ON DEFINITION AND QUANTIFICATION OF HETEROGENEITY

General guidelines on the quantitative representation of heterogeneity in ecology are still lacking. Without a precise definition and sound quantification of heterogeneity, statements involving the concept will continue to be confusing, and comparative studies and hypothesis test ing will be ineffective. To solve this problem we propose an operation al definition of ecological heterogeneity that facilitates quantificat ion based on the data types of concern. We use two examples to demonst rate how our definition and quantification of spatial heterogeneity ca n be applied in practice.