Journal
OECOLOGIA
Volume 167, Issue 4, Pages 885-888Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00442-011-2124-8
Keywords
Alpha diversity; Beta diversity; Gamma diversity; Diversity partitioning; Hill index
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
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There is no single best index that can be used to answer all questions about species diversity. Entropy-based diversity indices, including Hill's indices, cannot account for geographical and phylogenetic structure. While a single diversity index arises if we impose several constraints-most notably that gamma diversity be completely decomposed into alpha and beta diversity-there are many ecological questions regarding species diversity for which it is counterproductive, requiring decomposability. Non-decomposable components of gamma diversity may quantify important intrinsic ecological properties, such as resilience or nestedness.
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