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. 1999 Aug 3;96(16):9154–9158. doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.16.9154

Table 3.

An outline of the three scales of analysis, specifying the entities involved, spatial scales, units of study, and methods of study

Ecoregion scale Ecomosaic scale Ecotope scale
Total area 1011–1012 m2 108–1010 m2 106–107 m2
Constituent entities Ecomosaic types Ecotope types Species
No. of constituent entity types in an individual elements 11 5–9 16–116
Size of entities 108–1010 m2 106–107 m2 10−4–102 m2
Study units Landscapes Ecotope patches Quadrats
Size of study units 107–108 m2 103–106 m2 100–102 m2
Field level discrimination: Basis None Vegetation structure and composition Morphology
Field level discrimination: Means None Visual observation of physiognomy and presence of characteristic species Visual observation of morphological characteristics
Imagery based discrimination: Basis Ecomosaic structure and composition Vegetation structure and composition None
Imagery level discrimination: Means Unsupervised classification using 1.8 × 1.8-km resolution NDVI data Supervised classification using 36.25 × 36.25-m resolution four-band IRS LISS 2 data None