Spatial patterns in soft-bottom communities.

The spatial patterns exhibited by soft-bottom macrobenthic organismshave become recognized for their potential to play an importantrole in determining both the ecology of these species and our ability to study it. Recent studies have shown that spatial scales of field sampling or experimentation are important influences on data interpretation. The presence of patches, density gradients and spatially autocorrelated variables may confound designs and affect the validity of inferential statistics. Future studies must integrate the intensity and form of patterns from various spatial and temporal scales if we are to understand the process responsible for generating pattern.