ABSTRACT 97-07785 Turchin Dispersal as a mechanistic basis for landscape ecology: The role of scale and heterogeneity In recent years it has become clear that understanding spatial dynamics of populations, including the effects of habitat fragmentation, is critical for developing better methods of managing natural resources. Landscape ecology has developed approaches for describing environmental patterns in space, while population ecology has a strong tradition of research on mechanisms that underlie these patterns. This project will bridge these two directions in ecology, using a simple organism in a simple environment. The study organism, a terrestrial isopod ("pillbug"), has a simple biology, and its environment, the Negev Desert of Israel, provides a simplified landscape with a clear limiting factor, water. This research will focus on dispersal as the most important mechanism explaining isopod spatial distribution in relation to the distribution of resources. Studying this system will yield general insights into how spatial population dynamics work, and will eventually lead to better understanding of more complex ecological systems.
