Pooled size or age histograms conceal the structured spatial variance of a patch’s demography.

Evidence

An analysis of within-patch structure and dynamics based only on histograms without respect to position would neglect different patterns of life histories within the same patch. Histograms would show only variance, without any indication of how that variance is partitioned within the patch. Figure 2 compares structure across one Pastinaca patch with a histogram representation. If the different-sized plants were distributed throughout the patch without any pattern of variation from center to periphery, then the histogram would be a useful representation. Here, however, it masks a level of variation in how the patch is structured. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1612