Understanding relationships between landscape patterns and processes at multiple spatio-temporal scales is an important step towards predicting and mitigating the consequences of changing climate, land cover, and land-use. However establishing causal relationships between pattern and process is challenging – as landscapes are complex mosaics of different patches and gradients varying in size, shape, composition, spatial configuration, and duration. Cutting-edge developments in remote sensing and geospatial analysis provide exciting avenues for exploring pattern-process relationships in unprecedented dimensions. We can advance the frontiers of landscape ecology by coupling these technological developments with thoughtful research questions, field experiments, and modelling approaches. I will present some insights from my research programmes in savannas, tropical forests, and temperate forests – where I am integrating time-series LiDAR and imaging spectroscopy with field experiments to provide mechanistic understanding of ecosystem processes. By uncovering spatial contingencies and historical legacies in ecological systems we can improve predictive models, inform biodiversity conservation, and enhance sustainable land management.

Dr Stephen Wickham und Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ulrike-G. Berninger (FB-Leiterin)
Gäste sind wie immer herzlich willkommen!