Comparison of measures of crowding, group size, and diversity
Abstract In ecology, diversity is often measured as the mean rarity of species in a community. In behavioral sciences and parasitology, mean crowding is the size of the group to which a typical individual belongs. In this paper, focusing mostly on the mathematical aspect, we demonstrate that diversi...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2017-07-01
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| Series: | Ecosphere |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1897 |
| _version_ | 1811167139197878272 |
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| author | Zsolt Lang Lajos Rózsa Jenő Reiczigel |
| author_facet | Zsolt Lang Lajos Rózsa Jenő Reiczigel |
| author_sort | Zsolt Lang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract In ecology, diversity is often measured as the mean rarity of species in a community. In behavioral sciences and parasitology, mean crowding is the size of the group to which a typical individual belongs. In this paper, focusing mostly on the mathematical aspect, we demonstrate that diversity and crowding are closely related notions. We show that mean crowding can be transformed into diversity and vice versa. Based on this general equivalence rule, notions, relationships, and methods developed in one field can be adapted to the other one. In relation to crowding, we introduce the notion “effective number of groups” that corresponds to the “effective number of species” used in diversity studies. We define new aggregation indices that mirror evenness indices known from diversity theory. We also construct aggregation profiles and orderings of populations based on aggregation indices. By uniting the mathematical interpretation of the ecological notion of diversity and the ethological notion of typical group size (or crowding, in parasitology), our insight opens a new avenue of both theoretical and methodological research. This is exemplified here using real‐life abundance data of avian parasites. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T16:04:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cae676ec94564075a99a8694baabfcd0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2150-8925 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T16:04:05Z |
| publishDate | 2017-07-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecosphere |
| spelling | doaj.art-cae676ec94564075a99a8694baabfcd02023-02-10T07:33:12ZengWileyEcosphere2150-89252017-07-0187n/an/a10.1002/ecs2.1897Comparison of measures of crowding, group size, and diversityZsolt Lang0Lajos Rózsa1Jenő Reiczigel2Department of Biomathematics and Informatics University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest István utca 2 H‐1078 Budapest HungaryMTA‐ELTE‐MTM Ecology Research Group Pázmány s. 1/C H‐1117 Budapest HungaryDepartment of Biomathematics and Informatics University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest István utca 2 H‐1078 Budapest HungaryAbstract In ecology, diversity is often measured as the mean rarity of species in a community. In behavioral sciences and parasitology, mean crowding is the size of the group to which a typical individual belongs. In this paper, focusing mostly on the mathematical aspect, we demonstrate that diversity and crowding are closely related notions. We show that mean crowding can be transformed into diversity and vice versa. Based on this general equivalence rule, notions, relationships, and methods developed in one field can be adapted to the other one. In relation to crowding, we introduce the notion “effective number of groups” that corresponds to the “effective number of species” used in diversity studies. We define new aggregation indices that mirror evenness indices known from diversity theory. We also construct aggregation profiles and orderings of populations based on aggregation indices. By uniting the mathematical interpretation of the ecological notion of diversity and the ethological notion of typical group size (or crowding, in parasitology), our insight opens a new avenue of both theoretical and methodological research. This is exemplified here using real‐life abundance data of avian parasites.https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1897aggregation profile and orderingcrowdingdiversityeffective number of groupsevenness |
| spellingShingle | Zsolt Lang Lajos Rózsa Jenő Reiczigel Comparison of measures of crowding, group size, and diversity Ecosphere aggregation profile and ordering crowding diversity effective number of groups evenness |
| title | Comparison of measures of crowding, group size, and diversity |
| title_full | Comparison of measures of crowding, group size, and diversity |
| title_fullStr | Comparison of measures of crowding, group size, and diversity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Comparison of measures of crowding, group size, and diversity |
| title_short | Comparison of measures of crowding, group size, and diversity |
| title_sort | comparison of measures of crowding group size and diversity |
| topic | aggregation profile and ordering crowding diversity effective number of groups evenness |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1897 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zsoltlang comparisonofmeasuresofcrowdinggroupsizeanddiversity AT lajosrozsa comparisonofmeasuresofcrowdinggroupsizeanddiversity AT jenoreiczigel comparisonofmeasuresofcrowdinggroupsizeanddiversity |