Land Mosaics: The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions

by Richard T. T. Forman, Edward O. Wilson (Foreword by)

Overview

Animals, water, wind, and people flow at different rates according to spatial patterns common to almost all landscapes and regions. This up-to-date synthesis explores the ecology of heterogeneous land areas, where natural processes and human activities interact to produce an ever changing mosaic. The subject has great relevance to contemporary society and this book reflects the breadth of this importance: there are many ideas and applications for planning, conservation, design, management, sustainability and policy. Spatial solutions are provided for society's land-use objectives. Students and professionals alike will be drawn by the attractive and informative illustrations, the conceptual synthesis, the wide international perspective, and the range of topics and research covered.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521479806
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/09/1995
Edition description:	Reprinted
Pages:	656
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.61(h) x 1.30(d)

Table of Contents

PART I. LANDSCAPES AND REGIONS: 1. Foundations; PART Ii. PATCHES: 2. Patch size and number; 3. Boundaries and edges; 4. Patch shape; Part III. CORRIDORS: 5. Corridor attributes, roads and powerlines; 6. Windbreaks, hedges and woodland corridors; 7. Stream and river corridors; 8. Networks and the matrix; Part IV. Mosaics and Flows: 9. Configurations and mosaics; 10. Wind and water flows in mosaics; 11. Species movements in mosaics; Part V. Changing Mosaics: 12. Land transformation and fragmentation; 13. Land planning and management; 14. Creating sustainable environments.

Editorial Reviews

A state-of-the-art synthesis that explores the ecology of heterogeneous land areas, where natural processes and human activities spatially interact to produce a continually changing mosaic. The foundations of landscape and regional ecology are first introduced. Early chapters then explore the array of patch, corridor, and matrix types, plus movements and flows between adjacent elements, as the essential building blocks of land mosaics. Middle chapters fit these spatial elements together, and explore movements and flows through the resulting mosaics. Later chapters then explore the mosaics changing over time, including alternative pattern sequences in planning or managing landscapes or regions. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"An excellent resource for upper division undergraduates, graduate students, resource managers, and scientists in all fields of landscape ecology, biological conservation, and applied ecology." Choice

"Richard T.T. Forman's Land Mosaics has made a significant contribution to addressing this issue and documenting how the ecological view can and has been put into practice. This work is a comprehensive review and synthesis of landscape ecology. Its goal is to provide a framework for humans to be able to critically understand and use at an appropriate scale important ecological relationships with the land around them....Land Mosaics provides the most scholarly review of holling and Goldberg's "new priniciple" to date. It is an exceptional piece which scholars from a avriety of disciplines will find useful....Dr. Forman does exceptionally well in dveloping the foundations of regional ecology..." William W. Budd, Landscape and Urban Planning

"Land Mosaics is valuable for the research community in that it synthesizes work from many fields and from many geographic locations and ties them together with key concepts and ecological principles....The book is also valuable for the community of land managers/planners in that there is much sound advice for creating optimal spatial configurations that have a higher probability of being sustainable. I would especially recommend the last section of the book—the last three chapters on changing mosaics—as required reading for all involved with planning, management, or research on large land areas." Forest Science

"The discussion of animal flow configurations is especially insightful....Forman explains convincingly that we must understand such phenomena...if we are to plan in ways that will protect various species." Landscape

"...provides a good introduction as well as a scientific review of the new disciplines of landscape ecology. This is an appealing and highly readable text on this major emerging field." Journal of Environmental Quality

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