Effects of Spatial Heterogeneity on Species Richness
Spatial heterogeneity may have differential effects on the
distribution of native and nonnative plant and butterfly species
and their interactions. These effects may be scale dependent and
may vary for different levels of biological organizations. This
book offers an approach to quantify spatial heterogeneity and
spatial autocorrelation at multiple spatial scales. The book
presents a case study on how to quantify spatial heterogeneity in a
forested, mountainous landscape and relate it to native and
nonnative plant and butterfly species richness at multiple scales.
It shows that including measures of spatial heterogeneity around
the sample plots with traditionally used environmental predictors
can provide ecologists with an additional explanatory power. It
also shows how landscape composition and configuration affect
native and nonnative plant and butterfly species. This book is
written for ecologists, and conservationists interested in learning
how spatial heterogeneity and spatial autocorrelation affect
species diversity across the landscape.
Dr. Sunil Kumar, ecologist. Dr. Kumar studies the effects of spatial heterogeneity on species diversity. His research interests also include modeling species distributions. He is a research scientist at Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
