A new statistical approach for assessing similarity of species composition with incidence and abundance data

A Chao; Robin L Chazdon; T J Shen

doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00707.x

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A new statistical approach for assessing similarity of species composition with incidence and abundance data

Journal article

Peer reviewed

A new statistical approach for assessing similarity of species composition with incidence and abundance data

A Chao, Robin L Chazdon and T J Shen

Ecology Letters, Vol.8(2), pp.148-159

2005

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00707.x

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Abstract

abundance data

beta diversity

biodiversity

complementarity

incidence data

shared species

similarity estimators

similarity index

species overlap

succession

The classic Jaccard and Sørensen indices of compositional similarity (and other indices that depend upon the same variables) are notoriously sensitive to sample size, especially for assemblages with numerous rare species. Further, because these indices are based solely on presence-absence data, accurate estimators for them are unattainable. We provide a probabilistic derivation for the classic, incidence-based forms of these indices and extend this approach to formulate new Jaccard-type or Sørensen-type indices based on species abundance data. We then propose estimators for these indices that include the effect of unseen shared species, based on either (replicated) incidence- or abundance-based sample data. In sampling simulations, these new estimators prove to be considerably less biased than classic indices when a substantial proportion of species are missing from samples. Based on species-rich empirical datasets, we show how incorporating the effect of unseen shared species not only increases accuracy but also can change the interpretation of results.

Details

Title: A new statistical approach for assessing similarity of species composition with incidence and abundance data
Authors: A Chao (Author) - Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
Robin L Chazdon (Author) - University of Connecticut, United States
T J Shen (Author) - Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
Publication details: Ecology Letters, Vol.8(2), pp.148-159
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Date published: 2005
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00707.x
ISSN: 1461-023X
Organisation Unit: Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Forest Research Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99451145102621
Output Type: Journal article

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Web Of Science research areas: Ecology

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