Landscape Ecology

Question 1

What is a landscape?

Answer 1

a heterogenous ( diverse, mixed, varied) area consisting of distinct patches
- patches are known as landscape elements and are organized in a mosaic like pattern

Question 2

What is landscape ecology?

Answer 2

a subdiscipline of ecology that examines the patterns and interactions between communities that make up relatively large areas

Question 3

What is different about landscape ecology?

Answer 3

• involves knowledge from multiple disciplines
• spans across multiple scales
• often focused on humans and our influence

Question 4

What are the factors that shape landscapes?

Answer 4

• geological processes (volcanism, sedimentation, erosion)
• organism activity (humans, beavers)
• climate ( ice ages, global warming)
• fire ( lighting caused, fire suppression )

Question 5

Glacial ages

Answer 5

periods of variable cool and warm global temperatures that can last for millions of years

Question 6

What is the most recent glacial age referred to as

Answer 6

the pleistocene

Question 7

What are some landscape elements created by glaciers

Answer 7

• moraine
• esker
• kame
• drumlin field

Question 8

Moraine

Answer 8

any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till

Question 9

Esker

Answer 9

long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel

Question 10

Kame

Answer 10

an irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sand, gravel and till that accumulates in a depression on a retreating glacier and is then deposited on the land surface with further melting of the glacier

Question 11

Drumlin Field

Answer 11

an enlongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground moraine

Question 12

What are Corries?

Answer 12

• bowl shaped hallows on the side of a mountain
• they form then the glacial deepens an existing hollow through freeze-thaw action and plucking

Question 13

What is the difference between glacial river erosion?

Answer 13

• u-shaped valley = glacier
• v- shaped valley = stream

Question 14

Glacial Refugia

Answer 14

regions that occurred adjacent to the extent of the glacial landscape and remained unglaciated

Question 15

Nunataks

Answer 15

• a type of glacial refugia
• mountain peaks
• isolated peaks of a mountain area projected above a surface of ice/snow

Question 16

Human-driven Glacier Melt-off (years and whats happening)

Answer 16

• 2000-2019
• glaciers globally lost a mass of 267 +/- 16 gigatonnes year
• greenland and antartic ice-sheets lost 205- and 143 gigatonnes year respectiveley

Question 17

Beavers as Ecosystem Engineers

Answer 17

• at one time, beavers could shape the landscape of entire continents
• pre-colonization beavers ranges extended from the arctic tundra to the chihuhan and sonoran deserts
• almost driven to extinction bc of fur trade
• from 1927 to 1988, beavers transformed landscape from one dominates by forest to a diverse patchwork of several ecosystems

Question 18

Example of humans as drivers of Landscape change

Answer 18

Veluwe Region, Netherlands
- pre-human: forest
- 800-1100 CE: heathlands and agriculture
- raising sheep were abandoned
- mostly due to inexpensive sheep from australia
- lack of grazing, alongside deliberate planting of pines, returned the landscape to forest
1800-present: forest plantation

Question 19

How does fire (fire suppression) drive landscape change?

Answer 19

• fire produces a mosaic of plant communities or different ages and composition throughout landscapes
• the intensity of fire can change w terrain, across wind patterns, how much biofuel available on forest floor

Question 20

What does landscape structure describe?

Answer 20

the size, shape, composition, number and position of patches (landscape elements) within a landscape

Question 21

What is a Patch

Answer 21

a relatively homogenous area that differs from its surroundings

Question 22

What is a Matrix

Answer 22

• element within the landscape that is most spatially continuous (interconnected)
• aka the background of the mosaic of patches

Question 23

What kinds of processes do landscape structure influence?

Answer 23

processes such as flow of energy, materials, and species distributions across a landscape

Question 24

How to quantify landscape structures?

Answer 24

habitat quality - GIS tools to assess habitat for wildlife or plant-based research objectives

Question 25

Edge Effect

Answer 25

impacts to the adjacent ecosystem caused by changes in the physical environments along its edge

Question 26

impacts of the edge effect

Answer 26

• reduced habitat area
• change in abiotic and biotic properties
• decrease in isolation

Question 27

Edge effects in the Amazon Rainforest

Answer 27

• environment along forest edges hotter and drier, with higher intensity of solar radiation
• tree mortality higher at edges and overstory decreases while understory vegetation increases
• decreased diversity of many animal groups

Question 28

Habitat fragmentation

Answer 28

the division of previously intact habitat into several isolated patches typically due to human development and resource extraction

Question 29

Movement of Small Organisms

Answer 29

animals in small patches may be more isolated relatively from the metapopulation than those in larger patches

Question 30

Corridors

Answer 30

some sort of strip of habitat connecting similar habitat types patches across landscape