ENVS 1500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Landscape Ecology, Habitat Fragmentation, Time Landscape

• School: York University
• Department: Environmental Studies
• Course: ENVS 1500
• Professor: Lewis Molot

Document Summary

Lecture 1: communities & ecosystems: landscape, geographic & global ecology: landscape ecology, introduction. Landscape: a heterogeneous area consisting of distinctive patches or ecosystems (also called landscape elements in ecology jargon) which together form a patch work or mosaic of ecosystems. The patches are quite distinctive: habitat variety biologically diverse, more habitats more ecological niches which means larger variety of food sources, homes", microclimates, etc. Landscape ecology: the study of the relationship between spatial pattern (landscape structure) and ecological processes and structure over a range of scales and time. Landscape structure is characterized by several measurable parameters: size, shape, composition, number & position of ecosystems within a landscape. Landscape structure has been altered by humans for thousands of years for agriculture and settlements: landscape ecology: landscape processes. Consequently, the proportion of animals moving decreases with increasing habitat fragmentation. Corridors are naturalized sections of habitat that connect patches. These connections are supposed to increase successful dispersal of (some) organisms between patches.