ABSTRACT
The spatial patterns of ecosystems in landscapes are important to their functioning (Turner, 1989). Exchanges of energy, matter, and individual organisms and species across landscapes are in part determined by pattern, and it is this exchange, along with vertical fluxes, that creates the pattern. Central to our understanding of pattern, spatial fluxes across landscapes, and changing pattern are ecotones, the transition zones between adjacent ecosystems (Risser, 1995). Ecotones are primarily characterized by the change in species composition, but are also seen as areas of interaction among ecosystems. The change in species is important because it indicates the limits of a species range, at least locally, and can be indicative of a species’ relationship to the environment and other species. Fluxes may be higher here because of steeper gradients in the environment that coincide with the difference in species.
