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Concept
Spatial ecology
Summary
Spatial ecology studies the ultimate distributional or spatial unit occupied by a species. In a particular habitat shared by several species, each of the species is usually confined to its own microhabitat or spatial niche because two species in the same general territory cannot usually occupy the same ecological niche for any significant length of time.
In nature, organisms are neither distributed uniformly nor at random, forming instead some sort of spatial pattern. This is due to various energy inputs, disturbances, and species interactions that result in spatially patchy structures or gradients. This spatial variance in the environment creates diversity in communities of organisms, as well as in the variety of the observed biological and ecological events. The type of spatial arrangement present may suggest certain interactions within and between species, such as competition, predation, and reproduction. On the other hand, certain spatial patterns may also rule out specific ecological theories previously thought to be true.
Although spatial ecology deals with spatial patterns, it is usually based on observational data rather than on an existing model. This is because nature rarely follows set expected order. To properly research a spatial pattern or population, the spatial extent to which it occurs must be detected. Ideally, this would be accomplished beforehand via a benchmark spatial survey, which would determine whether the pattern or process is on a local, regional, or global scale. This is rare in actual field research, however, due to the lack of time and funding, as well as the ever-changing nature of such widely-studied organisms such as insects and wildlife. With detailed information about a species' life-stages, dynamics, demography, movement, behavior, etc., models of spatial pattern may be developed to estimate and predict events in unsampled locations.
Most mathematical studies in ecology in the nineteenth century assumed a uniform distribution of living organisms in their habitat.
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Habitat fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological processes that slowly alter the layout of the physical environment (suspected of being one of the major causes of speciation), and human activity such as land conversion, which can alter the environment much faster and causes the extinction of many species.