How Were the Landscape Indicators Selected? 
The starting point for selecting indicators was what 
people in the area said they cared about. These concerns 
were then matched to our ability to make meaningful 
measurements, recognizing that some things just can’t be 
measured very well given the available data or models. 
As a result of workshops and advice from people who live 
in the Tensas River Basin, three general environmental 
themes were identified-human use, forest and water. 
These three themes and the indicators measured within 
each theme are discussed in detail in Chapter 3. 
Figure 1.4 shows an example of a landscape indicator. In 
this example you can see that if forest patches are not 
connected, the forest is more vulnerable to the distur¬ 
bance. Figures 1.5 and 1.6 are pictorial representations of 
key landscape attributes that affect the sustainability of 
environmental condition across broad scales. 
Figure 1.5 shows some key landscape components that 
sustain a high quality environment, and Figure 1.6 shows 
some human modifications of the landscape that can 
reduce the sustainability of natural resources. These 
figures, although not of the Tensas River Basin, illustrate 
some of the important landscape indicators analyzed in 
this atlas. 
Landscapes are very complicated, and the generality of 
the conceptual models is an accurate reflection of the 
level of scientific understanding of landscape dynamics. 
Scientists who study landscape ecology are trying to 
improve our ability to interpret landscape indicators 
relative to environmental values. The improvements will 
help to interpret the information that is contained in this 
atlas, and will also suggest new landscape indicators or 
new ways to measure the ones that are included here. 
In the meantime, it is worth exploring how much is known 
about regional conditions, and what can be said by using 
state-of-the-art landscape indicators. 
4 
9 
Populatior 
persists 
Large-scale 
disturbance 
Recovery 
Large-scale 
disturbance 
Populatioi 
does not 
persist 
Time 
Figure 1.4 
Forest fragmentation can result in the loss of a species due to natural distur¬ 
bance. In this example larger, more connected forest sustains the species over 
time, whereas smaller, more isolated habitat loses the species over time. 
(In this example, tan is non-forest, red is occupied forest, and white is unoccu¬ 
pied forest.) 
