Vittorio Ingegnoli - Böcker

This book aims to explore the impact of human alterations of Earth’s ecological systems on human health. Drawing on advanced ecological principles, the book demonstrates the importance of using systemic medicine to study the effects of ecological alterations on human health.

This book aims to explore the impact of human alterations of Earth’s ecological systems on human health. Drawing on advanced ecological principles, the book demonstrates the importance of using systemic medicine to study the effects of ecological alterations on human health.

Traditional General Ecology is often limiting, with concepts like "ecosystem" remaining ambiguous (O'Neil et al., 1986). Critics argue that ecology is merely a tool for environmental management—addressed by administrators, engineers, and other professionals—rather than a branch of biology focused on meso and micro-scale phenomena.However, life’s complexity cannot be confined to micro-scales alone. Alterations at macro-scales can impact human health just as significantly. The rise of epigenetics highlights the crucial interplay between large and small scales, revealing their unexpected complementarity.Health and disease are influenced by the entire organization of life. Thus, biology must encompass macro-scales, exploring their structures, processes, and their role in health. This is the field of Bionomy, which emphasizes the intricate link between environmental changes and health, extending beyond pollution and pandemics.To truly enhance health, it’s imperative to understand the processes that connect the environment and health. Evaluating the bionomic state of landscapes and the biological structures that support human life is essential. This book delves into these processes, offering insights into the complex systems that govern our well-being.

The urgent need for a sustainable environment has resulted in the increased recognition of the field of landscape ecology amongst policy makers working in the area of nature conservation, restoration and territorial planning. Nonetheless, the question of what is precisely meant by the term 'landscape ecology' is still unresolved. Is it, for example, an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the environment at a landscape scale? Or perhaps at the level of biological organisation? Still further, has the inseparability of landscape and culture affected the scope of 'landscape ecology'? No doubt, a proper foundation of the discipline must first be cemented. This book then develops such a foundation. In doing so it provides all the diverse applications of the discipline with a solid framework and proposes an effective diagnostic methodology to investigate the ecological state and the pathologies of the landscape.

Exactly 25 years ago on a warm autumn afternoon a young ecologist walked slowly through a tiny oak wood, and perched on a log to reflect. He had measured and seemingly knew "all" the species present - trees, mosses, mushrooms, birds and more. The research, based on this and other woods in the landscape, was the first rigorous test to see if island biogeographic theory was of use in heterogeneous land. Unexpectedly, an interior-to-edge model was found to be more useful. But on this beautiful sunny day he gazed out through the trees at the surrounding bean and maize fields. Suddenly a terrible thought hit him. The land surrounding the other woods differed slightly from this scene. Here there were two bean fields plus a maize field, meadow, hedgerow and farm road, but the other comparably sized woods studied had different mixes of these land uses. Wouldn't the surroundings seriously affect the species in the woods? Had he done "bad science" (an awful feeling for a scientist)? Immediately he went to all his ecology books, searching for discussions of patchiness, mosaic pattern, interactions between ecosystems, and the like. Nothing. Surprise was a new ingredient to ponder. Then for 3 months every spare moment found him in the university library digging deeper, collecting tidbits and clues. A new feeling took over, challenge and excitement. The spatial arrangement of ecosystems and land uses is important ecologically! A giant but approachable scholarly frontier.

L’ecologia del paesaggio biologico-integrata, o meglio “Bionomia del Paesaggio”, si propone come un atto di rifondazione della disciplina iniziato dall’Autore una dozzina di anni fa, con l’appoggio di Richard Forman, basato sul riconoscimento del paesaggio come specifico livello dell’organizzazione della vita sulla Terra. A scala territoriale, in un determinato ambito geografico, il “paesaggio” si definisce come “integrazione di un insieme di comunità vegetali, animali ed umane e del loro sistema di ecosistemi naturali, seminaturali e antropico-culturali in una certa configurazione spaziale”, cioè come sistema iper-complesso che costituisce una entità vivente: non un insieme incoerente, quindi, di aspetti e di tematiche separate (acqua, aria, suolo, specie, inquinamenti) tra cui si possano trovare delle interrelazioni! Ciò porta, inevitabilmente, notevoli cambiamenti nelle modalità di valutare e gestire l’ambiente. Possiamo, infatti, riconoscere delle strutture e delle funzioni proprie di ogni paesaggio, ossia dei comportamenti peculiari che vanno oltre le classiche relazioni fra le componenti perché dovuti a leggi sistemiche. Si può così parlare di uno “stato di salute” e di una serie di sindromi (o patologie) del paesaggio. Questo fatto è assai rilevante, perché si è dimostrato che le alterazioni patologiche di un paesaggio, o di una sua parte, possono influire sulla salute umana, anche in assenza di inquinamenti! Prestiamo attenzione al fatto che si può intervenire sul territorio con le migliori intenzioni causando invece un danno! Ne consegue la necessità di studiare le “unità di paesaggio” con un metodo “clinico-diagnostico” e di considerare gli ecologi come “medici” dei sistemi ecologici, cioè “ecoiatri”.

"Landscape Bionomics,” or “Bio-integrated Landscape Ecology,” radically transforms the main principles of traditional Landscape Ecology by recognizing the landscape as a living entity rather than merely the spatial distribution of species and communities on the territory, often analysed in separate themes (water, species, pollution, etc.). To be more exact, the landscape is identified as the "life organization integrating a set of plants, animals and human communities and its system of natural, semi-natural, and human cultural ecosystems in a certain spatial configuration." This new perspective inevitably leads to significant changes in how to assess and manage the environment.This book represents the culmination of an endeavor begun by the author, with the support of Richard Forman and Zev Naveh, more than a dozen years ago. It builds on the author’s previous successful publication, Landscape Ecology, A Widening Foundation, by addressing a range of additional topics and discussing the new theoretical and methodological concepts that have emerged during the past decade of research. Particular attention is paid to the fact that interventions in the landscape can be made with the best intentions yet cause serious damage! Against this background, the author explains the need to study "landscape units" by applying methods comparable to those used in clinical diagnosis – hence ecologists can be viewed as the “physicians” of ecological systems.