ZUR PROBLEMATIK GEOÖKOLOGISCHER KARTIERUNG IN INTENSIV GENUTZTEN AGRARLANDSCHAFTEN EIN DISKUSSIONSBEITRAG ZUR HEMEROBIESTUFENERFASSUNG IM RAHMEN DER GEOÖKOLOGISCHEN LANDSCHAFTSAUFNAHME

• Published in: Geographische Zeitschrift 1991-01, Vol.79 (2), p.94-112
• Main Authors: ZEPP, HARALD, STEIN, SYLVIA
• Format: Article
• Language: ger
• ISSN: 0016-7479

A working group of German geographers has compiled guidelines for the large scale geoecological mapping that are being tested at present. This paper deals with one of the components to be mapped, the human influence on the ecosystems. They are expressed as degrees of naturalness (hemerobiotic state, form "hemeros" meaning "cultivated"), ranging from natural to articificial. Problems connected with the identification of distinct multifactorial levels of naturalness in an agricultural region in the Southern Rhenish Embayment west of Bonn, Germany, are discussed. The holistic distinction of levels of naturalness should not be introduced in an early stage of geoecological mapping. The identification of the anthropogenic influence on the natural environment should rather be integrated within a quantitative landscape ecological analysis. For this purpose methods and subjects of various neighboring disciplines have to be taken into account that lie beyond the scope of traditional landscape ecology in Germany. For example detailed information on the agricultural crops and practice as well as knowledge of the dissection of land units by artificial or semi-natural linear structures are necessary. The formulation of hemerobiotic states as complex evaluation of basic ecological facts should follow in a second stage of ecological work.