Context

Understanding the relationships between spatial pattern, spatial scale and biodiversity can help ecologists to assess the impacts of environmental change and inform management plans. Spatial pattern research has often focussed on the effect of modified landscapes on species diversity. However, few studies have examined species responses to spatial pattern from other sources, including those which vary over time, such as fire.

Objectives

We investigated the effect of composition and configuration for topographic, ecological and disturbance factors on mammal species richness. In addition, we examined whether the magnitude and predictive strength of the relationship with richness varied with spatial scale.

Methods

We sampled ground-dwelling mammals at 187 sites in the Otway Ranges of south-eastern Australia. A gradient modelling approach was used to characterise landscape composition and configuration for each predictor. Relationships with mammal richness were modelled using Bayesian Networks at ten different spatial scales (7–1165 ha).

Results

Composition and configuration were both important to species richness, although the strength and presence of relationships varied across the ten scales. Patterns in NDVI, time since fire, habitat complexity and elevation had the strongest effects on mammal species richness.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight the importance of measuring both the composition and configuration of environmental measures at different spatial scales to assess their effect on species richness. Further, studies focusing on just one environmental measure of spatial pattern or one spatial scale will miss important relationships between environmental variables and species richness.

中文翻译：

---

在多个空间尺度上将哺乳动物物种丰富度与景观格局联系起来

语境

了解空间格局，空间规模和生物多样性之间的关系可以帮助生态学家评估环境变化的影响并为管理计划提供依据。空间格局研究通常集中在改良景观对物种多样性的影响上。但是，很少有研究检查物种对其他来源的空间格局的反应，包括随时间变化的物种，例如火。

目标

我们调查了地形，生态和干扰因素的组成和配置对哺乳动物物种丰富度的影响。此外，我们研究了与丰富度的关系的大小和预测强度是否随空间规模而变化。

方法

我们在澳大利亚东南部奥特威山脉（Otway Ranges）的187个地点采样了陆栖哺乳动物。梯度建模方法用于表征每个预测变量的景观组成和配置。使用十个不同的空间尺度（7-1165公顷）的贝叶斯网络对与哺乳动物丰富度的关系进行建模。

结果

组成和构型对物种丰富度都很重要，尽管关系的强度和存在在十个尺度上各不相同。NDVI的模式，火灾以来的时间，栖息地的复杂性和海拔高度对哺乳动物物种丰富度的影响最大。

结论

我们的发现强调了在不同的空间尺度上测量环境措施的组成和配置以评估其对物种丰富度的影响的重要性。此外，仅关注一种空间格局或一种空间尺度的环境研究将错过环境变量与物种丰富度之间的重要关系。