< Back

Filter

Causation & process

A biotic, abiotic, or landscape condition that selectively permits, constrains, or prevents organisms, traits, interactions, or ecological processes from occurring or moving through a system. The concept derives particularly from ecological-filter theory and is applied here to conditions operating both within habitat and through the surrounding landscape matrix.

Keddy, P. A. (1992). Assembly and response rules: Two goals for predictive community ecology. Journal of Vegetation Science, 3(2), 157–164. Poff, N. L. (1997). Landscape filters and species traits: Towards mechanistic understanding and prediction in stream ecology. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 16(2), 391–409.