2. Why Quantify Landscape Pattern?
Comparison (space & time)
Study areas
Landscapes
Inference
Agents of pattern formation
Link to ecological processes

3. Programs for Quantifying Landscape Pattern
FRAGSTATS
Patch Analyst

4. Quantifying Landscape Pattern
Just because one can measure it, doesn’t mean one should
Does the metric make sense?...biologically relevant?
Avoid correlated metrics
Cover the bases (comp., config., conn.)

5. Landscape Metrics - Considerations
Selecting Metrics……
Subset of metrics needed that:
i) explain (capture) variability in pattern
ii) minimize redundancy (i.e., correlation among metrics = multicollinearity)
O’Neill et al. (1988) Indices of landscape pattern. Landscape Ecology 1:
i) eastern U.S. landscapes differentiated using
dominance
contagion
fractal dimension

6. Landscape Metrics - Considerations
Selecting Metrics……
Use species-based metrics
Use Principal Components Analysis (PCA)?
Use Ecologically Scaled Landscape Indices (ESLI; landscape indices, scale of species, and relationship to process)

7. Quantifying Pattern: Corridors
Internal:
Width
Contrast
Env. Gradient
External:
Length
Curvilinearity
Alignment
Connectivity (gaps)

8. Quantifying Pattern: Patches
Levels:
Patch-level
Metrics for indiv. patches
Class-level
Metrics for all patches of given type or class
Zonal or Regional
Metrics pooled over 1 or more classes within subregion of landscape
Landscape-level
Metrics pooled over all patch classes over entire extent

9. Quantifying Pattern: Patches
Composition:
Variety & abundance of elements
Configuration:
Spatial characteristics & dist’n of elements

10. Quantifying Pattern: Patches
Composition:
Mean (or mode, median, min, max)
Internal heterogeneity (var, range)
Spatial Characters:
Area (incl. core areas)
Perimeter
Shape

11. Quantifying Pattern: Landscapes (patch based)
Composition:
Number of patch type
Patch richness
Proportion of each type
Proportion of landscape
Diversity
Shannon’s Diversity Index
Simpson’s Divesity Index
Evenness
Shannon’s Evenness Index
Simpson’s Index

12. Quantifying Pattern: Patches
Configuration:
Patch Size & Density
Mean patch size
Patch density
Patch size variation
Largest patch index

13. Quantifying Pattern: Patches
Configuration:
Shape Complexity
Shape Index
Fractal Dimension
Fractals = measure of shape complexity (also amount of edge)
Fractal dimension (d) ranges from 1.0 (simple shapes) to 2.0 (more complex shapes)
ln(A)/ln(P), where A = area, P = perimeter

14. Quantifying Pattern: Patches
Configuration:
Core Area (interior habitat)
# core areas
Core area density
Core area variation
Mean core area
Core area index

16. Quantifying Pattern: Patches, Zonal
Configuration:
Isolation / Proximity
Proximity index
Mean nearest neighbor distance

18. Proximity Index (PXi) = measure of relative isolation of patches; high (absolute) values indicate relative connectedness of patches