FRACTAL DIMENSION ESTIMATES OF A FRAGMENTED LANDSCAPE - SOURCES OF VARIABILITY

Although often seen as a scale-independent measure, we show that the f ractal dimension of the forest cover of the Cazaville Region changes w ith spatial scale. Sources of variability in the estimation of fractal dimensions are multiple. First, the measured phenomenon does not alwa ys show the properties of a pure fractal for all scales, but rather ex hibits local self-similarity within certain scale ranges. Moreover, so me sampling components such as area of sampling unit, the use of a tra nsect in the estimation of the variability of a plane, the location, a nd the orientation of a transect all affect, to different degrees, the estimation of the fractal dimension. This paper assesses the relative importance of these components in the estimation of the fractal dimen sion of the spatial distribution of woodlots in a fragmented landscape . Results show that different sources of variability should be conside red when comparing fractal dimensions from different studies or region s.