How to define a patch: a spatial model for hierarchically delineating organism-specific habitat patches |
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Authors: | Evan H Girvetz Steven E Greco |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Environmental Design, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA |
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Abstract: | Landscape analysis and delineation of habitat patches should take into account organism-specific behavioral and perceptual
responses to landscape structure because different organisms perceive and respond to landscape features over different ranges
of spatial scales. The commonly used methods for delineating habitat based on rules of contiguity do not account for organism-specific
responses to landscape patch structure and have undesirable properties, such as being dependent on the scale of base map used
for analysis. This paper presents an improved patch delineation algorithm, “PatchMorph,” which can delineate patches across
a range of spatial scales based on three organism-specific thresholds: (1) land cover density threshold, (2) habitat gap maximum
thickness (gap threshold), and (3) habitat patch minimum thickness (spur threshold). This algorithm was tested on an “idealized”
landscape with landscape gaps and spurs of known size, and delineated patches as expected. It was then applied to delineate
patches from a neutral random fractal landscape, which showed that as the input gap and spur thickness thresholds were increased,
the number of patches decreased from 59 (low thresholds) patches to 1 (high thresholds). The algorithm was then applied to
model western yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus occidentalis) nesting habitat patches based on spur and gap thresholds specific to this organism. Both these analyses showed that fewer
patches were delineated by PatchMorph than by rules of contiguity, and those patches were larger, had smoother edges, and
had fewer gaps within the patches. This algorithm has many applications beyond those presented in this paper, including habitat
suitability analysis, spatially explicit population modeling, and habitat connectivity analysis. |
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Keywords: | Hierarchical patch delineation Fractal landscapes PatchMorph Landscape ecology Ecological boundaries Functional connectivity Sacramento River California |
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