Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 10, 2026
09:44
Use of Principal Components for Scaling Up Topographic Models to Map Soil Redistribution and Soil Organic Carbon
Published on: October 16, 2018
Common core themes in geomorphic, ecological, and social systems.
Ellen Wohl1, Andrea K Gerlak, N LeRoy Poff
1Department of Geosciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523-1482, USA, ellenw@cnr.colostate.edu.
Environmental Management
|June 11, 2013
Summary
This study highlights common themes like connectivity and feedbacks across geomorphology, ecology, and environmental governance. Integrating these concepts aids interdisciplinary understanding and effective management of human-landscape systems.
Area of Science:
- Integrative environmental science
- Interdisciplinary research
- Human-landscape systems analysis
Background:
- Geomorphology, ecology, and environmental governance share core themes such as open systems, connectivity, feedbacks, and thresholds.
- Understanding these overlaps is crucial for addressing complex environmental challenges.
- Legacy effects of human resource use and human impacts on ecosystems are significant considerations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and emphasize common themes across geomorphology, ecology, and environmental governance.
- To demonstrate how integrating these shared concepts can foster interdisciplinary understanding.
- To illustrate the application of an integrated conceptual framework to human-landscape systems using a river example.
Main Methods:
- Review and synthesis of core themes from geomorphology, ecology, and environmental governance literature.
- Identification of overlapping concepts such as connectivity, feedbacks, thresholds, and resilience.
- Application of a previously published conceptual framework to analyze a river system as a human-landscape example.
Main Results:
- Key common themes identified include connectivity, feedbacks, thresholds (or tipping points), and resilience.
- These shared concepts provide a foundation for interdisciplinary research and management.
- The river example illustrates the practical integration of these themes in understanding human-landscape dynamics.
Conclusions:
- Emphasizing disciplinary overlaps enhances interdisciplinary comprehension of complex environmental systems.
- Integrated approaches facilitate more effective management of landscapes and ecosystems.
- Highlighting shared drivers of change is essential for sustainable human-landscape interactions.
Related Concept Videos
01:21Dimensions of Health and Illness
The factors influencing the health-illness continuum can be internal or external and may or may not be under conscious control. They are related to the following eight human dimensions, and each dimension is interrelated to one other.
01:24System, Surroundings, and State
Thermodynamics studies the relationship between heat, work, temperature, and energy. A key concept in this field is a "system," the macroscopic part of the universe under observation. Systems can interact with their surroundings, leading to three types: open, closed, and isolated systems.Open systems permit the exchange of both matter and energy with their surroundings, like a boiling pot of water.In contrast, closed systems only allow the transfer of energy, restricting the movement of matter...
01:41Social Traps
Social traps are negative situations where people get caught in a direction or relationship that later proves to be unpleasant, with no easy way to back out of or avoid. The concept was orignally introduced by John Platt who applied psychology to Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons", where in New England herd owners could let their cattle graze in the common ground. This situation seems like a good idea, but an individual could have an advantage. If they owned more cows, the larger...
01:30Thematic Layering in GIS
In the past, planning projects such as schools or public facilities required extensive manual effort to gather and compile data. Information such as property boundaries, soil characteristics, road networks, zoning regulations, and flood zones had to be sourced individually from courthouses, utility providers, and registry offices. Assembling these datasets into a coherent format often took several months, delaying project timelines.The introduction of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)...
01:24Freshwater Microbial Ecology
Freshwater systems such as streams, rivers, and lakes exhibit distinct physical and biological characteristics that influence their microbial communities. These environments are broadly categorized into lotic systems—those with flowing waters like streams and most rivers—and lentic systems, which include still or slow-moving waters such as lakes, ponds, and marshes.In lentic systems, phytoplankton drive primary production, generating autochthonous organic carbon. In contrast, lotic systems...
02:26Ecological Disturbance
An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced change in an ecosystem. The impact of an ecological disturbance, which can depend on its intensity, frequency, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in shaping the species diversity within the ecosystem.