Measuring and modeling (bio)diversity: an approach based on
geographic, taxonomic and environmental relations
Richard J Aspinall, Diane M Pearson and Julia A Miller
- Macaulay Land Use Research Institute
Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, Scotland, AB9 2QJ
e-mail: richard@bamboo.mluri.sari.ac.uk
e-mail: julia@bamboo.mluri.sari.ac.uk
- Department of Geography
Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200
e-mail: diane@dart.anu.edu.au
Diversity is a key element in ecological understanding and measurement of
diversity is increasingly important in modelling interactions between
human activity and the state of the wider environment. Environmental
processes and natural and human-induced disturbance produce pattern, and
cause change, in diversity of the worlds resources at a range of spatial
and temporal scales. The basis for measurement and analysis of
biodiversity is, therefore, to understand taxonomic and environmental
relationships of species and habitat variability at a range of spatial and
temporal scales. In this paper we develop a spatially-based definition
and analysis of diversity that includes taxonomic and geographic
properties of environmental and biological variation. The performances of
several existing ecological measures of diversity are tested using
geographic data describing environmental and biological variation for
Scotland. The concept of biodiversity can be treated hierarchically, and,
as the response of an organism to environmental heterogeneity is spatially
and temporally variable, this approach considers three criteria that are
of particular importance:
- behaviour as geographic scale changes,
- behaviour in relation to hierarchical changes in taxonomic
relations, and
- the influence of spatial data quality
The pattern of diversity measured across Scotland is modelled using
environmental data. This provides insights into the current environmental
associations of ecological diversity at a range of geographic scales. This
information can be particularly useful for models that predict the likely
response of ecological processes to future disturbance. The use of
diversity measures for environmental monitoring and assessment, and the
values of diversity measures in spatial modelling are discussed.