Using simulated as well as real datasets we shall examine methodological and theoretical aspects of spatial models relevant to numerous topics in population biology. Our approach focuses on examination of gene-frequency surfaces, spatial autoocorrelation analysis, and generalizations of the Mantel test. We shall examine four separate topics. 1) Population biological inferences from gene-frequency and other surfaces. 2) Theoretical investigations of distributions of measures of spatial autocurrelation under null hypotheses of population biological interest. 3) Boundary detection and significance testing of detected boundaries. 4) Testing of biological distance matrices against design matrices representing specific alternative hypotheses. Under each of these topics several individual research problems are planned. The results of these endeavors will greatly facilitate inferences from patterns to process in a wide variety of problems in population biology.//
