SREL Reprint #1861

Landscape habitat diversity: a multiscale information theory approach

Craig Loehle1 and Gary Wein2,3

1Environmental Research Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439, USA
2Department of Biology, Memphis State University, Memphis, TN 38152, USA
3Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Aiken, SC 29808, USA

Abstract: Biotic diversity is a topic of increasing concern, but current tools for quantifying diversity at the landscape level are inadequate. A new index is proposed. Beginning with a classified raster image of a landscape, each habitat type is assigned a value based on an ordination axis distance. The change in value from one location to the next depends on how similar the two locations are. An information measure d1 is used to evaluate deviation from uniformity of the ordination values at different spatial scales. Different maps can be compared if habitat values are based on the same ordination scale. This new method provides a powerful tool for both displaying and calculating landscape habitat diversity.

Keywords: Diversity; Fractals; Landscape; Ordination

SREL Reprint #1861

Loehle, C. and G. Wein. 1994. Landscape habitat diversity: a multiscale information theory approach. Ecological Modelling 73:311-329. 

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).