pages9
ISSN0888-8892
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.10.2004
Externally publishedYes

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Sevda Helpap

Publications

  1. Customer Orientation of Service Employees—Toward a Conceptual Framework of a Key Relationship Marketing Construct
  2. Performance Saga: Interview 05
  3. Mathematik als Fremdsprache?
  4. Mechanics of sheet-bulk indentation
  5. ›A moving picture of thought‹
  6. DSM-IV und DSM-5
  7. Wie partizipativ sind Bottom-up-Transformationen?
  8. Model Predictive Control for Energy Optimization in Generators/Motors as Well as Converters and Inverters for Futuristic Integrated Power Networks
  9. Natality ‒ Philosophical Rudiments concerning a Generative Phenomenology
  10. Exploring the Use of the Pronoun I in German Academic Texts with Machine Learning
  11. The State and Healthcare
  12. Hot deformation behavior and processing map of Mg-3Sn-2Ca-0.4Al-0.4Zn alloy
  13. What do we know about new venture investment time patterns?
  14. Analysis of the forming behaviour of in-situ drawn sandwich sheets
  15. Accounting for capacity and flow of ecosystem services
  16. Ecosystem functions as indicators for heathland responses to nitrogen fertilisation
  17. Open-flow mixing and transfer operators
  18. Conveying the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in K–12 and Academia: A Systematic Review of Teaching Methods
  19. Pragmatics broadly viewed
  20. 11. Methoden-Muster
  21. Sustainable Statehood: Reflections on Critical (Pre-)Conditions, Requirements and Design Options
  22. Propagating Maximum Capacities for Recommendation
  23. Fehler und Versuch. Parteispenden und ihre Regulierung
  24. Non-acceptances in context
  25. "Das Zeugnis Jesu"
  26. Redemption Restored: The Star in the Context of Modernity
  27. Altruism and egoism of the social planner in a dynamic context
  28. Conditionality of EU funds: an instrument to enforce EU fundamental values?
  29. Timing, fragmentation of work and income inequality