300175 VO Fractals in Ecology and Fractal Analyses (2007S)

Fractals play an important role in describing and quantifying biotic and abiotic structures, their development, and ecological interactions, leading to spatiotemporal pattern and process formations. Fractals help to understand and simplify much of the complexity of community ecological phenomena and can help to understand power-laws (fractal scaling) in nature. This lecture on fractal ecology includes both analytical theory and applied biotic/abiotic examples in form of practical exercises displaying the diversity of fractals in ecology.