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<meta content="Habeeb, Rebecca L." name="eprints.creators_name" />
<meta content="Trebilco, Jessica" name="eprints.creators_name" />
<meta content="Wotherspoon, Simon" name="eprints.creators_name" />
<meta content="Johnson, Craig R." name="eprints.creators_name" />
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<meta content="craig.johnson@utas.edu.au" name="eprints.creators_id" />
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<meta content="2007-05-18" name="eprints.datestamp" />
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<meta content="Determining natural scales of ecological systems
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<meta content="attractor reconstruction; characteristic length scale; community dynamics; ecosystem; nonlinear dynamics; spatial and temporal dynamics; spatial scale; spatiotemporal models" name="eprints.keywords" />
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<meta content="A key issue in ecology is to identify the appropriate scale(s) at which to observe trends in ecosystem behavior. The characteristic length scale (CLS) is a natural scale of a system at which the underlying deterministic dynamics are most clearly observed. Any approach to estimating CLSs of a natural system must be able to accommodate complex nonlinear dynamics and must have realistic requirements for data. Here, we compare the robustness of two methods to estimate CLSs of dynamical systems, both of which use attractor reconstruction to account for the complex oscillatory dynamics of ecological systems. We apply these techniques to estimate CLSs of spatial multispecies systems of varying complexity, and show that both methods are robust for the simplest system, but as model complexity increases, the Pascual and Levin metric is more robust than that of Keeling et al. Both methods demonstrate some sensitivity to the choice of species used in the analysis, with closely connected species producing more similar CLSs than loosely
connected species. In this context, connectivity is determined both by the topology of the interaction network and spatial organization in the system. Notably, systems showing complex spatial self-organization can yield multiple CLSs, with larger length scales indicating the emergent dynamics of interactions between patches. While the prediction r to the power of 2 metric of Pascual and Levin is suitable to estimate CLSs of complex systems, their method is not
suitable to apply to most real ecosystems because of the requirement of long time series for attractor reconstruction. We offer two alternatives, both based on prediction r to the power of 2, but where repetition in space is largely (the "short time series" method) or wholly (the "sliding
window" method) substituted for repetition in time in attractor reconstruction. Both methods, and in particular the short time series based on only three or four sequential observations of a system, are robust in detecting the primary length scale of complex systems. We conclude that the modified techniques are suitable for application to natural systems. Thus they offer, for the first time, an opportunity to estimate natural scales of real ecosystems,
providing objectivity in important decisions about scaling in ecology." name="eprints.abstract" />
<meta content="2005-11" name="eprints.date" />
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<meta content="Ecological Monographs" name="eprints.publication" />
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<meta content="467-487" name="eprints.pagerange" />
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complexity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK." name="eprints.referencetext" />
<meta content="Habeeb, Rebecca L. and Trebilco, Jessica and Wotherspoon, Simon and Johnson, Craig R. (2005) Determining natural scales of ecological systems. Ecological Monographs, 75 (4). pp. 467-487." name="eprints.citation" />
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<meta content="270702 Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology)" name="DC.subject" />
<meta content="A key issue in ecology is to identify the appropriate scale(s) at which to observe trends in ecosystem behavior. The characteristic length scale (CLS) is a natural scale of a system at which the underlying deterministic dynamics are most clearly observed. Any approach to estimating CLSs of a natural system must be able to accommodate complex nonlinear dynamics and must have realistic requirements for data. Here, we compare the robustness of two methods to estimate CLSs of dynamical systems, both of which use attractor reconstruction to account for the complex oscillatory dynamics of ecological systems. We apply these techniques to estimate CLSs of spatial multispecies systems of varying complexity, and show that both methods are robust for the simplest system, but as model complexity increases, the Pascual and Levin metric is more robust than that of Keeling et al. Both methods demonstrate some sensitivity to the choice of species used in the analysis, with closely connected species producing more similar CLSs than loosely
connected species. In this context, connectivity is determined both by the topology of the interaction network and spatial organization in the system. Notably, systems showing complex spatial self-organization can yield multiple CLSs, with larger length scales indicating the emergent dynamics of interactions between patches. While the prediction r to the power of 2 metric of Pascual and Levin is suitable to estimate CLSs of complex systems, their method is not
suitable to apply to most real ecosystems because of the requirement of long time series for attractor reconstruction. We offer two alternatives, both based on prediction r to the power of 2, but where repetition in space is largely (the "short time series" method) or wholly (the "sliding
window" method) substituted for repetition in time in attractor reconstruction. Both methods, and in particular the short time series based on only three or four sequential observations of a system, are robust in detecting the primary length scale of complex systems. We conclude that the modified techniques are suitable for application to natural systems. Thus they offer, for the first time, an opportunity to estimate natural scales of real ecosystems,
providing objectivity in important decisions about scaling in ecology." name="DC.description" />
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<h1 class="ep_tm_pagetitle">Determining natural scales of ecological systems</h1>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><span class="person_name">Habeeb, Rebecca L.</span> and <span class="person_name">Trebilco, Jessica</span> and <span class="person_name">Wotherspoon, Simon</span> and <span class="person_name">Johnson, Craig R.</span> (2005) <xhtml:em>Determining natural scales of ecological systems.</xhtml:em> Ecological Monographs, 75 (4). pp. 467-487.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"></p><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1049/1/2005_Habeeb%2C_Trebilco%2C_Wotherspoon_%26_Johnson_Ecol_Monogr.pdf"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" border="0" class="ep_doc_icon" /></a></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1049/1/2005_Habeeb%2C_Trebilco%2C_Wotherspoon_%26_Johnson_Ecol_Monogr.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF</span></a> - Full text restricted - Requires a PDF viewer<br />2396Kb</td><td><form method="get" accept-charset="utf-8" action="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/request_doc"><input value="1229" name="docid" accept-charset="utf-8" type="hidden" /><div class=""><input value="Request a copy" name="_action_null" class="ep_form_action_button" onclick="return EPJS_button_pushed( '_action_null' )" type="submit" /> </div></form></td></tr></table><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block">Official URL: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/04-1415">http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/04-1415</a></p><div class="not_ep_block"><h2>Abstract</h2><p style="padding-bottom: 16px; text-align: left; margin: 1em auto 0em auto">A key issue in ecology is to identify the appropriate scale(s) at which to observe trends in ecosystem behavior. The characteristic length scale (CLS) is a natural scale of a system at which the underlying deterministic dynamics are most clearly observed. Any approach to estimating CLSs of a natural system must be able to accommodate complex nonlinear dynamics and must have realistic requirements for data. Here, we compare the robustness of two methods to estimate CLSs of dynamical systems, both of which use attractor reconstruction to account for the complex oscillatory dynamics of ecological systems. We apply these techniques to estimate CLSs of spatial multispecies systems of varying complexity, and show that both methods are robust for the simplest system, but as model complexity increases, the Pascual and Levin metric is more robust than that of Keeling et al. Both methods demonstrate some sensitivity to the choice of species used in the analysis, with closely connected species producing more similar CLSs than loosely
connected species. In this context, connectivity is determined both by the topology of the interaction network and spatial organization in the system. Notably, systems showing complex spatial self-organization can yield multiple CLSs, with larger length scales indicating the emergent dynamics of interactions between patches. While the prediction r to the power of 2 metric of Pascual and Levin is suitable to estimate CLSs of complex systems, their method is not
suitable to apply to most real ecosystems because of the requirement of long time series for attractor reconstruction. We offer two alternatives, both based on prediction r to the power of 2, but where repetition in space is largely (the "short time series" method) or wholly (the "sliding
window" method) substituted for repetition in time in attractor reconstruction. Both methods, and in particular the short time series based on only three or four sequential observations of a system, are robust in detecting the primary length scale of complex systems. We conclude that the modified techniques are suitable for application to natural systems. Thus they offer, for the first time, an opportunity to estimate natural scales of real ecosystems,
providing objectivity in important decisions about scaling in ecology.</p></div><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" border="0" cellpadding="3" class="not_ep_block"><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Item Type:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Article</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Additional Information:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Copyright by the Ecological Society of America.</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Keywords:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">attractor reconstruction; characteristic length scale; community dynamics; ecosystem; nonlinear dynamics; spatial and temporal dynamics; spatial scale; spatiotemporal models</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Subjects:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/view/subjects/270702.html">270000 Biological Sciences > 270700 Ecology and Evolution > 270702 Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology)</a></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Collections:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">UNSPECIFIED</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ID Code:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">1049</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited By:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><span class="ep_name_citation"><span class="person_name">Professor Craig R. Johnson</span></span></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited On:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">18 May 2007</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Last Modified:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">04 Feb 2008 16:18</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ePrint Statistics:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a target="ePrintStats" href="/es/index.php?action=show_detail_eprint;id=1049;">View statistics for this ePrint</a></td></tr></table><p align="right">Repository Staff Only: <a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/users/home?screen=EPrint::View&eprintid=1049">item control page</a></p>
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