1. Quantifying the Spatial Relationship between Land Cover Heterogeneity and Species’ Distributions
How strong is the relationship between land cover and bird boundaries?
association or overlap
How does the relationship vary through space?
does it occur across the entire transitional zone or are there hotspots?
Does high turnover in bird distributions spatially coincide with high land cover
heterogeneity?
Boundary Detection and Analysis

2. Study Area elevation climatic gradients ≈ vegetation cover
physiography: granite barrens & limestone plains
elevation
climatic gradients
≈ vegetation cover
Unique Features:
alvars
endemic species
hydrology: small, narrow lakes
Transitions:

3. Land Cover Spatial BoundariesW
1, 257, 090 m
1, 307, 090 m
1, 357, 090 m
1, 407, 090 m
1, 457, 090 m
1, 507, 090 m
1, 557, 090 m
1, 607, 090 m
1, 657, 090 m
1, 707, 090 m
1, 757, 090 m
11, 946, 100 m
11, 996, 100 m
12, 046, 100 m
12, 096, 100 m
12, 146, 100 m
12, 196, 100 m
Boundaries for all 7 land cover types combined delineated at the 10% (black), 15% (black and green), and 20% (black, green and brown) boundary thresholds.

4. Bird Spatial Boundaries
1, 257, 090 m
1, 307, 090 m
1, 357, 090 m
1, 407, 090 m
1, 457, 090 m
1, 507, 090 m
1, 557, 090 m
1, 607, 090 m
1, 657, 090 m
1, 707, 090 m
1, 757, 090 m
11, 946, 100 m
11, 996, 100 m
12, 046, 100 m
12, 096, 100 m
12, 146, 100 m
12, 196, 100 m N E S W
Boundary for all 60 breeding bird distributions delineated at the 10% (black), 15% (black and orange), and 20% (black, orange and blue) boundary thresholds.

5. Bird Spatial Boundaries
1, 257, 090 m
1, 307, 090 m
1, 357, 090 m
1, 407, 090 m
1, 457, 090 m
1, 507, 090 m
1, 557, 090 m
1, 607, 090 m
1, 657, 090 m
1, 707, 090 m
1, 757, 090 m
11, 946, 100 m
11, 996, 100 m
12, 046, 100 m
12, 096, 100 m
12, 146, 100 m
12, 196, 100 m N E S W
Boundaries delineated at the 20% boundary threshold for two groups of breeding bird distributions: 26 distributions of species with at least 15% of their Ontario distribution occurring in the LB (yellow and dark blue), and 34 distributions of species with less than 15% of their Ontario distribution occurring in the LB (yellow and light blue).

6. Land Cover and Bird Boundaries – Spatial Overlap AnalysisW
1, 257, 090 m
1, 307, 090 m
1, 357, 090 m
1, 407, 090 m
1, 457, 090 m
1, 507, 090 m
1, 557, 090 m
1, 607, 090 m
1, 657, 090 m
1, 707, 090 m
1, 757, 090 m
11, 946, 100 m
11, 996, 100 m
12, 046, 100 m
12, 096, 100 m
12, 146, 100 m
12, 196, 100 m
Spatial overlap between land cover (brown) and breeding bird distribution (blue) boundaries at the 20% boundary threshold. Boundary elements that directly spatially overlap are shown in purple.

7. Boundary Overlap Statistics
OB – mean distance between bird BE and nearest land cover BE
OLB – mean distance between any two bird and land cover BEs
OS – direct spatial overlap of bird and land cover BEs