Analysis of Scale-Dependent Processes with Dimensionless Ratios

Awareness of the role of scale in ecological research has increased over the last decade but few tools have been developed to evaluate biological and physical processes that generate scale-dependent biological patterns. We describe a procedure that combines demographic, growth, and kinematic rates to evaluate the spatial and temporal dynamics of population biomass. Values of dimensionless ratios are plotted and contoured as a function of spatial and temporal scale to summarize knowledge of processes that generate variability in a biological quantity. This summary can be used to indicate variance generating processes at any scale of interest, to identify potential research areas and appropriate sampling scales for field studies, and to limit the range of scales over which conclusions can be generalized.