Partitioning diversity into independent alpha and beta components - PubMed (original) (raw)
. 2007 Oct;88(10):2427-39.
doi: 10.1890/06-1736.1.
Affiliations
- PMID: 18027744
- DOI: 10.1890/06-1736.1
Partitioning diversity into independent alpha and beta components
Lou Jost. Ecology. 2007 Oct.
Erratum in
- Ecology. 2009 Dec;90(12):3593
Abstract
Existing general definitions of beta diversity often produce a beta with a hidden dependence on alpha. Such a beta cannot be used to compare regions that differ in alpha diversity. To avoid misinterpretation, existing definitions of alpha and beta must be replaced by a definition that partitions diversity into independent alpha and beta components. Such a unique definition is derived here. When these new alpha and beta components are transformed into their numbers equivalents (effective numbers of elements), Whittaker's multiplicative law (alpha x beta = gamma) is necessarily true for all indices. The new beta gives the effective number of distinct communities. The most popular similarity and overlap measures of ecology (Jaccard, Sorensen, Horn, and Morisita-Horn indices) are monotonic transformations of the new beta diversity. Shannon measures follow deductively from this formalism and do not need to be borrowed from information theory; they are shown to be the only standard diversity measures which can be decomposed into meaningful independent alpha and beta components when community weights are unequal.
Comment in
- Multiplicative partition of true diversity yields independent alpha and beta components; additive partition does not.
Baselga A. Baselga A. Ecology. 2010 Jul;91(7):1974-81. doi: 10.1890/09-0320.1. Ecology. 2010. PMID: 20715618 No abstract available. - On beta diversity decomposition: trouble shared is not trouble halved.
Ricotta C. Ricotta C. Ecology. 2010 Jul;91(7):1981-3. doi: 10.1890/09-0126.1. Ecology. 2010. PMID: 20715619 No abstract available.