In ecology, beta diversity (β-diversity or true beta diversity) is the ratio between regional and local species diversity. The term was introduced by R. H. Whittaker together with the terms alpha diversity (α-diversity) and gamma diversity (γ-diversity). The idea was that the total species diversity in a landscape (γ) is determined by two different things: the mean species diversity at the local level (α) and the differentiation among local sites (β). Other formulations for beta diversity include "absolute species turnover", "Whittaker's species turnover" and "proportional species turnover".
Whittaker proposed several ways of quantifying differentiation, and subsequent generations of ecologists have invented more. As a result, there are now many defined types of beta diversity. Some use beta diversity to refer to any of several indices related to compositional heterogeneity. Confusion is avoided by using distinct names for other formulations.
Beta diversity as a measure of species turnover overemphasizes the role of rare species as the difference in species composition between two sites or communities is likely reflecting the presence and absence of some rare species in the assemblages. Beta diversity can also be a measure of nestedness, which occurs when species assemblages in species-poor sites are a subset of the assemblages in more species-rich sites. Moreover, pairwise beta diversity are inadequate in building all biodiversity partitions (some partitions in a Venn diagram of 3 or more sites cannot be expressed by alpha and beta diversity). Consequently, some macroecological and community patterns cannot be fully expressed by alpha and beta diversity. Due to these two reasons, a new way of measuring species turnover, coined Zeta diversity (ζ-diversity), has been proposed and used to connect all existing incidence-based biodiversity patterns.
Gamma diversity and alpha diversity can be calculated directly from species inventory data.
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To expose PhD students to cutting-edge research in the life sciences through attendance of plenary-style lecture series given by external world experts. The objectives are to broaden the knowledge of
To expose PhD students to cutting-edge research in the life sciences through attendance of plenary-style lecture series given by external world experts. The objectives are to broaden the knowledge of
To expose EDBB students to research in Bioengineering through attendance of lecture series given by EDBB students and external speakers. The objectives are to broaden the knowledge of students in the
Conservation biologists have designed a variety of objective means to empirically measure biodiversity. Each measure of biodiversity relates to a particular use of the data. For practical conservationists, measurements should include . For others, a more economically defensible definition should allow the ensuring of continued possibilities for both adaptation and future use by humans, assuring environmental sustainability. As a consequence, biologists argue that this measure is likely to be associated with the variety of genes.
A diversity index is a quantitative measure that reflects how many different types (such as species) there are in a dataset (a community), and that can simultaneously take into account the phylogenetic relations among the individuals distributed among those types, such as richness, divergence or evenness. These indices are statistical representations of biodiversity in different aspects (richness, evenness, and dominance).
In ecology, alpha diversity (α-diversity) is the mean species diversity in a site at a local scale. The term was introduced by R. H. Whittaker together with the terms beta diversity (β-diversity) and gamma diversity (γ-diversity). Whittaker's idea was that the total species diversity in a landscape (gamma diversity) is determined by two different things, the mean species diversity in sites at a more local scale (alpha diversity) and the differentiation among those sites (beta diversity).
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