The science of "landscape ecology" or regional ecology, a term proposed by the German geographer Carl Troll (1899-1975), has developed in the past 20 years. This science has been incorporating concepts developed in the anthropogenic landscapes of Europe, which emphasize the classification, nomenclature and concepts developed in the USA with a particular focus on processes, such as the theory of island biogeography proposed by U.S. ecologist Robert MacArthur (1930-1972) and entomologist Edward O. Wilson (1929 - ), and the models of metapopulations of ecologist Richard Levins. The development of geographic information systems (GIS) and the availability of remote sensing techniques have provided powerful tools for landscape analysis.
The landscape consists of a mosaic of habitats and occupies a wide space between the habitation area of an organism and its regional distribution (50 to 10,000 km2). Landscape elements affect populations through their form and composition.
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