FIGURE 3.

Landscape heterogeneity and fragmentation in both structural and biotic landscapes. Gradients of low to high values of these components are represented. On the left, the colors represent different landscape elements. Landscape elements can be different land covers or land uses, different anatomical sites within a body, or different environmental patches within a given anatomical site. In this example, the focus habitat is the green one, where the microbial assemblages is studied. On the right, the geometrical shapes represent the distribution of different types of hosts. Biotic landscapes are then considered as the composition and configuration of the potential hosts. Hosts can be several species, or several genotypes within species. In this example, the focus habitat is the round host type, which microbiota is studied. See Box 1 for definitions.