Product Description

This new practical guide provides a "hands-on" approach to learning the essential concepts and techniques of landscape ecology. The fundamental knowledge gained will enable students to usefully address landscape-level ecological and management issues. It is an ideal companion to the text, Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice by Monica G. Turner, Robert H. Gardner, and Robert V. O'Neill, also published by Springer-Verlag. The book is organized into nine sections comprising 20 chapters, each of which consists of a lab focusing on an important point in the text. A variety of approaches are presented: group discussion, thought problems, written exercises, and modeling. Each exercise is categorized as to whether it is for individual, small group, or whole class study. Appendices of additional exercises using specialized technical tools of landscape ecology (for example, GIS) are supplied for instructors with appropriate equipment. The book includes a CD-ROM containing spatial data sets and modeling software for use with a number of the exercises. The exercises in the book are easily adaptable to any college's or university's facilities. About the Included CD: Many of the labs use only Excel (.xls) files or Adobe (.pdf) files (or no files at all) and as such are compatible with computers running on either Mac or Windows platforms, as long as the computers have Excel and/or Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for free from the web: www. adobe.com. Chapters 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18 and part of 7 fall into this category. Several other programs require a PC running Windows: Markov, HarvestLite, Rule, Fragstats, ReserveDesign and Folio are DOS executables; ArcExplorer and Bachmap must be installed on a Windows PC. These programs require a Windows emulator for use on a Macintosh platform.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #758145 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 316 pages

Review
"This book exhaustively covers current methods and techniques in landscape ecology. It is a compendium of contributed chapters from a list of well-recognized researchers … . It is specifically designed as a laboratory manual for university students … . A unique benefit of this book is an accompanying CD-ROM containing associated material for use with each laboratory … . It is likely to be the best currently available resource for anyone interested in learning about or teaching landscape ecology methods at the university level." --Robert G. Deon, Environmental Conservation, Vol. 30 (1), 2003

"There is currently no lab manual of landscape ecology that covers the breadth of topics of this book. … This book is written for advanced undergraduate or graduate students (and their professors!). … User-friendly, step-by-step exercises are the heart of this book. … An accompanying CD-ROM contains necessary program and data files. … Each step in each exercise is laid out explicitly, making the exercises practically foolproof. … For a highly applied discipline like landscape ecology, a book like this is a valuable resource … ." --Nancy E. McIntyre, Ecology, Vol. 83 (7), 2002

"The authors have recognised that despite the growth of landscape ecology courses, nearly every book is a textbook, lacking a hands-on-approach. This text is designed to fill that void by providing a collection of landscape ecology exercises ... . A variety of approaches are presented: group discussions, thought problems, written exercises and modelling. A CD-ROM that comes with the book contains the spatial data sets and modelling software for use with the exercises, and should run on most PC s." --Bulletin of the British Ecological Society, Vol. 33 (3), 2002