Quantitative Methods in Landscape Ecology : The Analysis and Interpretation of Landscape Heterogeneity

Landscape ecology as a modern interdisciplinary science is making use increasingly of quantitative research techniques adopted from other fields. So far, no synthetic reference has been available to those wishing to acquaint themselves with new approaches to quantitative analysis of spatial heterogeneity at the landcape level. This book seeks to meet this need by providing a conceptual framework and illustrating potential applications for methods such as pattern analysis, spatial statistics, fractals, spatial modeling, broad-scale studies, and extrapolation across scales. Each technique is discussed in sufficient detail to be adaptable to a variety of research problems. Quantitative Methods in Landscape Ecology is an important resource for researchers and students of landscape and ecosystem ecology in understanding and analyzing the dynamics of complex spatial systems.