08 considerations of scale in ecological research

hierarchy theory

• interdependence and interaction among scales

• lower levels are mechanisms

• upper layers are constraints

scale

refers to some measurable dimension in time and/or space

level

more appropriate for hierarchal structure

nominal

names or categories

ordinal

• ranking

• categorical but implies some relationship or order

interval

known distance between values

ratio

known and defined zero and amounts above and below

isometric

relationship is proportional

allometric

relationship is nonlinear, curved

scaling plots

demonstrate relationship between organism size and aspects of its morphology or life history

scale dependence

different patterns emerge when the scale resolution or extent of observation and measurement are changed

intrinsic scale

• the resolution and extent of the physical problem or process being studied

• each ecological phenomena have their own unit spatial even and frequencies

observational scale

scale of measurement and sampling

analytic scale

scale at which the problem or system is being analyzed or modeled

policy scale

how a problem is framed will influence the decision making process

ecological neighborhoods

• defined by

  • specific ecological process

  • time-scale appropriate to the process

  • organisms spatial activity during that time

• organism movement defines the neighborhood

• consider variation in spatial extent of different behaviors and time periods

organism centric approach

• based on animal movement but defined by body size and expected life time

multiscale approaches

addressed complexity by examining related processes at different scales