Environment and Ecology Research Vol. 6(5), pp. 397 - 412
DOI: 10.13189/eer.2018.060501
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Geomorphometry in Landscape Ecology: Issues of Scale, Physiography, and Application

Kirsten Erin Ironside ^1,*, David J. Mattson ¹, Terence Arundel ¹, Tad Theimer ², Brandon Holton ³, Michael Peters ⁴, Thomas C. Edwards, Jr. ⁵, Jered Hansen ^1
1 U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, United States
² Biological Sciences Department, Northern Arizona University, United States
³ National Park Service, Grand Canyon National Park, Science and Resource Center, United States
⁴ Pterylae Systems, Arizona, United States
⁵ U.S. Geological Survey, Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State University, United States

ABSTRACT

Topographic measures are frequently used in a variety of landscape ecology applications, in their simplest form as elevation, slope, and aspect, but increasingly more complex measures are being employed. We explore terrain metric similarity with changes in scale, both grain and extent, and examine how selecting the best measures is sensitive to changes in application. There are three types of topographic measures: 1) those that relate to orientation for approximating solar input, 2) those that capture variability in terrain configuration, and 3) those that provide metrics about landform features. Many biodiversity hotspots and predators have been found to coincide with areas of complexity, yet most complexity measures cannot differentiate between terrain steepness and uneven and broken terrain. Currently characterizing terrain in landscape-level analyses can be challenging, especially at coarser spatial resolutions but developing methods that improve landscape-level assessments include multivariate approaches and the use of neighborhood statistics. Some measures are sensitive to the spatial grain of calculation, the physiography of the landscape, and the scale of application. We show which measures have the potential to be multi-collinear, and illustrate with a case study how the selection of the best measures can change depending on the question at hand using mountain lion (Puma concolor) occurrence data. The case study showed a combination of infrequently employed metrics, such as view-shed analysis and focal statistics, outperform more commonly employed singular metrics. The use of focal statistics as a measure of topographic complexity shows promise for improving how mountain lions use terrain features.

KEYWORDS
Habitat, Topography, Terrain, Ruggedness, Mountain Lion, Puma concolor

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Kirsten Erin Ironside , David J. Mattson , Terence Arundel , Tad Theimer , Brandon Holton , Michael Peters , Thomas C. Edwards, Jr. , Jered Hansen , "Geomorphometry in Landscape Ecology: Issues of Scale, Physiography, and Application," Environment and Ecology Research, Vol. 6, No. 5, pp. 397 - 412, 2018. DOI: 10.13189/eer.2018.060501.

(b). APA Format:
Kirsten Erin Ironside , David J. Mattson , Terence Arundel , Tad Theimer , Brandon Holton , Michael Peters , Thomas C. Edwards, Jr. , Jered Hansen (2018). Geomorphometry in Landscape Ecology: Issues of Scale, Physiography, and Application. Environment and Ecology Research, 6(5), 397 - 412. DOI: 10.13189/eer.2018.060501.