Author(s)

F. Rodríguez & S. Bautista

Abstract

Patch-gap analysis of presence-absence data in vegetation transects using hidden Markov models, with application to the characterisation of post-fire plant pattern disturbance in a semiarid pine forest. 1 "? F. Rodriguez & S. Bautista *Dpto. de Andlisis Matemdtico y Matemdtica Aplicada, Universidad de Alicante, Spain. *Dpto. de Ecologia, Universidad de Alicante; and CEAM (Centra de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterrdneo), Spain. Abstract We discuss the application of hidden Markov models (HMMs) to estimate the distributions of patch and gap sizes from vegetation transects with presence- absence data. Different models of HMMs are considered. A first basic model, expected to be appropriate for vegetation communities with simple pattern structure and relatively homogeneous patches and gaps, consists of two hidden states, patch and gap, and two symbols, corresponding to presence or absence of vegetation. When the spatial pattern of the vegetation is expected to be

Keywords