Abstract: Several indices assessing landscape dispersion, such as isolation, type divergence and nearest neighbor index, were compared. Different indices could reflect different aspects of landscape dispersion. Dispersion index was suggested to assess the dispersion more comprehensively. All the indices were computed to study the landscape dispersion in a valley basin, and the results showed that dispersion index was better to synthesize information and to be in line with practice than others.

Key words: Landscape, Isolation, Type divergence, Nearest neighbor index, Dispersion index, environmental safety assessment., rhizobia, Illumina Miseq pyrosequencing, glyphosate-resistant transgenic soybean, bacteria