Premium
Partitioning taxon, phylogenetic and functional beta diversity into replacement and richness difference components
Author(s) -
Cardoso Pedro,
Rigal François,
Carvalho José C.,
Fortelius Mikael,
Borges Paulo A. V.,
Podani Janos,
Schmera Denes
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of biogeography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1365-2699
pISSN - 0305-0270
DOI - 10.1111/jbi.12239
Subject(s) - species richness , phylogenetic tree , taxon , beta diversity , pairwise comparison , phylogenetic diversity , biology , partition (number theory) , tree (set theory) , biodiversity , evolutionary biology , ecology , statistics , mathematics , combinatorics , biochemistry , gene
Aim To propose a unified framework for quantifying taxon ( T β), phylogenetic ( P β) and functional ( F β) beta diversity via pairwise comparisons of communities, which allows these types of beta diversity to be partitioned into ecologically meaningful additive components. Location Global, with case studies in E urope and the A zores archipelago. Methods Using trees as a common representation for taxon, phylogenetic and functional diversity, we partition total beta diversity (β total ) into its replacement (turnover, β repl ) and richness difference (β rich ) components according to which part of a global tree was shared by or unique to communities that were being compared. We demonstrate the application of this framework using artificial and empirical examples (mammals in Europe and epigean arthropods in the Azores). Results Our empirical examples show that comparing P β and F β with the most commonly used T β revealed previously hidden patterns of beta diversity. More importantly, we demonstrate that partitioning P β total and F β total into their respective β repl and β rich components facilitates the detection of more complex patterns than using the overall coefficients alone, further elucidating the different forces operating in community assembly. Main conclusions The methods presented here allow the integration and full comparison of T β, P β and F β. They provide a tool for effectively disentangling the replacement (turnover) and richness difference components of the different biodiversity facets within the same methodological framework.