Spectral techniques in spatial analysis

This paper shows how spectral analysis can be used as a tool for the exploratory analysis of spatial patterns. The emphasis is on relating periodogram structure to the type of biological generating mechanism that could have produced the observed pattern; examples include the spatial distributions of a Scots pine forest canopy and a developing stand of willow herb in a recently thinned woodland. Three statistical tests are presented for examining the null hypothesis of complete spatial randomness against specific alternatives, and these are then applied to spatial data on Japanese black pine saplings, redwood seedlings, and biological cells. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.