Discrete/continuous populations

Discrete populations consist of populations whose ‘parts’ can be identified and listed, such as the population of lakes or wetlands in a region. Alternatively, stream or road networks are often considered continuous. Continuous populations can be converted into discrete populations by the application of specific rules that break the resource into discrete elements. For example, stream networks could be converted into discrete form by identifying unique reaches defined at the network confluences. In general, we treat stream networks as continuous populations.