How to determine best diversity ordering method for a community data set?

ABSTRACT

Background:

We conducted a study about how to determine best diversity ordering method for a community data set. Using 12 hypothetical and one ecological datasets, we tested the performances of 20 diversity ordering ( divo) methods based on four criteria. Number of intersections ( ints) amongst the diversity curves was taken the most important criterion into account. We defined the other criteria considering whether parametric values of a divo method contains SHD (species richness, Shannon entropy and Simpson index), potentially uSHD (unbiased values of SHD), and potentially true species diversity, tSHD (bias corrected values as effective number of SHD). All the criteria were collected into an equation called the relative selection value, \begin{equation}{rVd}_i \end{equation}.

Results:

According to the \begin{equation}{rVd}_i \end{equation} values of hypothetical community data sets, the best performances in seven community data sets were provided by \begin{equation}N_\alpha \end{equation}. This was followed by intrinsic diversity related methods with five community data sets. For ecological data set, the best results were obtained from the methods, \begin{equation}\left(i,\ M_i\right) \end{equation}, \begin{equation}\left(\log{i},\ k_i\right) \end{equation} and \begin{equation}N_\alpha \end{equation}, with the \begin{equation}{rVd}_i \end{equation} values of 6.883, 6.881 and 6.859, respectively.

Conclusion:

Findings suggest that the characteristics of community data sets play important role in defining the best diversity ordering method. This tells us that diversity is certainly a multifaceted phenomenon for a single community but perhaps it is a single phenomenon for a group of communities.

Keywords:
complexity; diversity measures; entropy; diversity profile; numbers equivalent; species-distribution abundance; community

HIGHLIGHTS

The problem of diversity index choice is well-known in the literature.

The solution is to use of diversity ordering methods or one-parametric diversity index families.

Numerous diversity ordering methods have been used for drawing diversity profiles of ecological assemblages.

Choosing the best diversity ordering method is another well-known problem.

Various features, especially number of intersections amongst the diversity curves, play essential role in the selection of the best diversity ordering method for a community data set.