A paired-quadrat method for use in multiscale ordination

Multiscale ordination is a technique for examining spatial patterns of several species at several scales. We present a paired-quadrat method (paired quadrat covariance; PQC) to be used in multiscale ordination and test it with artificial data. Multiscale ordination with PQC successfully extracted the salient features of the data set. The method appears to be more sensitive than blocked-quadrat techniques for extracting small-scale patterns. We suggest that PQC will be useful as a complement to existing procedures or as a tool for analysing data from scattered quadrat arrangements.Abbreviations PQC = Paired Quadrat Covariance - PQV = Paired Quadrat Variance - TTLC = Two-Term Local Covariance - TTLQV = Two-Term Local Quadrat Variance