Back from landscape science to landscape ecology?
Miloslav Lapka1,3, Eva Cudlínová1,2, Jan Vávra1,3
1 Institute of Systems Biology and Ecology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech
Republic, v.v.i., Na Sádkách 7, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
2 Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia, Studentská 13, 370 05 České
Budějovice, Czech Republic
3 Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, Celetná 20, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech
Republic
milala@usbe.cas.cz
evacu@usbe.cas.cz
vavra@usbe.cas.cz
Introduction
Methodology
Landscape ecology presents itself as an interdisciplinary
science, which links natural sciences with human
disciplines and concerns human activity in landscape
(www.landscape-ecology.org). Is it reality or just a
proclamation? What shows analysis of leading journals?
We reviewed 1620 abstracts of scientific articles published in two
journals : Landscape Ecology (LE) and Landscape and Urban
Planning (LUP) in years 1999-2008. This number means all articles
from the decade available through Web of Science (LE) and Science
Direct (LUP). Articles were divided into 3 groups according to the
position of human (Social, Natural & Technical management and
Natural). All abstracts were read, not just checked according to
keywords, in Social group all full version of articles were reviewed.
Results
Social
Fig. 2 LE summary (1999-2008)
Natural
33%
Fig. 3 LE per years
Landscape and Urban Planning
100%
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
50%
08
20
07
06
20
05
20
04
20
03
20
20
99
19
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
08
0%
07
0%
06
10%
05
10%
04
20%
03
20%
02
30%
01
30%
02
40%
01
40%
LE
Natural
NT mngmt
Social
20
50%
60%
00
Natural
NT mngmt
Social
20
60%
00
Tab. 1 Articles in both journals
Fig. 4 LUP per years
100%
20
Natural
• human system is not an object of reserach
Landscape ecology
99
• for human, but human system is not research object
Social
37%
NT mngmt
30%
Natural
83%
19
NT management
Landscape and Urban Planning
NT
mngmt
12%
Social
5%
• human system is an object of research
20
Landscape Ecology
Fig. 3 LUP summary (1999-2008)
LUP
Social
37
337
NT mngmt
81
282
Natural
572
311
Total
690
930
Discussion and conclusion
While some other studies and reviews are focused on more criterias, i.e. Wiens (1992), Hobbs (1997) and Andersen
(2008), we focused mainly on social system in landscape as primary research object, which requires connection with
social sciences. From this point of view we can note that LUP has evidently better proportional concern on social
aspects of landscape than LE, even higher than Antrop’s study shows (2001). Landscape Ecology, the house journal of
IALE, doesn’t meet its proclamated role to be bridge between nature and culture, between science and humanities.
Analysis of our total sample of abstracts and articles shows Andersen’s (2008) conclusion about articles focusing on
sociology in LE like overemphasized, maybe due to random sampling of 50 cases and classification of papers
belonging to Social system following her very broad definition as „some aspect of sociology“.
Results show that real cooperation with social sciences (Golley, 1996), integrating humans into landscape ecology
(Wu and Hobbs, 2002) and concept of Total Human Ecosystem (Naveh, 2000) are more proclamations and wishes
than a real way of thinking among the group of landscape ecologists presenting their papers in the elite house
journal of IALE. It looks like reductionism towards landscape science bears fruit. Isn´t it the right time for return to
landscape ecology?
References
Thank you for your attention
Andersen B., J. (2008), Research in the journal Landscape Ecology, 1987-2005. Landscape Ecology 23: 129-134
Antrop, M. (2001), The language of landscape ecologists and planners. A comparative content analysis of concepts used in landscape ecology. Landscape and Urban Planning 55: 163-173
Golley, F., B. (1996), A state of transition. Landscape Ecology 11: 321-323
Hobbs, R. (1997), Future landscapes and future of landscape ecology. Landscape and Urban Planning 37: 1-9
Naveh, Z. (2000), What is holistic landscape ecology? A conceptual introduction. Landscape and Urban Planning 50: 7-26
Wiens, J., A. (1992), What is landscape ecology, really? Landscape Ecology 7: 149-150
Wu, J., Hobbs, R. (2002), Key issues and research priorities in landscape ecology: An idiosyncratic synthesis. Landscape Ecology 17: 355-365