Consideration of spatial dynamics in many areas of ecology has received increased attention during the past decade. For example, the role of disturbance in creating and maintaining a spatial mosaic in the rocky intertidal zone was studied. Patch size could be predicted very well by using a model based on past patterns of disturbance and on measured patterns of mussel movement and recruitment. The dynamics of many natural disturbances and their effects on the spatial mosaic have received considerable study in a variety of terrestrial and aquatic systems. This paper demonstrates that a long history of ecological studies provides a basis for the study of spatial patterns and landscape-level processes. However, the emphasis previously was on describing the processes that created the patterns observed in the biota. The explicit effects of spatial patterns on ecological processes have not been well studied; the emphasis on pattern and process is what differentiates landscape ecology from other ecological disciplines. Therefore, this review focuses on the characterization of landscape patterns and their effects on ecological processes.

http://www.faculty.biol.ttu.edu/nmcintyre/Landscape%20Ecology/Turner_1989.pdf

Landscape Ecology: The Effect of Pattern on Process

Biodiversity is presently a minor consideration in environmental policy. It has been regarded as too broad and vague a concept to be applied to real-world regulatoy and managernentproblems. This problem can be corrected ifbio- diversity is recognized as an end in itsea and if measurable indicators can be selected to assess the status of biodiversity over time. Biodiversity, as presently understood, encom- passes multiple levels of biological organization. In thispa- per, I expand the three primay attributes of biodiversity recognized by Jerry Franklin - composition, structure, and function - into a nested hierarcby that incorporates ele- ments of each attribute at four levels of organization: re- gional landscape, community-ecosystem, population- species, andgenetic. Indicators of each attribute in terrestrial ecosystems, at the four levels of organization, are identified for environmental monitoring purposes. Projects to monitor biodiversity will benefit from a direct linkage to long-term ecological research and a commitment to test hypotheses relevant to biodiversity conservation. A general guideline is to proceed from the top down, beginning with a coarse-scale invent0 y of landscape pattern, vegetation, habitat structure, and species distributions, then overlaying data on stress lev- els to identiD biologically significant areas at high risk of impoverishment. Intensive research and monitoring can be directed to high-risk ecosystems and elements of biodiversity, while less intensive monitoring is directed to the total land- scape (or samples thereon. In any monitoringprogram, par- ticular attention should be paid to specifying the questions that monitoring is intended to answer and validating the relationships between indicators and the components of bio- diversity they represent

/pdf/indicators-for-monitoring-biodiversity-a-hierarchical-16ezxqf25t.pdf

Indicators for Monitoring Biodiversity: A Hierarchical Approach

Landscape ecology is based on the premise that there are strong links between ecological pattern and ecological function and process. Ecological systems are spatially heterogeneous, exhibiting considerable complexity and variability in time and space. This variability is typically represented by categorical maps or by a collection of samples taken at specific spatial locations (point data). Categorical maps quantize variability by identifying patches that are relatively homogeneous and that exhibit a relatively abrupt transition to adjacent areas. Alternatively, point-data analysis (geostatistics) assumes that the system property is spatially continuous, making fewer assumptions about the nature of spatial structure. Each data model provides capabilities that the other does not, and they should be considered complementary. Although the concept of patches is intuitive and consistent with much of ecological theory, point-data analysis can answer two of the most critical questions in spatial pattern analysis: what is the appropriate scale to conduct the analysis, and what is the nature of the spatial structure? I review the techniques to evaluate categorical maps and spatial point data, and make observations about the interpretation of spatial pattern indices and the appropriate application of the techniques. Pattern analysis techniques are most useful when applied and interpreted in the context of the organism(s) and ecological processes of interest, and at appropriate scales, although some may be useful as coarse-filter indicators of ecosystem function. I suggest several important needs for future research, including continued investigation of scaling issues, development of indices that measure specific components of spatial pattern, and efforts to make point-data analysis more compatible with ecological theory.

https://www.umass.edu/landeco/teaching/landscape_ecology/references/Gustafson_1998.pdf

Quantifying Landscape Spatial Pattern: What Is the State of the Art?

Ecologists are familiar with two data structures commonly used to represent landscapes. Vector-based maps delineate land cover types as polygons, while raster lattices represent the landscape as a grid. Here we adopt a third lattice data structure, the graph. A graph represents a landscape as a set of nodes (e.g., habitat patches) connected to some degree by edges that join pairs of nodes functionally (e.g., via dispersal). Graph theory is well developed in other fields, including geography (transportation networks, routing ap- plications, siting problems) and computer science (circuitry and network optimization). We present an overview of basic elements of graph theory as it might be applied to issues of connectivity in heterogeneous landscapes, focusing especially on applications of metapo- pulation theory in conservation biology. We develop a general set of analyses using a hypothetical landscape mosaic of habitat patches in a nonhabitat matrix. Our results suggest that a simple graph construct, the minimum spanning tree, can serve as a powerful guide to decisions about the relative importance of individual patches to overall landscape con- nectivity. We then apply this approach to an actual conservation scenario involving the

Landscape connectivity: a graph‐theoretic perspective

https://www.esd.ornl.gov/programs/SERDP/Indicators/dale2.pdf

Challenges in the development and use of ecological indicators

Landscape ecology deals with the patterning of ecosystems in space. Methods are needed to quantify aspects of spatial pattern that can be correlated with ecological processes. The present paper develops three indices of pattern derived from information theory and fractal geometry. Using digitized maps, the indices are calculated for 94 quadrangles covering most of the eastern United States. The indices are shown to be reasonably independent of each other and to capture major features of landscape pattern. One of the indices, the fractal dimension, is shown to be correlated with the degree of human manipulation of the landscape.

B. Jackson

Papers

Indices of landscape pattern