In our week 3 lecture, we were introduced to our first research application, landscape ecology. Landscape ecology is concerned with the interactions between spatial pattern and ecological processes. We also discussed the challenges of determining scale and pattern as there are different spatial and temporal scales and ecological organization. Being able to understand the scale and patterns will than tell us about the processes that have occurred or are occurring on a landscape.
Processes can be made up of natural influencers or unnatural processes. Natural influencers include fire, snow, sand, wind, and geology whereas unnatural processes are caused by human activities (urbanization, foresting, etc.). Natural and unnatural processes can be found under abiotic conditions, biotic interactions, and disturbances. Abiotic conditions are the non-living influencers such as climate, topography, and soils. Abiotic conditions play a significant role in living organisms, functioning ecosystems, and landscape. Topography also affects abiotic conditions such as rain, radiation, landslides, and animal movements. Biotic factors, on the other hand, are living influencers that affect other living organisms and the ecosystem. An example of this is competition which creates spatial patterns among species. Disturbances are events in time that disrupts ecosystems, communities, or population structures. This would include human land use impacts or natural processes (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc.).
Systems are complex; it is difficult to identify one system without finding a connection to another system. Patterns are used to help us understand and even predict processes within ecosystems. Here are some metrics used to quantify landscape patterns:
- Metrics of landscape composition
- proportion occupied
- relative richness
- diversity and dominance
- connectivity
- Measures of spatial configuration
- probabilities of adjacency contagion
- patch area and perimeter
- connectivity
- proximity index
- area-weighted average patch size
- Fractals: model complex natural shapes such as clouds and coastlines
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