Dear Sanghoon, I tend to think of heterogeneity referring to resource quality (or a qualitative trait of the resource), whereas variability refers to resource quantity. Heterogeneity can differ both spatially and temporally.
Sincerely, Pablo Munguia Date: Fri, 28 May 2010 18:17:46 -0400 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Sanghoon_Kang?= <[email protected]> Subject: heterogeneity vs. variability I was writing a paper discussing spatial heterogeneity of soil measurements. At the moment, I became confused between the concept of heterogeneity and variability. To me 'heterogeneity' contains 'spatial' context, and 'variability' has 'variations of values'. Thus 'heterogeneity of N' means 'N concentrations are different at different sampling locations', while 'variability of N' means simply 'variations of N concentration without considering locations of sample'. Then in the context of 'spatial' it seem like they become indistinguishable. But I feel like they are not exactly same. Any insight? SANGHOON KANG.
