A conceptual model for a process-oriented landscape pattern analysis

Linking landscape patterns to specific ecological processes has been and will continue to be the key topic in landscape ecology. However, this goal is difficult to achieve by using the traditional landscape metric based on the Patch-Mosaic Model (PMM), as they don't integrate ecological processes with landscape patterns. In this paper, we proposed a conceptual model, i.e., the Source-Pathway-Sink Model (SPSM), which designates the role of a landscape unit into "source", "sink", or "pathway" based on specific ecological processes during the landscape pattern analysis. While the traditional landscape metrics derived from the PMM model is visual- or geometrical-oriented and lack of linkage to ecological significance, the SPSM model is process-oriented, dynamic, and scale dependent. A comparison between the PMM and the SPSM models shows that the SPSM model is complementary to the PMM model, and can provide a simple and dynamic perspective on landscape pattern analysis. The SPSM model may represent a conceptual innovation in landscape ecology.