Understanding Landscape Metrics

Abstract

An extensive set of landscape metrics exists to quantify spatial patterns in heterogeneous landscapes. Developers and users of these metrics typically seek to objectively describe landscapes that humans assess subjectively as, for example, “clumpy, ” “dispersed, ” “random, ” “diverse, ” “fragmented, ” or “connected.” Because the quantification of pattern is fundamental to many of the relationships we seek to understand in landscape ecology, a basic familiarity with the most commonly used metrics is extremely important. Several software programs evaluate maps quickly and cheaply, but there are no absolute rules governing the proper use of landscape metrics. To help foster the appropriate use of landscape metrics, in this lab students will.