Living in Interesting Times: Selected Implications of Landscape Ecology for Conservation Science

The phrase 'May you live in interesting times' links well with the sub-discipline of landscape ecology. Recent research in landscape ecology and associated disciplines (for example, con- servation biology) provides significant challenges to the traditional conceptions of wilderness and conservation science, and may in part reflect upon our view of contemporary society as being character- ized by complexity and uncertainty. Four selected implications of landscape ecology research for wilderness advocates and managers are identified and described. These issues relate to the importance of ecological processes in ecosystem functioning, the existence of multiple spatial and temporal scales in landscapes, the integration of the natural and social realms, and unpredictability and lack of understanding of ecological patterns and processes. While there are many ramifications of these four issues for wilderness conser - vation, there are also broader implications of landscape ecology's conceptualization of nature and conservation. A parallel movement in conceptualizing society and nature as self-organizing systems characterized by disturbance and complexity in the natural and social sciences is also discussed. Both these disciplinary and trans- disciplinary findings will significantly affect the social functions and management of wilderness in the future.