Selecting Graph Metrics with Ecological Significance for Deepening Landscape Characterization: Review and Applications

Felipe de la Barra, Audrey Alignier, Sonia Reyes-Paecke, Andrea Duane and Marcelo D. Miranda
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Felipe de la Barra: Faculty of Agronomy and Forest Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 7830436, Chile
Audrey Alignier: Unité Mixte de Recherche 0980 Biodiversité, Agroécologie et Aménagement du Paysage INRAE-ESA-Institut Agro, CEDEX, 35042 Rennes, France
Sonia Reyes-Paecke: Faculty of Agronomy and Forest Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 7830436, Chile
Andrea Duane: Forest Science Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), 25280 Solsona-Lleida, Spain
Marcelo D. Miranda: Faculty of Agronomy and Forest Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 7830436, Chile

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-21

Abstract: The usual approaches to describing and understanding ecological processes in a landscape use patch-mosaic models based on traditional landscape metrics. However, they do not consider that many of these processes cannot be observed without considering the multiple interactions between different land-use patches in the landscape. The objective of this research was to provide a synthetic overview of graph metrics that characterize landscapes based on patch-mosaic models and to analyze the ecological meaning of the metrics to propose a relevant selection explaining biodiversity patterns and ecological processes. First, we conducted a literature review of graph metrics applied in ecology. Second, a case study was used to explore the behavior of a group of selected graph metrics in actual differentiated landscapes located in a long-term socioecological research site in Brittany, France. Thirteen landscape-scale metrics and 10 local-scale metrics with ecological significance were analyzed. Metrics were grouped for landscape-scale and local-scale analysis. Many of the metrics were able to identify differences between the landscapes studied. Lastly, we discuss how graph metrics offer a new perspective for landscape analysis, describe the main characteristics related to their calculation and the type of information provided, and discuss their potential applications in different ecological contexts.

Keywords: landscape graph metrics; landscape heterogeneity; spatial graph; landscape characterization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
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