LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY

PREPARED BY: AR JUN REY G. GENILZA

 5. NEUTRAL THEORY

 Neutral theory, in ecology, treats all species as if they had the same per capita rates of birth and
death, dispersal, and even speciation. Although this assumption is only a first approximation, neutral

theories in ecology are useful in formulating and testing null hypotheses about how communities and

ecosystems are assembled in landscapes. Recently, neutral theory has been given attention following

the publication of The Unified Neutral theory of biodiversity and Biogeography by Stephen P. Hubbell

(2001). Hubbell went beyond the null hypothesis view to Suggest that neutral theory might actually

give a better explanation for many landscape-level ecological patterns than does current ecological

theory.
Explanation
The neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography Hubbell (2001) is a
generalization and extension of theory of island biogeography
(MacArthur and Wilson 1967). It is termed neutral theory because all
species are treated as having identical vital rates on a per capita basis
(the same birth and death rates, the same rate of dispersal, and the
same rate of speciation).
Neural theory applies to communities of organism that are the same trophic level and
that compete for the same or similar limiting resources.  The theory is derived by
assuming that the dynamics of communities are a zero-sum game for limiting resources
– that is, no species can increase in abundance or biomass without a matching decrease
in the collection abundance or biomass of all other competing species. Neutral theory
assumes that species are largely substitutable in their use of limiting resources, so that
if one species happens to be absents from a community, other species will fully use the
resources freed up by its absence.

https://youtu.be/nPXfLkvnPpo
6. TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL SCALE

Ecological processes vary in their effects or importance at different spatial and

temporal Scales For example, biochemical process may be relatively unimportant in
determining local patterns but may have major on regional or landscape patterns. At
the population and community levels, processes leading to papulation decline or
reduced biodiversity may produced extinction at the local scale, but at the landscape
level, the same processes may appear only as spatial redistributions or alterations. 
The concept of scale encourages analyses at different levels of organization
(different levels in the hierarchical system). For example, a Landscape might appear
to be heterogeneous at one scale but quite homogeneous at another scale. Thus,
when ecologists select a scale for investigation, they must understand how a change
in temporal or spatial scale can affect patterns, processes, And emergent properties
cross scales.
7. LANDSCAPE GEOMETRY

Just as the size and quality of landscape patches and corridors (amount of
vegetative cover and food quality, (for example) affect ecological processes and
plant and animal abundances, the geometry and configuration of landscape
elements affect ecological processes at the population and community levels. It
is now widely recognized that the size and shape of landscape patches influence
biotic diversity, home range size and Shape, animal dispersal behavior, and
species abundance.
Recent investigations have a addressed the role that landscape geometry
plays in plant and animal survivorship, Source-sink dynamics, rates of
species invasion, and edge-habitat dynamics. Future investigations need to
address the role of landscape geometry (the study of the shapes, patterns,
and configurations of landscape elements) and landscape architecture
(patch stratification, "soft versus hard" edges, and three-dimensional use of
habitat space) t ecologists are to more fully understand such phenomena
as dispersal behavior. Patterns of animal movement, bioenergetics at the
landscape scale, and ecosystem-landscape sustainability.
Explanation

Ecologists now more clearly understand the relationship of ecosystem size to

population abundance and biotic diversity For example, in The Fragmented
Forest, Larry Harris (1984) discussed how the preservation of biotic diversity is
dependent on patch size affecting such parameters as home range size, island
biogeography, and patch connectivity.
 8. CONCEPT OF LANDSCAPE SUSTAINABILITY

Dictionaries define sustainability as "to keep in existence“ to support, to endorse without

failing or yielding." “to maintain, or "to supply with necessities or nourishment to prevent
from falling below a given threshold of health or vitality (as summarized by Barrett 1989). This
threshold could be viewed as the carrying capacity (K)concept discussed in Chapter 6. Perhaps
Goodland's (1995) definition of sustain-ability as "maintaining natural capital" and
"maintenance of resources more clearly defines sustainability at higher levels of ecological
organization (at the ecosystem, landscape, and global levels). Natural capital, in contrast to
economic capital, are those benefits supplied to human societies as natural ecosystems and
landscapes.
Explanation

In addition to the production of goods(such as timber, game species, fruits, and

nuts), ecosystem and landscape services support life through such functions as
the purification of air and water, the cycling of nutrients, the pollination of
crops, the preservation and renewal of soil fertility, the partial stabilization of
climate, the maintenance of biodiversity, the provision of aesthetics, and the
control of pests, among others.
These services are so fundament also life that they are, unfortunately, easily
taken for granted. Thus, these services which underpin the concept of landscape
sustainability-are greatly undervalued and poorly understood by human
societies. As noted in Chapters 1 and 2, energy would be a better currency to
value these goods and services than economic currencies. If awareness and
understanding are not increased and current trends continue, human kind will
dramatically alter Earth's natural ecosystems and landscapes, to the extent that
these services of natural capital will greatly diminish.
9. DOMESTICATED LANDSCAPE

Civilization seems to reach its most intense development in what was originally
forest and grassland, especially in temperate regions Consequently, most
temperate forests and grasslands have been greatly modified from their
primeval condition, but the basic nature of these ecosystems has by no means
changed Humans, in tact, tend to combine features of both grasslands and
forests into habitats that might be term forest edge.
A forest edge may be defined as at ecotone between forest and grass shrub
communities When humans settle in grassland regions, we plant trees around
our homes, villages, and farms, so that small patches of forest become dispersed
what may have been treeless country Likewise, when human is settle in a forest,
we replace most of it with grasslands and croplands (as lesser amounts of
human force can be obtained from a forest), but leave patches of the original
forest on farms are around residential areas.
AGROECOSYSTEM AND AGROLANDSCAPE

Agroecosystems are domesticated ecosystems that are in many ways

intermediate between natural ecosystems. such as grasslands and forests, and
fabricated eco-systems, such as cities.

An agroecosystem is the basic unit of study in agroecology, and is somewhat

arbitrarily defined as a spatially and functionally coherent unit of agricultural
activity, and includes the living and nonliving components involved in that unit
as well as their interactions.
The agro-landscape or agricultural landscape is an area where nature is
significantly influenced by farming activities, such as: planting, tilling, irrigation,
fertilization, and changes to topography (e.g., drainage structures. and land
leveling). Farmers are the primary actors on the agricultural landscapes and they
constantly interact with nature and people in multiple ways (social, economic, and
political) and at multiple scales (farm, watershed, town, and regional).
Like natural ecosystems, agroecosystems are solar-powered, but they differ from
natural systems in several ways, processed fossil fuels, along with human and
animal labor, provide them with auxiliary energy sources that enhance
productivity but also increase pollution, diversity is greatly reduced by human
management in order to maximize the yield of specific foods or other products;
the dominant plants and animals are under artificial rather than natural
selection; and control is external and goal-oriented, rather than internal via
subsystem feedback, as in natural ecosystems.