Landscape Ecology in Mexico: Evolution, Research, Education and Future (Selected Theoretical and Meta-Scientific Aspects)

Abstract

Abstract Context:The impulse to write this contribution was the effort of co-authors to bring the European landscape ecologist closer to the development, research & didactic approaches and possible future development of landscape ecology in Mexico from the theoretical, metascientific and applied point of view. Purpose: The purpose of the metascientific approach, in this case meta-landscape ecological approach, is to increase the degree of generalization of existing empirical-methodological, theoretical-application and didactic knowledge and results of landscape-ecological research, so that generally valid landscapeecological regularities and principles can be determined The aim was to acquire new generalizing and holistic qualities and perspectives in the field of landscape ecology in Mexico at this level. Methods: The two-step methodical procedure was elaborated, using metascientifically oriented landscape ecological and ecological Mexican literature, complemented by our studies and personal experience. Results: In this way, new knowledge, representing the added value and meaning of landscape ecologicalevolution, research, education and future development in Mexico was gained. It will serve also to Mexican landscap ecologists. Conclusiones: Mexican landscape ecology, lying at the intersection of European and American landscape ecology, can be described as integrative, idiographic-nomothetic at the spatial level of the landscape in the contact zone of European and American research approaches and principles.