Biodiversity dynamics: from population and community ecology approaches to a landscape ecology point of view

Species richness and species diversity are classic concepts in ecology. What is new in the science of biodiversity after the Convention on Biological Diversity is: (1) that the emphasis has moved from the species to the ecosystem; (2) that the functional significance of biodiversity has been stressed. Thus, population and community ecology along with landscape ecology, should offer the best theoretical framework to analyse what can be called ‘biodiversity dynamics’. Some promising pathways and areas are emphasized and the very concept of functional diversity is discussed. Species richness, genetic variability and extinction probability are closely linked with landscape traits such as habitat diversity, structural heterogeneity, patch dynamics and perturbations. Thus, it is suggested that landscape ecology hold a central role, since it will allow the response to biodiversity issues in the framework of environmental heterogeneity and patchiness.