Landscape Ecology - house journal of IALE
The Association works in close collaboration with Springer to produce the major journal in the field, Landscape Ecology . This journal, first time published in 1984, became the flagship journal in the rapidly developing fields of ecology and sustainability science of landscapes. The journal focuses on highly inter- and transdisciplinary studies, aggregating expertise from biological, geophysical, and social sciences to explore the formation, dynamics and consequences of spatial heterogeneity in natural and human-dominated landscapes. Members get free access to the journal. Below you'll find the most recentc articles published in Landscape Ecology:
| Latest Results | ||
| The latest content available from Springer | ||
| Multiple trajectories of land-cover change: influence of disturbance severity over four decades after the eruption of Mount St. Helens | ||
| Dienstag, 25. November 2025 | ||
| Context To understand land-cover change, it is necessary to monitor landscapes over long temporal extents. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (MSH) provides an opportunity to analyze vegetation recovery trajectories over four decades after disturbances of different severities. Objectives We aim to enhance understanding of land-cover changes after major disturbances to inform management of the processes influencing ecosystem... | ||
| Living on the shores of the Alboran Sea. The Neolithic on the coast of Málaga (Spain) a multiproxy approach | ||
| Dienstag, 25. November 2025 | ||
| Context The coast of Málaga is one of the core areas for the Neolithic in southern Iberia with the earliest occupations dating to the middle of the 8th millennium cal BP. From the outset, evidence shows a fully developed and highly diversified system of agriculture and animal husbandry. The palaeoenvironmental conditions during this period in the southern Iberian Peninsula reveal phases of aridity. Objectives This study aims to... | ||
| The effects of land use on downstream water quality and biodiversity in a changing tropical mosaic landscape | ||
| Dienstag, 25. November 2025 | ||
| Context Land use and other human activities generally reduce downstream water quality, with consequences for ecosystem services and freshwater biodiversity. However, the relative effects of different types of land use and associated activities across large spatial scales can be difficult to understand, and thus to address, in heterogeneous landscapes. Objectives To assess how different types of landscapes affect the water quality... | ||
| It’s about time: temporal fragmentation and metrics for habitat change | ||
| Dienstag, 25. November 2025 | ||
| Context Habitat fragmentation is commonly analyzed in space, but continuity can also fail in time. Temporal habitat fragmentation describes this disruption of continuity and can be defined as the division of a continuous period of habitat availability into multiple shorter or irregular intervals. Although classic theories such as patch dynamics and metapopulation address habitat change through time, the ecological role of temporal configuration and structure is worth further... | ||
| multiScaleR: a generalizable approach for multiscale ecological modeling and scale of effect estimation | ||
| Montag, 24. November 2025 | ||
| Context Analyses in landscape ecology often seek to understand how the landscape surrounding field survey locations relates to ecological responses measured at those sites. A central challenge in these studies is defining the spatial scale at which landscape variables matter. While the limitations of standard approaches to estimating this scale are well known, practical alternatives remain limited and often difficult to apply... | ||
| Evaluating the effects of alternative forest management strategies on spruce budworm outbreaks | ||
| Sonntag, 23. November 2025 | ||
| Context Forest insect outbreaks are major landscape-scale disturbances that shape forest composition and dynamics. In eastern North America, the spruce budworm (SBW) is a key defoliator driving these patterns. Understanding how local forest management interacts with outbreak dynamics at broad spatial extents is crucial for designing sustainable management strategies under climate change. Objective We evaluated... | ||
| Priorities for peri-urban recreation ecology research, policy, and practice in a transforming world | ||
| Sonntag, 23. November 2025 | ||
| Context Peri-urban landscapes are increasingly expected to support both outdoor recreation and biodiversity conservation. Different trade-offs and potential synergies between these two objectives call for a clear, interdisciplinary, and comprehensive framework for the design, management, and stewardship of such landscapes to better support outdoor recreation and biodiversity conservation. Objectives The aim of... | ||
| Integrating 3D radiative transfer and soil spectral models reveals soil–vegetation synergy in arid steppes | ||
| Donnerstag, 20. November 2025 | ||
| Context In arid and semi-arid regions, the expansion of the shrub-encroached grassland (SEG) has a profound impact on ecosystem dynamics and desertification processes. However, there is a serious lack of research on the interaction between plant community structure and soil using model systems at the scene scale. Objectives A repeatable and scalable soil–canopy 3D model framework for arid areas was established, and provided... | ||
| The effect of the type and speed of dominant land-cover transitions on patterns of tropical forest fragmentation | ||
| Donnerstag, 20. November 2025 | ||
| Context The speed and severity of tropical forest conversions to croplands and rangelands, give rise to distinct fragmentation patterns, altering species composition and ecosystem resilience. While the type of the surrounding land-cover can mitigate these impacts through landscape complementation, the role of specific land-cover transitions and their speeds in shaping forest fragmentation patterns remains poorly understood at the pan-tropical scale... | ||
| Assessing land use change and the impacts on semi-natural habitats across England and Wales using four time points between 1930 and 2020 | ||
| Donnerstag, 20. November 2025 | ||
| Context Habitat loss and degradation caused by human land use change is one of the major drivers of global biodiversity decline. Understanding historical patterns of land use/land cover (LULC) change over multiple time periods is essential for improving our knowledge of the magnitude and scale of habitat loss, but also for predicting future changes and targeting biodiversity conservation and restoration policy and actions. Objectives... | ||
| Local-landscape filtering explains insect diversity patterns across a dryland urban landscape | ||
| Donnerstag, 20. November 2025 | ||
| Context Urbanization has a profound impact on biodiversity worldwide. The commonly applied ‘urban–rural gradient’ approach often yields contrasting patterns of insect diversity. Integrating local-scale habitat and landscape-scale attributes that act as filters of community assemblage (‘local-landscape filtering’) may help reconcile these contrasting patterns. Objectives Our objective is to evaluate if and to what extent... | ||
| Directing recreation pressure via pathways allows for coexistence of recreation and nature development on the upper beach | ||
| Donnerstag, 20. November 2025 | ||
| Context Sandy shorelines, including beaches and embryo dunes, are important spaces for both recreation and nature. Balancing these landscape functions remains a challenge. Directing recreation pressure via visitor footpaths (pathways) is widely used to mitigate recreation pressure in nature reserves. However, its potential to support multifunctionality on beaches is poorly quantified. Objectives To assess the response... | ||
| “The landscape of love”: sex-specific habitat-use during the mating season in a solitary large carnivore | ||
| Donnerstag, 20. November 2025 | ||
| Context In mammals, reproductive strategies and movement behavior can differ between sexes, influenced by biological and environmental factors. Whereas males typically adopt a “roam-to-mate” strategy, increasing movement to locate females, females may also adjust their behavior to enhance mating opportunities. Habitat and human disturbance can further shape the spatial structure of mating encounters. Objectives This study... | ||
| Integrating unoccupied aerial systems and satellite data to map the patchiness of bare ground at a landscape scale | ||
| Dienstag, 18. November 2025 | ||
| Context Integrating fine-scale measurements with broad-scale monitoring presents a persistent challenge in rangeland ecology, particularly when scaling detailed Unoccupied Aerial System (UAS) observations to satellite-based landscape assessments. This challenge is critical as rangelands face increasing climate variability, requiring reliable methods to detect and monitor ecological changes across landscapes. Objectives We... | ||
| Influence of landscape composition and configuration on birds in working lands with extensive forest plantations | ||
| Dienstag, 18. November 2025 | ||
| Context Working lands with forest plantations are widespread. To sustain biodiversity in these landscapes there is a need to understand how species respond to patterns such as the amount and configuration of remnant vegetation. Objectives We examine how the occurrence and reporting rate of bird species are shaped by landscape composition and configuration in working lands with extensive forest plantations in south-eastern... | ||
| The impact of climate change, disturbance and forest management on ecosystem service distribution across Europe’s largest plantation forest in the 21st century | ||
| Dienstag, 18. November 2025 | ||
| Context Climate shifts and increasing disturbance events are affecting forest functioning and stakeholders. Uncertainty in future conditions complicates selecting optimal management strategies, necessitating to evaluate them within the context of changing environmental constraints. Objectives This study explores how different management strategies affect the provision of forest ecosystem services within plantation forests, taking... | ||
| A comparison shopper’s guide to forest datasets | ||
| Donnerstag, 13. November 2025 | ||
| Context Advances in remote sensing and cloud-based computing have led to an increase in publicly accessible datasets characterizing the spatial extent of forested ecosystems. These datasets are used in ecological and environmental research, natural resource management, and policymaking. However, the number of available datasets and the often-subtle differences among them pose challenges for users seeking appropriate data for their specific objectives... | ||
| Scale-dependent diversity patterns in spider communities along climate and fragmentation gradients | ||
| Dienstag, 11. November 2025 | ||
| Context Understanding the mechanisms driving biodiversity changes along environmental gradients and across scales is a key challenge in community ecology. Objectives We investigated spider species diversity, alpha, beta, and gamma, variation with annual precipitation, ranging from 450 mm in the north to 250 mm in the south, across 34 habitat patches in the Southern Judea Lowlands, Israel. Methods... | ||
| Integrating Ecosystem Health and Human Footprint in ecological function zoning: a framework for sustainable landscape management in Sanchuan River Watershed, China | ||
| Dienstag, 11. November 2025 | ||
| Context Understanding the interaction between human–natural systems, particularly how ecosystems respond and adapt to external pressures, has been recognized as central to advancing watershed Landscape Sustainability (LS). However, most existing studies assess human–natural systems at isolated time points, which has limited their effectiveness in informing long-term landscape design. Objectives The aim was to construct a... | ||
| Dynamics and driving factors of water conservation services: a case study in the Ussuri River Basin, China | ||
| Dienstag, 11. November 2025 | ||
| Context Water conservation services (WCs), which play an important role in ecosystem hydrological processes and sustainable water resource utilization, are mainly affected by the combination of climate change and land use. However, such impacts are still not effectively differentiated. Objectives This study aimed to (1) reveal the year-by-year changes in WCs in the Ussuri River Basin; (2) to quantify the contribution of climatic... | ||