Key Elements of Landscape Pattern Measures
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Updated: Oct 24, 2026

Use of Principal Components for Scaling Up Topographic Models to Map Soil Redistribution and Soil Organic Carbon
Published on: October 16, 2018
1Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0321, USA
Abstract:
/ Describing patterns in the landscape and interpreting the effects of these patterns on flora, fauna, and other factors has been of long-standing interest. Many descriptors have been developed, and these aggregate factors into a single index. The identical numerical result for a multifactor index can be attained by using an array of very different values. We list six important factors for describing a mapped area: the area, the classes, proportion of dominant class, number of polygons, polygon size variance, and elevation range and suggest that these and their map statistics will encompass most of the observed phenomena associated with things perceived as land pattern. KEY WORDS: Landscape ecology; Diversity; Spatial analyses; Forest; Indices
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