Guidelines for a priori grouping of species in hierarchical community models.

ABSTRACT: Recent methodological advances permit the estimation of species richness and occurrences for rare species by linking species-level occurrence models at the community level. The value of such methods is underscored by the ability to examine the influence of landscape heterogeneity on species assemblages at large spatial scales. A salient advantage of community-level approaches is that parameter estimates for data-poor species are more precise as the estimation process "borrows" from data-rich species. However, this analytical benefit raises a question about the degree to which inferences are dependent on the implicit assumption of relatedness among species. Here, we assess the sensitivity of community/group-level metrics, and individual-level species inferences given various classification

SUBMITTER: Pacifici K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3997306 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature