Spatial Point Pattern Analysis

point pattern

Over the last decade or so, there has been increasing interest in the study of spatial patterns in ecology. Ecologists study spatial patterns to better understand the processes that may have caused the observed patterns. A particularly important class of spatial data in ecology are “point-pattern data”, given by the coordinates of the ecological objects of interest, which may also include additional properties (so called “marks”).

Thorsten Wiegand has pushed spatial point pattern analysis by authoring a handbook of spatial point pattern analysis in ecology, and by developing the software Programita with several summary functions such as the pair-correlation function, mark correlation functions or multivariate summary functions. Programita contains many standard and non-standard null models that cover most practical applications of point pattern analysis in ecology. Since its launch in January 2014 Programita has been downloaded by more than 2000 scientists from all over the world and used in more than 600 scientific publications.

Selected Publications

  • May, F., T. Wiegand, S. Lehmann & A. Huth (2016).
    Do abundance distributions and species aggregation correctly predict spatial biodiversity patterns in tropical forests?
    Global Ecology and Biogeography. in press
  • Wang, X., T. Wiegand, N.J.B. Kraft, N.G. Swenson, S.J. Davies, Z. Hao, R. Howe, Y. Lin, K. Ma, X. Mi, S-H Su, I-F Sun & A Wolf (2016).
    Stochastic dilution effects weaken deterministic effects of niche-based processes on the spatial distribution of large trees in species rich forests.
    Ecology. in press.
    Abstract
  • Velázquez, E., I. Martínez, S. Getzin, K.A. Moloney & T. Wiegand (2016).
    An evaluation of the state of spatial point pattern analysis in ecology.
    Ecography. in press.
    Abstract
  • Wang, X., Wiegand, T., Swenson, N.G., Wolf, A.T., Howe, R.W., Hao, Z., Lin, F., Ye, J., Yuan, Z., (2015):
    Mechanisms underlying local functional and phylogenetic beta diversity in two temperate forests
    Ecology 96 (4), 1062 - 1073
    full text (pdf)
  • Punchi-Manage, R., Wiegand, T., Wiegand, K., Getzin, S., Huth, A., Gunatilleke, C.V.S., Gunatilleke, I.A.U.N., (2015):
    Neighborhood diversity of large trees shows independent species patterns in a mixed dipterocarp forest in Sri Lanka
    Ecology 96 (7), 1823 - 1834
    full text (pdf)
  • May, F., Huth, A., Wiegand, T., (2015):
    Moving beyond abundance distributions: neutral theory and spatial patterns in a tropical forest
    Proc. R. Soc. B-Biol. Sci. 282 (1802), art. 20141657
    full text (pdf)
  • May, F., Huth, A., Wiegand, T., (2015):
    Moving beyond abundance distributions: neutral theory and spatial patterns in a tropical forest
    Proc. R. Soc. B-Biol. Sci. 282 (1802), art. 20141657
    full text (url)
  • Fedriani, J.M., Wiegand, T., Calvo, G., Suárez-Esteban, A., Jácome, M., Żywiec, M., Delibes, M., (2015):
    Unravelling conflicting density- and distance-dependent effects on plant reproduction using a spatially explicit approach
    J. Ecol. 103 (5), 1344 - 1353
    full text (url)
  • Getzin, S., Wiegand, K., Wiegand, T., Yizhaq, H., von Hardenberg, J., Meron, E., (2015):
    Adopting a spatially explicit perspective to study the mysterious fairy circles of Namibia
    Ecography 38 (1), 1 - 11
    full text (url)
  • Getzin, S., Wiegand, T., Hubbell, S.P., (2014):
    Stochastically driven adult–recruit associations of tree species on Barro Colorado Island
    Proc. R. Soc. B-Biol. Sci. 281 (1790), art. 20140922
    full text (url)
  • Wiegand, T., He, F., Hubbell, S.P., (2013):
    A systematic comparison of summary characteristics for quantifying point patterns in ecology
    Ecography 36 (1), 92 - 103
    full text (url)
  • Shen, G., Wiegand, T., Mi, X., He, F., (2013):
    Quantifying spatial phylogenetic structures of fully stem-mapped plant communities
    Methods Ecol. Evol. 4 (12), 1132 - 1141
    full text (url)
  • Wiegand, T., Huth, A., Getzin, S., Wang, X., Hao, Z., Gunatilleke, C.V.S., Gunatilleke, I.A.U.N., (2012):
    Testing the independent species' arrangement assertion made by theories of stochastic geometry of biodiversity
    Proc. R. Soc. B-Biol. Sci. 279 (1741), 3312 - 3320
    full text (url)
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