Applied Spatial Ecology and GIScience: Foundations, Methods, Case Studies, and Lab Exercises

Applied Spatial Ecology and GIScience: Foundations, Methods, Case Studies, and Lab Exercises bridges ecological knowledge with GIScience principles that make modern spatial analysis possible. Written for students and practitioners in ecology, natural resources, geography, conservation science, and environmental science, this book moves from core concepts—scale, spatial data models, coordinate systems, uncertainty, cartography, and spatial reasoning—to the analytical workflows used to understand principles of conservation and natural resource management at scales that matter. Each methods chapter is paired with hands-on, step-by-step exercises and case studies that translate theory into practice using widely available geospatial data and contemporary GIS tools with descriptions of ArcGIS Pro workflows. Readers will build skills through applied problems related to everything from land change analysis, landscape pattern metrics (including Fragstats), and hydrologic terrain processing to neutral landscape modeling, spatial interpolation of animal population abundances, and mapping of species distributions. Other concepts covered include 3D visualization, climate-zone shift mapping, the assessment of ecosystem productivity and ecoregions, biodiversity mapping, quantifying species–area relationships, and hotspot analysis. Applied Spatial Ecology and GIScience serves as a classroom-ready guide grounded in GIScience, is transparent in its methodological approaches, and focuses on natural resource management and conservation planning.