The visual concept of spatial heterogeneity on the habitat lattice and the plant mortality rate

<p>. The figure (a) represents the concept of spatial heterogeneity. The grey scale in the squares represents the trait value (0–1) of the habitat: the value for the pure white habitat is zero and that for the pure black habitat is one. In this case, there are 16 different habitats (<i>E</i>_1,<i>t</i>, <i>E</i>_2,<i>t</i>,…<i>E</i>_16,<i>t</i>) within the total lattice space and each habitat has 2×2 square sites. The grey scale in circles represents the plant trait value (<i>Q</i>_ij). The similarity of the grey scale between <i>E</i>_l,t and <i>Q</i>_ij determines the death rate of the individual plant inhabiting (i, j), and its relationship is illustrated in (b). The two combinations of square and circle are the example of the difference between habitat and plant trait values in (b).