The growing recognition that spatial scale and heterogeneity affect ecological processes has focused heightened attention over the last decade on principles from the field of landscape ecology. Landscape ecologists, drawing on principles from a diverse array of disciplines and fields, including physical and human geography, focus explicitly on the interrelation between landscape structure (i.e., pattern) and landscape function (i.e., processes). In this article, I discuss the application of landscape ecological principles to a specific and pressing issue: nature reserve design and functioning. To do so, I outline and review five landscape ecological themes with relevance to reserve design and management: reserve distribution, reserve shape, landscape corridor design and functioning, boundary dynamics, and reserve functioning. I particularly stress: 1) the role that landscape ecological theories may have in integrating existing principles from applied biogeography and population biology, and 2) the unique insights provided by a landscape ecological approach. Finally, I argue that biogeographers, because of our distinct skills, need to be more active in the development and advancement of landscape ecological theory.
Main principles and approaches of nature reserve design