Cary Conferences | Goals | Schedule | Participants | Management | Definitions
A potential barrier to good communication at a multidisciplinary conference such as this is the use of specialized terms. Proliferation of terms often makes communication within a discipline more efficient and precise, but can inhibit communication across disciplines.
We do not want the conference to focus on terminological differences. To help avoid this, we propose the following set of definitions of terms that are likely to be used during the conference. Our intention is not to create standard definitions that must be used exclusively, but to present suggested definitions that can serve as common ground. If you use these terms as defined below, you need not define them. However, if you use the terms differently, please define exactly what you mean in your presentation or discussion.
Configuration: A specific spatial arrangement of elements or entities (biotic or abiotic); often used synonymously with spatial structure or patch structure.
Connectivity: The spatial continuity of an entity or function.
Ecosystem: A spatially explicit unit of the earth that includes all of the organisms, along with all components of the abiotic environment, within its boundaries (Likens 1995). First introduced by Tansley (1935).
Ecosystem Function: Attribute related to the performance of an ecosystem that is the consequence of one or multiple ecosystem processes. Examples include nutrient retention, biomass production, and maintenance of species diversity.
Ecosystem Process: Transfer of energy, material or organisms among pools in an ecosystem. Examples include primary production, decomposition, heterotrophic respiration, flux and cycling of elements, and evapotranspiration.
Gradient: Change in a property across a defined spatial extent.
Heterogeneity: The quality or state of encompassing variation in a property of interest, as with mixed habitats or environmental gradients occurring on a landscape; opposite of homogeneity, in which variation in the property is negligible. See further elaboration of components of heterogeneity below.
Landscape: An area that is spatially heterogeneous in at least one factor of interest.
Patch: A surface area that differs from its surroundings in structure or function.
Scale: Spatial or temporal dimension of an object or process, characterized by both grain and extent.
Components of Heterogeneity
Heterogeneity can have two separate components, composition and configuration. Compositional heterogeneity refers to the number of different kinds of elements in the landscape, while configurational heterogeneity refers to the spatial arrangement of the elements. The elements can be discrete (patches) or continuous (gradients). The matrix below gives general examples of these components of heterogeneity.
| Composition | Configuration | |
| Discrete | Number, types and relative abundance of different patch types | Arrangement of patches |
| Continuous | Number, types and relative abundance of different gradients | Arrangement of gradients |