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On the combination of species cover values from different vegetation layers
Author(s) -
Fischer Hagen S.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
applied vegetation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.096
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1654-109X
pISSN - 1402-2001
DOI - 10.1111/avsc.12130
Subject(s) - cover (algebra) , vegetation (pathology) , independence (probability theory) , vegetation cover , plant cover , environmental science , physical geography , mathematics , ecology , statistics , geography , biology , canopy , mechanical engineering , medicine , pathology , engineering , grazing
Phytosociological relevés consist of lists of species occurring on certain plots and their cover values in different vegetation layers. When combining the cover values of two layers into a unique value, the overlap between the layers must be taken into account. With two layers this can easily done by subtracting the product of the cover values from their sum. A general formula to estimate the combined cover for any number of layers, assuming independence of the layers, is presented. This is especially useful for large databases where rich data sets have to be compiled that were originally recorded from different numbers of vegetation layers.