Landscape Ecology

Landscape Ecology is a relatively new field (that was certainly not included in introductory level Ecology courses when I was in college or graduate school). However, as humans greatly alter and degrade the environment it has become critical that we understand how altering the spatial distribution of habitats affects ecology

Habitat Framentation

Factors such as deforesttation have reduced once uninterupted areas of habitats into smaller islands of native habitat surrounded by a sea of altered habitat. Habitat fragmentation is an issue that is especially important to conservation biologists who have to determine (1) what are the implications of habitat fragmentation to biodiversity and (2) how should we design conservation reserves? (i.e, if a government is willing to put so much land aside as reserves should we make several small reserves or one large reserve?).

Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Malaysian Bat Diversity

In about a week and a half I will be heading out to Malaysia to work with researchers studying the ecology of rainforest bats. Although I am involved in this project because of my interests in science education, by co-worker Tigga Kingston is interested in bat conservation. She has been trapping bats in Krau Wildlife Reserve, an area that has been protected from logging, to see what bat communities are like in undisturbed forests. Because Malaysia has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world (see photo at top of this post) undisturbed forests are boing cut (primarily for agriculture) which may have profound effects on the bat community.

Expected Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course a fully engaged student should be able to

- define the field of landscape ecology
- discuss how an understanding of landscape ecology can be useful for land-use planning and conservation biology

Free Learning

We are coming to the end of the basic ecology portion of the course and preparing to talk about biodiversity and environmental issues. Although deforestation is not an issue that I want to focus on in this course, it is an important issue that I think you, and your students should know about.

FYI here is a link to a slideshow on Deforestation that I have prepared as part of our Malaysian Bat Project. But don't think that deforestation is only an issue of concern in the tropics. Most people on the Southern High Plains would be surprised to know that this area once hosted the largest (in terms of area) oak forest in the United States which has not been almost completely removed.

http://www.slideshare.net/secret/eJe8rHdu5JC0kb