Creating multithemed ecological regions for macroscale ecology: Testing a flexible, repeatable, and accessible clustering method.

ABSTRACT: Understanding broad-scale ecological patterns and processes often involves accounting for regional-scale heterogeneity. A common way to do so is to include ecological regions in sampling schemes and empirical models. However, most existing ecological regions were developed for specific purposes, using a limited set of geospatial features and irreproducible methods. Our study purpose was to: (1) describe a method that takes advantage of recent computational advances and increased availability of regional and global data sets to create customizable and reproducible ecological regions, (2) make this algorithm available for use and modification by others studying different ecosystems, variables of interest, study extents, and macroscale ecology research questions, and (3) demonstrate the power

SUBMITTER: Cheruvelil KS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5415510 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature