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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Sciences
Using Landscape Pattern Metrics To Characterize Ecoregions, Martha Isabel Posada Posada
Using Landscape Pattern Metrics To Characterize Ecoregions, Martha Isabel Posada Posada
School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Ecological regions, or ecoregions, are areas that exhibit “relative homogeneity in ecosystems”. The principal objective of this research was to determine if and how landscape structure (quantified by landscape pattern metrics) may be related to ecoregions defined using Omernik’s approach to ecoregionalization. Nine key landscape pattern metrics (number or LULC classes and the proportion of each class, number of patches, mean patch size and area-weighted fractal dimension, perimeter-area fractal dimension, contagion, mean Euclidean nearest neighbor distance and interspersion and juxtaposition index) where used to asses landscape structure in a sample of 26 Omernik Level III ecoregions located in the central …
Review Of Conspecific Attraction And Area Sensitivity Of Grassland Birds, David R.W. Bruinsma, Nicola Koper
Review Of Conspecific Attraction And Area Sensitivity Of Grassland Birds, David R.W. Bruinsma, Nicola Koper
Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences
Many species of grassland birds are area sensitive, which may exacerbate the ecological effects of the extensive loss and fragmentation of grasslands that has taken place across the northern Great Plains. However, the reasons for this area sensitivity are unclear, as vegetation structure, matrix composition, and restriction of movements among patches do not seem to provide viable explanations for species native to grasslands. Con specific attraction, whereby species are behaviorally stimulated to select habitat or establish territories near individuals of the same species, may help explain this area sensitivity. We review and discuss theoretical and empirical research on avian conspecific …