Bradshaw, G. A.; Garman, Steven L. 1994. Detecting fine-scale disturbance in forested ecosystems as measured by large-scale landscape patterns. In: Michener, William K.; Brunt, James W.; Stafford, Susan G., eds. Environmental information management and analysis: ecosystem to global scales: Proceedings of the international symposium; 1993 May 20-22; Albuquerque, NM. Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis: 535-550.
As GIS-based and satellite data have become increasingly accessible, it is possible to integrate empirical and simulation approaches to pattern analysis and to translate knowledge of ecosystem processes at the stand level to landscape and regional scales. As a result, there has become an increased reliance on pattern to provide insight into understanding ecological processes. Because different processes may produce similar patterns, there is a critical need to understand what information regarding ecosystem processes (e.g., disturbance) is retained and detectable from quantitative measures of spatial pattern. The relationship getween statistical and ecological measures of pattern and process in the Pacific Northwest, USA, is explored using simulated landscapes generated by varying disturbance events. Simulation results indicate that statistical significance of pattern does not correspond systematically to ecological significance. A predictable correspondence between process (i.e., fine-scale disturbance) and pattern (i.e., large-scale landscape structure) only occurred consistently under the restricted conditions of intense or multiple-event disturbances.