Shopping for Ecological Indices? On the Use of Incidence-Based Species Compositional Similarity Measures

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Fecha

2022-05

Autores

Macgregor-Fors, Ian
Escobar, Federico
Escobar-Ibáñez, Juan F.
Mesa-Sierra, Natalia
Alvarado, Fredy
Rueda-Hernández, Rafael
Moreno, Claudia E.
Falfán, Ina
Corro, Erick J.
Pineda, Eduardo

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Editor

MDPI

Resumen

Descripción

β-diversity has been under continuous debate, with a current need to better understand the way in which a new wave of measures work. We assessed the results of 12 incidence-based β-diversity indices. Our results of gradual species composition overlap between paired assemblages considering progressive differences in species richness show the following: (i) four indices (β-2, β-3, β-3.s, and βr) should be used cautiously given that results with no shared species retrieve results that could be misinterpreted; (ii) all measures conceived specifically as partitioned components of species compositional dissimilarities ought to be used as such and not as independent measures per se; (iii) the non-linear response of some indices to gradual species composition overlap should be interpreted carefully, and further analysis using their results as dependent variables should be performed cautiously; and (iv) two metrics (βsim and βsor) behave predictably and linearly to gradual species composition overlap. We encourage ecologists using measures of β-diversity to fully understand their mathematical nature and type of results under the scenario to be used in order to avoid inappropriate and misleading inferences.

Palabras clave

Beta Diversity, Nestedness, Replacement, Richness Difference, Species Turnover

Citación

MacGregor-Fors, I.; Escobar, F.; Escobar-Ibáñez, J. F.; Mesa-Sierra, N.; Alvarado, F.; Rueda-Hernández, R. & Dáttilo, W. (2022). Shopping for Ecological Indices? On the Use of Incidence-Based Species Compositional Similarity Measures. Diversity, 14(5), 384.