一、課程簡介:
Watershed is an area of land that drains water, sediment and dissolved materials to a common receiving body or outlet. Watershed ecology is a study of watershed as ecosystems, primarily the analysis of interacting biotic and abiotic components within a watershed’s boundaries. Therefore, watershed ecology is essential knowledge for watershed managers because it teaches us that watershed have structural and function characteristics that can influence how human and natural communities coexist within them. The perspective of landscape ecology, which deals with the interactions between spatial patterns and ecological processes, provides large advantages in analyzing changes in the landscape as part of an ecosystem, on different spatial and temporal scales. A landscape pattern can be quantified by spatial landscape indices or metrics to reflect the ability of the landscape to support ecosystem functions. Landscape indices specify ‘cross-cutting’ interaction between ecosystems, either directly through measures of flows of energy, nutrients or hydrology or through the biological conditions of a subsystem that serves as a sentinel for conditions of the larger landscape. This course introduces the basic concepts of watershed ecology, landscape ecology, quantitative landscape ecology and environmental planning to help students to realize the relationship among the landscape and ecosystems within a watershed. The practical exercises will be assigned to the student to practice example cases in watershed landscape ecological analysis and modeling.

1. Introduction of watershed Ecology
2. Introduction of Landscape Ecology
3. Patches
4. Landscape metrics of patch
5. Patches in planning and management
6. Edges & Boundaries
7. Edges & Boundaries in planning and management
8. Landscape metrics of Edge
9. Corridor & Connectivity within watersheds
10. Patterns
11. Patterns in planning and management
12. Landscape metrics of configuration and composition
13. Disturbances and Dynamics across watersheds
14. Scale and Scale effects
15. Quantitative methods of Landscape ecology
16. Introduction of Landscape ecological modeling
17. Organism response to landscape pattern
18. Ecosystem Processes at watershed landscape level
19. Applied landscape ecology in watershed Planning and management


二、先修課程:

三、參考書目:
US EPA, Introduction to Watershed Ecology.
Gergel, S.E. and Turner, M. G.., Learning Landscape Ecology: A practical guild to concepts and techniques, Springer-Verlag, 2002.
Bissonette, J.A. and Storch, I., Landscape ecology and resource management, Island Press, 2003.
Dramstad, W.E., Olson, J.D. and Forman, T.T., Landscape ecology principles in landscape architecture and land use planning, Island Press, 1996.
Turner, Monica G. and Gardner, Robert H., Quantitative methods in landscape ecology, 1992.
Turner, M.G., Gardner, R.H. and O’neill, R.V., Landscape Ecology in theory and practice, Springer-Verlag, 2001.
Forman, R.T.T, Land Mosaics, Cambridge, 1998.