High Gamma Diversity and Low Beta Diversity of Non-Biting Midges (Diptera: Chironomidae) in Streams of the Gorkhi Terelj National Park, Outer Mongolia

2010 ◽  
Vol 159 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara L. Hayford
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
National Park ◽  
Gamma Diversity ◽  
Biting Midges ◽  
High Gamma

scholarly journals Species packing and the latitudinal gradient in local beta-diversity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Cao ◽  
Richard Condit ◽  
Xiangcheng Mi ◽  
Lei Chen ◽  
Haibao Ren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Latitudinal Gradient ◽  
Sampling Bias ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
Gamma Diversity ◽  
Species Packing ◽  
High Gamma ◽  
Declining Species

AbstractThe latitudinal gradient of declining species richness at higher latitudes is among the most fundamental patterns in ecology. However, whether changes in species composition across space (beta-diversity) contribute to this global gradient of species richness remains debated. Previous studies that failed to resolve the issue suffered from a well-known tendency for small samples in high gamma-diversity areas to inflate measures of beta-diversity. We provide here a rigorous test, comparing species-packing and local heterogeneity across a latitudinal gradient in tree species richness in Asia, using beta-diversity metrics that correct the gamma-diversity and sampling bias. Our data include 21 large forest plots across a wide environmental gradient in East Asia. We demonstrate that local beta-diversity increases with topographic heterogeneity, but after accounting for this and correcting the gamma-diversity bias, tropical forests still have higher beta-diversity than temperate, contributing to the latitudinal gradient of species richness. This supports the hypothesis of tighter species packing and larger niche space in tropical forests while demonstrating the importance of local processes in controlling beta-diversity.

scholarly journals Species packing and the latitudinal gradient in beta-diversity

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1948) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Cao ◽  
Richard Condit ◽  
Xiangcheng Mi ◽  
Lei Chen ◽  
Haibao Ren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Environmental Gradient ◽  
Latitudinal Gradient ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
Gamma Diversity ◽  
Species Packing ◽  
High Gamma ◽  
Species Richness Gradient

The decline in species richness at higher latitudes is among the most fundamental patterns in ecology. Whether changes in species composition across space (beta-diversity) contribute to this gradient of overall species richness (gamma-diversity) remains hotly debated. Previous studies that failed to resolve the issue suffered from a well-known tendency for small samples in areas with high gamma-diversity to have inflated measures of beta-diversity. Here, we provide a novel analytical test, using beta-diversity metrics that correct the gamma-diversity and sampling biases, to compare beta-diversity and species packing across a latitudinal gradient in tree species richness of 21 large forest plots along a large environmental gradient in East Asia. We demonstrate that after accounting for topography and correcting the gamma-diversity bias, tropical forests still have higher beta-diversity than temperate analogues. This suggests that beta-diversity contributes to the latitudinal species richness gradient as a component of gamma-diversity. Moreover, both niche specialization and niche marginality (a measure of niche spacing along an environmental gradient) also increase towards the equator, after controlling for the effect of topographical heterogeneity. This supports the joint importance of tighter species packing and larger niche space in tropical forests while also demonstrating the importance of local processes in controlling beta-diversity.

Partitioning tree diversity patterns to prioritize conservation investments

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Patrick F McKenzie ◽  
Gwenllian D Iacona ◽  
Eric R Larson ◽  
Paul R Armsworth
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Predictive Models ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Distribution Data ◽  
Gamma Diversity ◽  
Conservation Practice ◽  
Alpha And Beta Diversity ◽  
Community Turnover ◽  
Data Limitations

Summary The available tools and approaches to inform conservation decisions commonly assume detailed distribution data. We examine how well-established ecological concepts about patterns in local richness and community turnover can help overcome data limitations when planning future protected areas. To inform our analyses, we surveyed tree species in protected areas in the southern Appalachian Mountains in the eastern USA. We used the survey data to construct predictive models for alpha and beta diversity based on readily observed biophysical variables and combined them to create a heuristic that could predict among-site richness in trees (gamma diversity). The predictive models suggest that site elevation and latitude in this montane system explain much of the variation in alpha and beta diversity in tree species. We tested how well resulting protected areas would represent species if a conservation planner lacking detailed species inventories for candidate sites were to rely only on our alpha, beta and gamma diversity predictions. Our approach selected sites that, when aggregated, covered a large proportion of the overall species pool. The combined gamma diversity models performed even better when we also accounted for the cost of protecting sites. Our results demonstrate that classic community biogeography concepts remain highly relevant to conservation practice today.

Alpha, beta, or gamma: where does all the diversity go?

Paleobiology ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. John Sepkoski
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
Taxonomic Richness ◽  
Soft Bottom ◽  
Gamma Diversity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Alpha And Beta Diversity ◽  
Community Or ◽  
Global Diversity ◽  
Measured Change

Global taxonomic richness is affected by variation in three components: within-community, or alpha, diversity; between-community, or beta, diversity; and between-region, or gamma, diversity. A data set consisting of 505 faunal lists distributed among 40 stratigraphic intervals and six environmental zones was used to investigate how variation in alpha and beta diversity influenced global diversity through the Paleozoic, and especially during the Ordovician radiations. As first shown by Bambach (1977), alpha diversity increased by 50 to 70 percent in offshore marine environments during the Ordovician and then remained essentially constant for the remainder of the Paleozoic. The increase is insufficient, however, to account for the 300 percent rise observed in global generic diversity. It is shown that beta diversity among level, soft-bottom communities also increased significantly during the early Paleozoic. This change is related to enhanced habitat selection, and presumably increased overall specialization, among diversifying taxa during the Ordovician radiations. Combined with alpha diversity, the measured change in beta diversity still accounts for only about half of the increase in global diversity. Other sources of increase are probably not related to variation in gamma diversity but rather to appearance and/or expansion of organic reefs, hardground communities, bryozoan thickets, and crinoid gardens during the Ordovician.

scholarly journals Diversity partitioning during the Cambrian radiation

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (15) ◽  
pp. 4702-4706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Na ◽  
Wolfgang Kiessling
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Gamma Diversity ◽  
Diversity Partitioning ◽  
Alpha And Beta Diversity ◽  
Main Driver ◽  
Cambrian Radiation ◽  
High Predation ◽  
Geographic Regions ◽  
Global Biodiversity

The fossil record offers unique insights into the environmental and geographic partitioning of biodiversity during global diversifications. We explored biodiversity patterns during the Cambrian radiation, the most dramatic radiation in Earth history. We assessed how the overall increase in global diversity was partitioned between within-community (alpha) and between-community (beta) components and how beta diversity was partitioned among environments and geographic regions. Changes in gamma diversity in the Cambrian were chiefly driven by changes in beta diversity. The combined trajectories of alpha and beta diversity during the initial diversification suggest low competition and high predation within communities. Beta diversity has similar trajectories both among environments and geographic regions, but turnover between adjacent paleocontinents was probably the main driver of diversification. Our study elucidates that global biodiversity during the Cambrian radiation was driven by niche contraction at local scales and vicariance at continental scales. The latter supports previous arguments for the importance of plate tectonics in the Cambrian radiation, namely the breakup of Pannotia.

scholarly journals Ecological Approaches to Quantifying (Bio)Diversity in Music

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Angeler ◽  
José Benavent-Corai
Keyword(s):  
Hypothesis Testing ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
Structural Diversity ◽  
Ecological Approach ◽  
Gamma Diversity ◽  
Knowledge Gaps ◽  
Structural Differentiation ◽  
Modeling Approaches

This paper introduces an ecological approach to quantifying diversity in musical compositions. The approach considers notations with distinct pitches and duration as equivalents of species in ecosystems, measures within a composition as equivalents of ecosystems, and the sum of measures (i.e., the entire composition) as a landscape in which ecosystems are embedded. Structural diversity can be calculated at the level of measures (“alpha diversity”) and the entire composition (“gamma diversity”). An additional metric can be derived that quantifies the structural differentiation between measures in a composition (“beta diversity”). We demonstrate the suitability of the approach in music using specifically composed examples and real songs that vary in complexity. We discuss the potential of the approach with selected examples from a potentially ample spectrum of applications within musicology research. The method seems particularly suitability for hypothesis testing to objectively identify many of the intricate phenomena in music. Because the approach extracts information present in the compositions – it lets the songs tell their structure – it can complement more complex modeling approaches used by music scholars. Combined such approaches provide opportunities for interdisciplinary research. They can help to fill knowledge gaps, stimulate further research and increase our understanding of music.

scholarly journals Gamma diversity and under-sampling together generate patterns in beta-diversity

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aniruddha Marathe ◽  
Dharma Rajan Priyadarsanan ◽  
Jagdish Krishnaswamy ◽  
Kartik Shanker
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Elevational Gradient ◽  
Species Pool ◽  
Gamma Diversity ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Species Pools ◽  
Local Abundance ◽  
Regional Species Pool ◽  
Under Sampling

AbstractBeta diversity represents how species in the regional pool segregate among local communities and hence forms a link between local and regional species diversities. Therefore, the magnitude of beta diversity and its variation across geographic gradients can provide insights into mechanisms of community assembly. Along with limits on local or regional level diversities, effects of local abundance that lead to under-sampling of the regional species pool are important determinants of estimated beta diversity. We explore the effects of regional species pools, abundance distributions, and local abundance to show that patterns in beta diversity as well as the mean of species abundance distribution have distinct outcomes, depending on limits on species pools and under-sampling. We highlight the effect of under-sampling in some established relationships between gamma diversity and beta diversity using graphical methods. We then use empirical data on ant communities across an elevational gradient in the Eastern Himalayas to demonstrate a shift from effect of reduction in species pool to under-sampling at mid-elevations. Our results show that multiple processes with contrasting effects simultaneously affect patterns in beta diversity across geographic gradients.

scholarly journals Alpha-, beta-, and gamma-diversity of bacteria varies across global habitats

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendra E. Walters ◽  
Jennifer B.H. Martiny
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Agricultural Soils ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Gamma Diversity ◽  
Alpha And Beta Diversity ◽  
Alpha Beta ◽  
Beta And Gamma Diversity

AbstractBacteria are essential parts of ecosystems and are the most abundant organisms on the planet. Yet, we still do not know which habitats support the highest diversity of bacteria across multiple scales. We analyzed alpha-, beta-, and gamma-diversity of bacterial assemblages using 11,680 samples compiled by the Earth Microbiome Project. We found that soils contained the highest bacterial richness within a single sample (alpha-diversity), but sediment assemblages were the most diverse at a global scale (gamma-diversity). Sediment, biofilms/mats, and inland water exhibited the most variation in community composition among geographic locations (beta-diversity). Within soils, agricultural lands, hot deserts, grasslands, and shrublands contained the highest richness, while forests, cold deserts, and tundra biomes consistently harbored fewer bacterial species. Surprisingly, agricultural soils encompassed similar levels of beta-diversity as other soil biomes. These patterns were robust to the alpha- and beta-diversity metrics used and the taxonomic binning approach. Overall, the results support the idea that spatial environmental heterogeneity is an important driver of bacterial diversity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document