Among the many diversity indices in the ecologist toolbox, measures that can be partitioned into additive terms are particularly useful as the different components can be related to different ecological processes shaping community structure.In this paper, an additive diversity decomposition is proposed to partition the diversity structure of a given community into three complementary fractions: functional diversity, functional redundancy and species dominance. These three components sum up to one. Therefore, they can be used to portray the community structure in a ternary diagram.Since the identification of community-level patterns is an essential step to investigate the main drivers of species coexistence, the ternary diagram of functional diversity can be used to relate different facets of diversity to community assembly processes more exhaustively than looking only at one index at a time.The value of the proposed diversity decomposition is demonstrated by the analysis of actual abundance data on plant assemblages sampled in grazed and ungrazed grasslands in Tuscany (Central Italy).

The ternary diagram of functional diversity / Ricotta, Carlo; Podani, János; Schmera, Dénes; Bacaro, Giovanni; Maccherini, Simona; Pavoine, Sandrine. - In: METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION. - ISSN 2041-210X. - 14:5(2023), pp. 1168-1174. [10.1111/2041-210X.14100]

The ternary diagram of functional diversity

Carlo Ricotta
;
2023

Abstract

Among the many diversity indices in the ecologist toolbox, measures that can be partitioned into additive terms are particularly useful as the different components can be related to different ecological processes shaping community structure.In this paper, an additive diversity decomposition is proposed to partition the diversity structure of a given community into three complementary fractions: functional diversity, functional redundancy and species dominance. These three components sum up to one. Therefore, they can be used to portray the community structure in a ternary diagram.Since the identification of community-level patterns is an essential step to investigate the main drivers of species coexistence, the ternary diagram of functional diversity can be used to relate different facets of diversity to community assembly processes more exhaustively than looking only at one index at a time.The value of the proposed diversity decomposition is demonstrated by the analysis of actual abundance data on plant assemblages sampled in grazed and ungrazed grasslands in Tuscany (Central Italy).
2023
diversity decomposition; functional homogeneity; functional redundancy; functional uniqueness; Simpson dominance
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
The ternary diagram of functional diversity / Ricotta, Carlo; Podani, János; Schmera, Dénes; Bacaro, Giovanni; Maccherini, Simona; Pavoine, Sandrine. - In: METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION. - ISSN 2041-210X. - 14:5(2023), pp. 1168-1174. [10.1111/2041-210X.14100]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1681627
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