A nexus between population and landscape ecology: Individual-based spatially-explicit population simulation modeling agrees with multi-scale hierarchical habitat patch delineation

Recent advances in spatially-explicit analysis have lead to the development of a multi-scale and hierarchical habitat patch delineation algorithm called PatchMorph (Girvetz & Greco, in review). PatchMorph has been suggested as an improvement over the commonly used rules of contiguity for delineating habitat patches, because it is based on organism specific parameters for patch perception and utilization. This paper tests the ecological reality of PatchMorph by comparing patches it delineates to the spatial distribution of individuals in the same landscape as predicted by an individual-based spatially-explicit population model run with a range of movement, reproduction, and mortality parameter values. Results show that patches delineated using the PatchMorph algorithm match much better with the spatial distribution of individuals as predicted by the population model, as compared with patches delineated using rules of contiguity. Moreover, as the PatchMorph patch perception parameter values were increased, the patches delineated match better with outputs from the population model with larger values for the movement parameter. These results provide evidence for the ecological realism of the PatchMorph model. Moreover, since the PatchMorph algorithm is much easier and efficient to run than a spatially-explicit population simulation model, it can be used as a robust estimate of the spatial distribution of individuals in heterogeneous ecological landscapes.