Abstract
Context
A recent article in Landscape Ecology presented a method to true Moran’s I to its conceptual ideals and existing intuition regarding correlations. It’s scope included multiple methods, exploration of designed and empirical datasets, sensitivity analyses, and extensive mathematical treatment. The editor, reviewers, and lead author feared that the article due to complexity would not be accessible to empirical landscape ecologists.
Objectives
This perspective aims to highlight critical problems with the traditional autocorrelation metric and make standout material from the larger analysis accessible by paring to essentials and presenting a simple recipe to calculate an improved metric that also serves as a statistic.
Methods
Desirable traits for an autocorrelation metric were reviewed followed by distillation of best practices discerned in the larger project to attain those traits. A minimal method to obtain the superior metric was formulated.
Results
Moran’s I met only 2 of 14 desirable qualities for indexing autocorrelation. An improved metric was found to be achievable in 7 steps. The new metric, now a statistic, realized 14 of 14 desirable traits. The new statistic fit existing intuition for regular correlation and facilitated comparisons across disparate contexts.
Conclusions
Spatial autocorrelation is a common focus in landscape ecology. The new statistic enabled intuitive interpretation and meaningful comparison within and among studies. It provided for meta-analysis and meta-research, such as co-use with other spatial pattern statistics. These improvements should foster sustained use and impact of the new autocorrelation statistic Ir.
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Data availability
Example data and software to replicate this study are provided in Supplemementary file S1 and is also archived at the Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) digital repository at https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/194479.
Code availability
Not applicable.
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Funding
Funded by a Triads for Transformation (T3) grant from Texas A&M University.
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Electronic Supplementary Material
Below are links to the electronic supplementary material.
Supplementary Material 1
Equivalence of summation and linear algebra I (DOCX 19kb)
Supplementary Material 2
Calculation of I and Ir (Excel file)
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DeWitt, T.J. A simplified perspective on the index of spatial autocorrelation. Landsc Ecol 37, 657–661 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01393-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01393-6