Forefronts and future strategies of landscape ecology

According to the discussion on key issues and the scopes of landscape ecology during the 16 th IALE-US annual conference in 2001, 6 key issues and 10 leading topics were explained, which synthesized the opinions on theory and methodology of 16 internationally famed landscape ecologists. The 6 key issues dealt with: (1) interdisciplinarity or transdisciplinarity, with researchers from different fields, planners, managers, social scientists and decision makers working closely together on ecological issues at the scale of landscape; (2) integration between basic research and applications, following the reciprocal, that research guides for applications and applications give feedback to research; (3) conceptual and theoretical developments, to incorporate the rapidly developing science of complexity (such as nonlinear dynamics, hierarchy, and self organization); (4) education and training for students and professionals with different interests and backgrounds; (5) international scholarly communication and collaborations, through regional and international conferences, scholar exchanges and cooperative projects; and (6) a reach out and communication with the public and with decision makers, supported by information technology and Internet. ;The top 10 topics included: (1) Ecological flow in land mosaics, including materials (organisms), energy and information flow across landscape mosaics; (2) Consequences, processes and scenarios of landuse/landcover change, in combination with economic geography and resource-economy; (3) non-linear dynamics and landscape complexity, with methods and concepts like self-organization, complex adaptive systems, nonlinear dynamics, phase transition, and metastability; (4) scaling, up or down across heterogeneous landscapes; (5) development of methodology, from spatial sampling, pseudo repetition and auto-correlation to ecological modeling; (6) the relationship between landscape metrics and ecological processes; (7) integration of human activity and landscape ecology, which is increasingly prominent theoretically and practically; (8) optimization of landscape pattern, incorporated in land management and planning; (9) landscape conservation and sustainability, focusing on biodiversity and endangered landscapes; and (10) data sources and accuracy evaluation for the broad-scale patterns and processes involved in landscape ecological research. The authors also expressed preliminary ideas on the establishment of a theoretical frame for landscape ecology in China, covering: (1) the theory of spatial ecology focusing on the relationship between pattern and processes, (2) the theory of landscape construction focusing on ordered human activity, and (3) the theory of landscape planning focusing on the multi-value character of landscapes.