If You’ve Never Heard of Landscape Ecology

Here’s Your Chance

Patches and corridors form the architecture of the landscape. (Photo Kristaps Ungurs, Unsplash).

I’d like to introduce you to the awesome field of landscape ecology and tell you why it matters.

It will change the way you look at the world, especially if you are a visual/spatial person.

Landscape ecologists look at physical patterns in the landscape as the infrastructure that supports the viability of species (including us). They connect landscape patterns with processes.

Think of it as “dynamic habitat.”

The building blocks of the landscape seen from 10,000 feet are patches and corridors, whether “natural” or “built.” The distinguishing characteristics of patches and corridors are scale, texture, density, and edges.

Large patches are more diverse, whether they’re forests or cities. (All diagrams by author.)

Large patches and ample corridors allow a variety of species to move through space in their natural range. Patches can be solid forest or open field. Corridors can be hedgerows or streams. They provide cover for the energy exchanges that occur in diversified habitat.