Complexity in Landscape Ecology

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-X

   PDF

2. COMPLEXITY AND ECOLOGY

   • David G. Green, Nicholas Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin

   Pages 1-14

3. SEEING THE WOOD FOR THE TREES

   • David G. Green, Nicholas Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin

   Pages 15-32

4. COMPLEXITY IN LANDSCAPES

   • David G. Green, Nicholas Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin

   Pages 33-50

5. OH, WHAT A TANGLED WEB.

   • David G. Green, Nicholas Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin

   Pages 51-66

6. THE IMBALANCE OF NATURE

   • David G. Green, Nicholas Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin

   Pages 67-84

7. POPULATIONS IN LANDSCAPES

   • David G. Green, Nicholas Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin

   Pages 85-98

8. LIVING WITH THE NEIGHBOURS

   • David G. Green, Nicholas Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin

   Pages 99-114

9. GENETICS AND ADAPTATION IN LANDSCAPES

   • David G. Green, Nicholas Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin

   Pages 115-132

10. VIRTUAL WORLDS

    • David G. Green, Nicholas Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin

    Pages 133-150

11. DIGITAL ECOLOGY

    • David G. Green, Nicholas Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin

    Pages 151-168

12. THE GLOBAL PICTURE

    • David G. Green, Nicholas Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin

    Pages 169-202

13. Back Matter

    Pages 187-208

    PDF

Interactions matter. To understand the distributions of plants and animals in a landscape you need to understand how they interact with each other, and with their environment. The resulting networks of interactions make ecosystems highly complex. Recent research on complexity and artificial life provides many new insights about patterns and processes in landscapes and ecosystems. This book provides the first overview of that work for general readers. It covers such topics as connectivity, criticality, feedback, and networks, as well as their impact on the stability and predictability of ecosystem dynamics. With over 60 years of research experience of both ecology and complexity, the authors are uniquely qualified to provide a new perspective on traditional ecology. They argue that understanding ecological complexity is crucial in today’s globalized and interconnected world. Successful management of the world's ecosystems needs to combine models of ecosystem complexity with biodiversity, environmental, geographic and socioeconomic information.

• Artificial life
• Complexity
• Ecosystems
• Landscape ecology
• biodiversity
• ecology
• ecosystem
• ecosystem dynamics
• environment

From the reviews of the first edition:

"This book is meant to be a ‘gentle introduction’ to the field of complexity and landscape ecology. … the book succeeds in its goal … . the most inspiring idea in the book is that seemingly complex ecological phenomena can often be explained by simple assumptions … . As such, this book could serve as a springboard for stimulating research about other general ecological principles … . I recommend the book to those who need a simple introduction to this complex topic … ." (Erica A. H. Smithwick, Ecology, Vol. 87 (11), November, 2006)

• Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

  David Green, Suzanne Sadedin

• Charles Sturt University, Albury, Australia

  Nicholas Klomp

• Wichita State University, Wichita, U.S.A.

  Glyn Rimmington

Policies and ethics