2021 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science presented to Monica G. Turner, Ph.D.

Landscape ecology is based on the premise that ecological processes and spatial patterns interact. Thus a complete understanding of populations, communities, and ecosystems requires not only studying ecological processes at very large spatial scale but also an explicit assessment of how spatial patterns arise from ecological interactions. The links between ecology and landscape were widely acknowledged by European researchers as early as the 1940s, and landscape ecology was developed in Europe as a descriptive approach, which was widely used by urban planners, geographers, and social scientists. Professor Monica G. Turner was a driving force in the development of landscape ecology as an experimental discipline with a well-grounded theoretical basis. She has made important and groundbreaking contributions to the theory and to how spatial patterns can affect ecological processes. Her early interest in landscape ecology led her and her Ph.D. advisor, Professor Frank Golley, to organize the first U.S. meeting for landscape ecology in 1986. This meeting is still considered as one of the key milestones in the development of landscape ecology as a scientific discipline. Her theoretical work led to specific predictions, which she tested experimentally using the landscape level effects of fire on the natural ecosystems in Yellowstone National Park. Her work in Yellowstone National Park led to new conceptual insights of how the propagation and spread of disturbances not only depend on landscape heterogeneity but also alter ecosystems at the landscape level. Her conceptual breakthroughs and experimental results have helped scientists and managers understand and predict whether and when natural communities are resilient. Throughout her career, but especially over the last 20 years, Professor Turner has used the con-ceptual insights from landscape ecology to address agricultural and urban issues and the environmental effects of climate change.