Introduction

In this book the problems of biodiversity and landscapes are rightly approached within a broad interdisciplinary context, transcending the realms of biology and natural science. One of the main objects of this chapter is to show that landscapes, as the total natural and human living space, can be fully comprehended only by such a transdisciplinary approach, and that their biological diversity is closely related to their cultural diversity.

In landscape ecology, as the scientific basis for landscape study, management, and conservation, biodiversity is considered an integral part of the broader concept of landscape heterogeneity. This has recently become a central issue in landscape ecology (Merriam, 1988) and a special symposium has been devoted to this subject in the United States (Turner, 1987).

First, some of the major premises of landscape ecology as related to biodiversity and landscape heterogeneity will be introduced and then the problems of conservation management of open landscapes will be dealt with. Although this discussion will be restricted chiefly to Europe and the Mediterranean, its implications are much more far reaching, especially for industrialized countries and regions with similar temperate and Mediterranean climates, and especially the eastern United States and California.

Holistic approaches to landscapes and landscape heterogeneity

In landscape ecology, the problems of the spatial, temporal, and functional landscape heterogeneity and its management are addressed on scales of a few meters to kilometers, and changes from the distant past to the present and predicted changes for the future are considered.