Characterizing Categorical Map Patterns Using Neutral Landscape Models

Abstract

Spatial patterns of landscapes are the result of numerous biotic, abiotic, and anthropogenic processes, and every landscape is in some way unique. Neutral landscape models—models that lack the explicit consideration of the particular processes generating landscape pattern (Gardner et al., Landsc Ecol 1:19–28, 1987; Gardner and Engelhardt, Perspect Plant Ecol Evol Syst 9:211–228, 2008)—have proven to be a helpful first step in characterizing pattern in the absence of specific ecological processes and thus serve as a null hypothesis, or baseline, for comparison with actual landscapes. Neutral landscape models have led to new understanding about habitat connectivity thresholds and the influence of landscape composition on spatial configuration (see Gardner and Urban, Landsc Ecol 22:15–29, 2007 for a review), and they offer a practical means of generating multiple landscape maps with similar statistical properties. This lab is designed to.