GEOECOLOGY: HISTORICAL ROOTS AND CONTEMPORARY PRACTICE

The terms "landscape ecology" and "geoecology" were coined by Carl Troll to describe the field of study deriving from the linkage of physical geography and ecology. These "new" holistic disciplines, whose birth coincided with the development of aerial photography, explicitly recognized the role of geographical relations (space, elevation, etc.) in modulating the results of complex biotic-abiotic interactions in the environment. The conceptual origins of geoecology can be traced as far back as Herodotus, but are primarily rooted in the ideas of the German Naturphilosophen, who believed natural phenomena too complex to understand without thorough integration of all of man's observational powers. The premier scientific practitioner of this holistic philosophy was Alexander von Humboldt, whose multitudinous contributions to science profoundly influenced the development of the modern sciences of climatology, ecology, bio- and physical geography, and geology. Foreign advances in applied aspects of landscape ecology and geoecology have mostly outpaced developments in the United States. Although landscape ecology was introduced in Europe in 1938, it has been practiced in the United States only since the mid 1980's, and although dozens of universities worldwide offer undergraduate and advanced degrees in geoecology, outside of physical-geography circles the term is still largely unknown here. Contemporary applications of landscape ecology in the United States typically emphasize biological concerns, but modern problems in the analysis of landscape structure and dynamics and in landscape management, especially those involving the influence of human landuse patterns, require a more integrated "geoecological" approach.