Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice: Pattern and Process [Hardcover]

Monica G. Turner (Author), Robert H. Gardner (Author), Robert V. O'Neill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0387951229 | ISBN-13: 978-0387951225 | Edition: 1

An ideal text for students taking a course in landscape ecology. The book has been written by very well-known practitioners and pioneers in the new field of ecological analysis. Landscape ecology has emerged during the past two decades as a new and exciting level of ecological study. Environmental problems such as global climate change, land use change, habitat fragmentation and loss of biodiversity have required ecologists to expand their traditional spatial and temporal scales and the widespread availability of remote imagery, geographic information systems, and desk top computing has permitted the development of spatially explicit analyses. In this new text book this new field of landscape ecology is given the first fully integrated treatment suitable for the student. Throughout, the theoretical developments, modeling approaches and results, and empirical data are merged together, so as not to introduce barriers to the synthesis of the various approaches that constitute an effective ecological synthesis. The book also emphasizes selected topic areas in which landscape ecology has made the most contributions to our understanding of ecological processes, as well as identifying areas where its contributions have been limited. Each chapter features questions for discussion as well as recommended reading.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews: "Having a thorough textbook that explains the principles and techniques of landscape ecology is an important resource. … This book takes a North American approach at an introductory level, filling a void in the landscape ecology literature. … The discussion questions and recommended readings at the end of each chapter guide teaching and learning. … The text is a real boon to professors and students. … The book is a thorough treatment of the current activities of landscape ecology, and I recommend it highly." (Nancy E. McIntyre, Ecology, 83 (1), 2002) "An ecologist’s viewpoint on the theories and uses of a burgeoning multidisciplinary subject is proffered. … It is an informative, comprehensive, up-to-date and generally well-written account which will be of considerable use to its target readership of advanced undergraduate, postgraduate and professional ecologists." (Robert Jones, Geography, October, 2002) "All chapters end with a series of stimulating questions for discussion and some well-selected recommendations for further reading. … This is not an introductory text; it assumes, for example, a background knowledge of GIS, fractal geometry, and modelling principles. It will therefore prove useful for advanced undergraduate or postgraduate courses in this discipline." (Bulletin of the British Ecological Society, Vol. 33 (1), 2002)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (April 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387951229
• ISBN-13: 978-0387951225
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,849,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable Summary, January 7, 2003

By 

"gscumming" (Gainesville, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice: Pattern and Process (Paperback)

I use this book as the recommended text for both undergraduate and graduate courses in landscape ecology. It has a useful synthesis of recent trends in the field and particularly good chapters on scale, landscape metrics and disturbance. The accompanying CD has jpeg versions of most of the figures, which is handy for preparing lectures, although the quality of some of the digital images from CD (especially graphs and line charts) isn't so great. The literature review is thorough without being overwhelming, so it's a good entry point into the professional literature in most areas of landscape ecology. My main criticism is that the writing style is somewhat dense; I didn't find it easy to read from cover to cover. People looking for a cursory introduction to the field may do better to start with an alternative text. As a teaching and reference text for landscape ecology, however, I think this book is the best available.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Have for Anyone into Landscape Ecology or GIS, October 19, 2002

By 

Brian M. Napoletano (East Lansing, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice: Pattern and Process (Paperback)

If the credentials of the authors didn't convince of the quality of this book, I'm not sure I can. I will say that I have read and re-read the book several times, and that it's a vital resource in our laboratory. From the various issues of scaling to what analyses do what, this book is an excellent resource of theories and technologies involved in Landscape Ecology.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book to have, July 6, 2008

By 

Stanaforth T. Hopkins - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice: Pattern and Process (Paperback)

This is the excellent book on Landscape Ecology. Instead of being an edited collection of research articles, this volume's chapters follow logically and treat the material comphrensively, while giving references at every turn to researchers books or articles. Monica, whose research publications are extensive, writes this introductory book well.

The images in this book are, however, in black and white. There is an accompanying CD of color plates, but they are no bigger then those in the text and are fairly useless. I was hoping she would have some data for her book's examples and perhaps even a whole project we might use in one of the current software tools.

Still this can't take away from the fact that this is the book I've been searching for. But a very "first" primer in this subject is a chapter written by Monica - "What is Landscape Ecology" for an 1998 Oxford "Ecology" text. You can download this for free. See item 76 of the publications page on Monica website ([...]).