ABSTRACT
Landscape elements combine to form landscapes. A landscape is a mosaic, an assortment of patches and corridors set in a matrix, no bigger than about 10,000 km2. It is ‘a heterogeneous land area composed of a cluster of interacting ecosystems that is repeated in similar form throughout’ (Forman and Godron 1986:11). By way of example, the recurring cluster of interacting ecosystems that feature in the landscape around the author’s home, in the foothills of the Pennines, includes woodland, field, hedgerow, pond, brook, canal, roadside, path, quarry, mine tip, disused mining incline, disused railway, farm building, and residential plot.
