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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.01.23.427893

Towards a unifying framework for diversity and dissimilarity coefficients

Ricotta, C.·Szeidl, L.·Pavoine, S.
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Abstract

Diversity and dissimilarity within and between species assemblages have now been studied for more than half a century by community ecologists in relation to their connections with ecosystem functioning. However, a generalized framework that puts diversity and dissimilarity coefficients under the same formal umbrella is still lacking. In this paper, we show that generalized means represent an effective tool to develop a unifying formulation for the construction of a large array of parametric diversity and dissimilarity measures. These measures include some of the classical diversity coefficients, such as the Shannon entropy, the Gini-Simpson index or the parametric diversity of Patil and Taillie, together with a large number of dissimilarity coefficients of the Bray-Curtis family and can be further extended to the measurement of functional and phylogenetic differences within and between plots.

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Ricotta, C., Szeidl, L., Pavoine, S.. 2021-01-25. Towards a unifying framework for diversity and dissimilarity coefficients. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.23.427893

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