UW-Wisconsin News Release : April 4, 2008

LANDSCAPE ECOLOGISTS DESCEND ON MADISON

Next week, Madison will be inundated with hundreds of landscape ecologists.

No, that's not a fancy new name for landscapers. These scientists, specializing in fields from biology and forestry to agronomy and resource management, will converge at the Monona Terrace from April 6-10 for the 23rd annual U.S. meeting of the International Association for Landscape Ecology.

Hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the first time, the meeting brings together people interested in how physical features and patterns in the environment influence the ecosystems they contain.

Imagine looking out an airplane window or tall building, suggests Phil Townsend, a professor of forest and wildlife ecology at UW-Madison. The patterns visible on the land below - such as forests, fields, rivers, and roads - have a powerful influence on the workings of the underlying ecosystems.

"Not all forests are equivalent and not all agriculture is equivalent," he says. By providing the context of space and physical relationships, landscape ecology offers a more complete picture of the critical features of an environment.

Such context also enables scientists to build maps and models that can help predict the characteristics of other areas - an important consideration in conservation and resource management. "The tools of landscape ecology are used extensively by resource managers, especially park managers," Townsend says. "They want to characterize patterns on the landscape, how those patterns are changing, and what effects those changes may have on whatever they're managing, be it birds or water quality."

He and UW-Madison zoology professor Monica Turner, the local meeting organizers, say that bringing the meeting to Madison reflects UW-Madison's strength in the field. "This campus has been seen as a real hotspot for landscape ecology research," Townsend says.

In Wisconsin, such work is helping researchers understand local ecosystems, determine how best to manage the state's natural resources, and examine the impact of human activities such as urbanization, recreational development, and agriculture.

For information about the conference, contact Townsend at (608) 262-1669, ptownsend@wisc.edu.

Dozens of UW-Madison scientists are engaged in landscape-scale research, many on projects that apply close to home. A few of the current researchers and their projects include:

• Ashley Bennett, a graduate student in the entomology department, investigates the impact of urbanization on beneficial insects, such as pollinators and species that help control pest insects. She has found that beneficial populations are lower in urban parts of Dane County than in suburban and rural areas, but that the presence of flowering plants in cities may partially offset the large-scale impacts of urbanization. CONTACT: (608) 263-0964 (office), (217) 369-4769 (cell), abbennett@wisc.edu.
• Noah Lottig, a graduate student at the Center for Limnology, is studying how aquatic ecosystems such as lakes and wetlands influence carbon in the environment. In studies in northern Wisconsin, he has found that the presence and relative location of lakes within a watershed can affect how organic carbon - such as carbon from plant and animal material - is converted to carbon dioxide. This work suggests that altering the size or distribution of lakes and wetlands may impact environmental carbon levels and changes. CONTACT: (218) 310-7460, nrlottig@wisc.edu.
• David MacFarland, a graduate student in the department of forest and wildlife ecology, studies black bear populations and distribution in the Great Lakes region, including Wisconsin. He has developed a map of favorable bear habitat throughout the state to help identify areas of likely range expansion as the population increases. His work will help guide bear management to promote health of the population and minimize conflict with humans. CONTACT: (608) 576-1259, dmmacfarland@wisc.edu.