SPATIAL AND FUNCTIONAL HIERARCHIZATION PROBLEMS IN LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY: AN ASSESSMENT BASED ON THE GEOSYSTEMS APPROACH

Abstract

Within its physical context, environmental zoning is immersed in a deep and long standing discussion involving terminological and conceptual divergences. This works aims at clarifying some aspects of this discussion based on Hierarchic Theory (HT). Common categories of environmental hierarchy were identified as well as the different nomenclature used. Following, general aspects of HT were presented and concepts were summarized for the understanding of scale hierarchies. Relation between the concepts of ecosystems and geosystems was discussed, as well as some contemporary approaches for the identification of environmental hierarchic units were put forward. At last, the differences and convergences between the concepts of geosystems and ecosystem were validated, likewise the applicability of traditional models and the challenge to represent geosystems dynamics.