Spatial analysis has become the most rapidly growing field in ecology. This popularity is directly related to at least three factors: (1) a growing awareness among ecologists that it is important to include spatial structure in ecological thinking; (2) the alteration of landscapes around us at an increasing rate, which requires a constant re-evaluation of their spatial heterogeneity; and (3) the availability of software designed specifically to perform spatial analyses. One major problem with spatial statistics software is that they are often not used correctly. Incorrect application arises because: (1) ecologists have not been properly trained about issues of scale; and (2) ecologists do not realize fully the implications of the fact that spatially autocorrelated data are not independent, and thus violate the assumptions of the familiar parametric statistics. The purpose of this book is to fill the gap between the current need for spatial analysis and the uncertainty of many ecologists on how to perform these kinds of analysis correctly.

The motivation for this book is as the title suggests; it is intended as a guide for ecologists through the large array of methods available for spatial analysis. Given that the scope of this book is quite broad, it is not as specialized as Dale (1999), which concentrates on the analysis of static spatial pattern. It is crafted as a reference book that could be used as a text in a course introducing ecology students to spatial analysis.