Spatial Heterogeneity and Characteristic Scales of Species–Habitat Relationships

Abstract

Abstract Determining the characteristic spatial scales at which species respond most strongly to the amount of available habitat is crucial for developing cross-species scaling rules and for predicting species' responses to landscape modification. A Biologist's Toolbox article by Holland and colleagues (“Determining the Spatial Scale of Species' Response to Habitat,” BioScience 54: 227–233) presents a multiscale approach and computer program (Focus) for detecting characteristic scales using a resampling procedure, species–habitat regression models, and nonoverlapping sampling sites. Holland and colleagues refer to these nonoverlapping areas as “spatially independent sites,” when in fact spatial independence includes additional concerns not addressed by the Focus approach. Here I discuss issues of spatial heterogeneity—spatial autocorrelation and spatial dependence—as they relate to measuring the spatial scaling of organism–environment relationships with regression models. I present an empirical example wi...