ReviewEcology letters2022
Measuring habitat complexity and spatial heterogeneity in ecology.
Review in Ecology letters, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed.
- Long-term effects of clear-cutting forestry on ectomycorrhizal fungi in boreal forest.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Habitat Heterogeneity Drives Intertidal Macrobenthic Community Differentiation via Environmental Filtering, Species Turnover, and Ecological Network Reorganization.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Fractal Indices as Estimators of the Complexity of Ephemeroptera Nymph Movement in a Thermal Stress Experiment.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Ecological Integrity of Hybrid Ecosystems in the Anthropocene: The Impact of Self-Organization on Function and Sustainability.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Soil Microarthropod Communities Along Salt Marsh Transects of the Wadden Sea Are Predominantly Structured by Niche Differentiation.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- Deep-sea-floor diversity in Asteroidea is shaped by competing processes across different latitudes and oceans.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Obstacles Influence Red Flour Beetle (Tribolium castaneum) Movement More Than Path Length or Turns.Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2025Article
- Integrating soundscape to landscape in the understanding of agricultural transformation in the Neotropical context.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Spatial scale modulates stochastic and deterministic influence on biogeography of photosynthetic biofilms in Southeast Asian hot springs.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- Resolving the context-dependency of local heterogeneity-diversity relationships across rocky reefs worldwide.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Identification of cancer-associated fibroblast subtypes and prognostic model development in breast cancer: role of the RUNX1/SDC1 axis in promoting invasion and metastasis.Cell biology and toxicology · 2025Article
- Evaluation of urban green space plant landscape quality in Zhengzhou city using the AHP-SBE method.PloS one · 2025Article
- A multi-disciplinary approach to identify spillover interfaces of bat coronaviruses to pig farms in Italy.PloS one · 2025Article
- Bacterial Diversity in the Different Ecological Niches Related to the Yonghwasil Pond (Republic of Korea).Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Article
- Establishing complexity targets to enhance artificial reef designs.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Characterizing the structural complexity of the Earth's forests with spaceborne lidar.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Integrating very high resolution environmental proxies in genotype-environment association studies.Evolutionary applications · 2024Article
- Spatial Distribution and Ecological Determinants of Coexisting Hybrid Oak Species: A Study in Yushan's Mixed Forest.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Habitat complexity has been considered a key driver of biodiversity and other ecological phenomena for nearly a century. However, there is still no consensus over the definition of complexity or how to measure it. Up-to-date and clear guidance on measuring complexity is urgently needed, particularly given the rise of remote sensing and advent of technologies that allow environments to be scanned at unprecedented spatial extents and resolutions. Here we review how complexity is measured in ecology. We provide a framework for metrics of habitat complexity, and for the related concept of spatial heterogeneity. We focus on the two most commonly used complexity metrics in ecology: fractal dimension and rugosity. We discuss the pros and cons of these metrics using practical examples from our own empirical data and from simulations. Fractal dimension is particularly widely used, and we provide a critical examination of it drawing on research from other scientific fields. We also discuss informational metrics of complexity and their potential benefits. We chart a path forward for research on measuring habitat complexity by presenting, as a guide, sets of essential and desirable criteria that a metric of complexity should possess. Lastly, we discuss the applied significance of our review.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.