A landscape may be viewed as a mosaic of patches. The state of the ecosystem can be defined by the abundance of species measured in some appropriate way. Within each patch the species populations change as the result of mortality and establishment. Through time, species populations are disappearing in some patches and dispersing to and becoming established in others where they are absent; the g...

This paper presents a dynamic systems model that shows how different land use patterns degrade the value of ecosystem services provided by the Brazilian Amazonia. The model consists of four sectors: (1) deforestation drivers; (2) land use/cover; (3) ecosystem services; and (4) ecosystem valuation. The deforestation drivers sector models the economic and social incentives that small farmers and ...

Spatial characteristics of phytoplankton blooms often reflect the horizontal transport properties of the oceanic turbulent flow in which they are embedded. Classically, bloom response to horizontal stirring is regarded in terms of generation of patchiness following large-scale bloom initiation. Here, using satellite observations from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre and a simple ecosystem mod...

Ecologists increasingly recognize the ability of certain species to influence ecological processes by engineering the physical environment, but efforts to develop a predictive understanding of this phenomenon are in their early stages. While many believe that the landscape-scale effects of ecosystem engineers will be to increase habitat diversity and therefore the abundance and richness of othe...

Patchiness plays a fundamental role in phytoplankton ecology by dictating the rate at which individual cells encounter each other and their predators. The distribution of motile phytoplankton species is often considerably more patchy than that of non-motile species at submetre length scales, yet the mechanism generating this patchiness has remained unknown. Here we show that strong patchiness a...