This document summarizes a chapter about managing ecosystems based on the physical environment. It discusses how landscape patterns are influenced by interactions between biotic and physical factors. Understanding the physical environment and historical landscape changes can help minimize environmental impacts and inform effective management. Regional ecological assessments in areas like the Pacific Northwest aim to conserve species and ecosystems while reintroducing natural disturbance patterns. Going forward, land management goals include better aligning biological patterns with the physical environment and historical disturbance regimes.

1. Major: Environmental Science
Subject: Forest Ecology
8-9:30Am
Instructor: Dr. Kao Dana
CHAPTER15: THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AS A BASIS FOR MANAGING ECOSYSTEM
Prepared by: Yang Hour
E-mail: yanghour@puc.edu.kh

2. •Keywords
•Objectives
I. Introduction
II. Landscape Pattern and Processes
III.History of Landscape Change in Pacific Northwest
IV.Regional Ecological Assessments
V. Future Landscape Management
VI.Conclusion

3. Keywords
• Physical Environment:= are consists of physical
features that occur naturally - 4 major components :
Water ( rivers, seas, oceans), Natural Vegetation,
Landform and rocks, weather and climate Natural
resources are found here Examples: rivers, seas , ocean,
mountains, rocks, volcanoes, tornadoes
• Implication= the action or state of being involved in
something.
• Ecosystems= is an a community of living organism(
plants, animals an microbes).
• Prominent= is projecting from s.th

4. Objectives
 To think some implications for physical
environment and ecosystem dynamic in land
management
 To know pattern-process relations in landscapes as a
basis for managing ecosystem
 You know the history of landscape management in
Pacific Northwest

5. I. Introduction
Manage or control one ecosystem,
environmentalists have to collect data/info to
analyze then find the effective implications to
solve the problems
Information on physical environment is used to
minimize undesired environmental effects
through actions such as surveying proposed
road locations to avoid potential landslide sites.

6. I. Introduction
Knowledge about physical environment has
played an important role in conservation
strategies focused on recovery of forest habitats
for wildlife species
We expect understanding of physical
environment gain a more prominent position in
land-use planning, sustain the dynamic
ecosystem that support life

7. II. Landscape Pattern and
Processes
 Interaction between biotic and physical patterns.
 Landscape pattern are dynamic as a result of interaction
between vegetation succession and disturbance
processes.
Pattern
Process
Biotic Pattern
(Vegetation type,
productivity,…)
Pattern-Generation
Processes
Geophysical
Pattern (soil,
topography,…)
Responses to
Pattern

8.  The processes refer to disturbance processes
such as land slide, flood, human activity(cutting
units)

9. II. History of landscape change in
the pacific northwest
• Landscape pattern in the Pacific Northwest have
developed sequentially through 3 stages
1) A wild landscape dominated by natural disturbances and
action of native people, spanning of most of Holocene
until the early 1800s;
2) The landscape managed by European setters through
much of 19th and 20th centuries;
3) The present period of regional ecological assessment

10. • Management of landscape pattern on public lands in the
Pacific Northwest has changed dramatically
• From the early 1990s, cutting rates have dramatically
decreased and the concept about how to manage the
landscape pattern have changed
Ex: Growing interest is allowed limiting the size of cutting
units on private land..
 Management in those areas will be altered by Northwest
Forest Plan developed by Forest Ecosystem Management
Assessment Team (FEMAT)

11. III. Regional Ecological Assessments
 FEMAT, the Columbia River Basin/East Side
Ecosystem Project, the Sierra Navada Ecosystem
Project, studies and assess on ecosystem management
on major pieces of public land use in US.
 To conserve threatened and endangered species and
old-growth forest ecosystem
 To reintroduce feature of disturbance in some areas
 In other regions, the ecological assessments and plans
provide better fit of managed biotic patterns to
patterns controlled by natural disturbance regimes and
landforms.

12. IV. Future Landscape management
 In the 21st century, we expect land management to better
fit the managed biological landscape with the physical
landscape and its historic disturbance processes and
patterns.
 Mapping Units characterize wildfire describe the
frequency and severity of disturbances.
 Land-use designation has been used to develop landscape
management

13. V. Conclusion
Understanding the physical environment including natural
disturbance helps repair the damage and minimize the effects
of further management, and lead to implicate the effective
landscape management.
We also need to know history of landscape change so that we
can know how is disturbances look like in order to be well-managed.
Regional ecological assessment lead to well control in the
regions of interest. In 21st century, we expect land
management to better fit the biological landscape.

14. Thanks for your Attention!!
Q&A