Combining Scale and Ecological Dynamics The Hierarchical Patch Dynamic Paradigm

4 Combining Scale and Ecological Dynamics The Hierarchical Patch Dynamic Paradigm 

The previous sections have set the requirements for an overall construction for estimating toxicant impacts. An accurate framework for estimating the 

Ecological systems are spatially structured patch hierarchies with larger patches constructed from smaller patches. 

Dynamics of an ecological system can be studied as the composite dynamics of individual patches and the interactions of those patches with others at the same and adjacent hierarchical levels. 

Pattern and process, cause and effect, are scale dependent. Interaction occurs when both are at the same domain of scale in space and time. 

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