Landscape Ecology Theory
Landscape ecology theory emphases the role of the human impact on the landscape functions and structures. Landscape ecology theory also advices methods and ways for renovating the degraded landscapes. The landscape ecology clearly includes the human beings as entities which cause functional changes in the landscape. The landscape ecology theory comprises the landscape stability principle that stresses the significance of the landscape structural heterogeneity in the increasing resistance to disturbances, improvement from disturbances, and promoting the complete system constancy. This theory is a main contribution to universal ecological theories that emphasizes the significance of relations among the several elements of the landscape. Reliability of the landscape elements aids in maintaining the resistance to the external threats as well as land transformation and development by the human activity. Study of the land utilize change has included a sturdily geographical aspect that has led to the acceptance of the concept of multifunctional features of the landscapes.
There are still several calls for a more cohesive landscape ecology theory because of the distinctions in the expert opinion among ecologists and experts and its interdisciplinary concept or approach. Another important related landscape ecology theory is the hierarchy theory. The concept of spatial hierarchy theory has already proven its value. Hierarchy theory states that ecosystem processes are organized into discrete spatial scales on the landscape. O’ Neill et al. (1991) examined vegetation transects from four ecosystems and established that multiple scales of pattern actually existed in the field. Holling (1992) showed that peaks in the frequency distributions of vertebrate body weights corresponded to distinct scales of pattern in the landscape. The spatial hierarchy on the landscape holds great promise for explaining ecological phenomena. Kotliar and Weins (1990) pointed out that an insect uses once set of criteria to locate patch, a second set to choose a tree and yet a third to select an individual leaf.
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