LANDSCAPE-LEVEL ECOLOGICAL REGIONS - LINKING STATE-LEVEL ECOREGION FRAMEWORKS WITH STREAM HABITAT CLASSIFICATIONS

Regionalization is a form of spatial classification, where boundaries are drawn around areas that are relatively homogeneous in landscape ch aracteristics. The process of delineating ecological regions, or ecore gions, includes the analysis of ecosystem structure. To date, ecoregio ns have been developed at national and slate scales for research and r esource management. Stream classification is another method to order t he variability of aquatic habitats that spans spatial scales from micr ohabitat to valley segment. In this study, landscape-level ecoregions are developed for the upper Grande Ronde River basin in northeastern O regon, 3000 sq km in area. The ecoregion framework presented here is p roposed to bridge the gap between stream habitat and state-level ecore gion classifications. Classification at this scale is meant to address issues of management at local scales: to aid in sampling design, in e xtrapolation of the results oi site-specific studies, and in the devel opment of best management practices that are more predictive of ecosys tem response than current methods.