A novel use of the lacunarity index to discern landscape function

Discerning the function of a landscape involves comparing landscape use with spatial patterns. To do this requires both quantification of landscape use and landscape pattern and a means of comparing the two. An index of lacunarity has been used to quantify spatial pattern (specifically, habitat cont...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Landscape ecology 2000-05, Vol.15 (4), p.313-321
Main Authors: MCINTYRE, N. E, WIENS, J. A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife
Dispersion
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Habitats
Landscape ecology
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Summary:Discerning the function of a landscape involves comparing landscape use with spatial patterns. To do this requires both quantification of landscape use and landscape pattern and a means of comparing the two. An index of lacunarity has been used to quantify spatial pattern (specifically, habitat contagion). We demonstrate a new way of using the lacunarity index to quantify landscape function as well. We calculated lacunarity to describe landscape patchiness of experimental landscapes with respect to patterns of habitat and non-habitat areas (the previous use of lacunarity) as well as to describe patterns of patch use by animals in those landscapes, irrespective of habitat-patch patterns (a novel application of lacunarity). We demonstrate a disparity between landscape pattern and landscape use. This finding suggests that drawing generalizations of, and making predictions about, how animals respond to landscape spatial structure may not be straightforward.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0921-2973
1572-9761
DOI:10.1023/A:1008148514268