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Spatial Pattern of Shrubs on a Desert Plain in Ethiopia
Author(s) -
Beals Edward W.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.2307/1935538
Subject(s) - shrub , biological dispersal , ecology , desert (philosophy) , geography , seed dispersal , competition (biology) , index of dispersion , randomness , dispersion (optics) , common spatial pattern , physical geography , environmental science , biology , mathematics , demography , statistics , population , physics , philosophy , poisson regression , epistemology , sociology , optics
The distribution of the shrub Cadaba rotundifolia on a sandy plain showed a complex pattern which apparently included a trend towards aggregation, and within areas of higher density a strong trend towards regularity. The latter may result from competition for water, and the former from seed dispersal. Of the various methods of analyzing departure from randomness, the ratio, observed variance to expected variance, and the index of dispersion associated with it, were the most sensitive.