Landscape contrast: a solution to hidden assumptions in the metacommunity concept?
In this paper, Shekhar links metacommunity ecology and landscape ecology and argues that landscape spatial heterogeneity affects ecological processes, and the way scientists conceptualize a landscape may constrain the range of ecological models likely to be observed. As a solution, he proposes a new measure of landscape heterogeneity that unifies discrete and continuous landscape representation and thus integrates landscape heterogeneity in metacommunity studies. Shekhar is on the verge of submitting his Ph.D. thesis and so we celebrate this latest paper on the backdrop of another major accomplishment.
Good work, Shekhar!