Séminaire Ecobio - Benjamin BERGEROT (Ecobio)

Abstract :
Landscape variables are often measured using buffers centered on sampling sites. The aim of this kind of method is to characterize the relationship between biological responses at a site (e.g. abundance, species richness) and landscape variables to find at which scale landscape variables and biological responses are the most related. This threshold-based method assumes that the effect of the landscape is consistent up to a threshold distance. However, it seems more likely that, for example, the landscape effect declines with increasing distance from the biological point. Recent studies used then weighted-distance methods to integrate this hypothesis. This presentation will focus on the relevance of each methodology by comparing the strength of the relations between landscape variables and a biological response using the two methods.