Abstract
Understanding how landscape characteristics affect biodiversity patterns and ecological processes at local and landscape scales is critical for mitigating effects of global environmental change. In this talk, I use knowledge gained from human-modified landscapes to suggest hypotheses, which I hope will encourage more systematic research on the role of landscape composition and configuration in determining the structure of ecological communities, ecosystem functioning and services. These include the dominance of beta diversity hypothesis (landscape-moderated dissimilarity of local communities determines landscape-wide biodiversity and overrides negative local effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity), the landscape-moderated concentration and dilution hypothesis (spatial and temporal changes in landscape composition can cause transient concentration or dilution of populations with functional consequences) and the intermediate landscape-complexity hypothesis (landscape-moderated effectiveness of local conservation management is highest in structurally simple, rather than in cleared, i.e. extremely simplified, or in complex landscapes). Shifting our research focus from local to landscape-moderated effects on biodiversity will be critical to developing solutions for future biodiversity and ecosystem service management.
Teja Tscharntke et al. (2012): Landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns and processes – eight hypotheses. Biological Reviews DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-185X.2011.00216.x (published online).