An index for measuring functional extension and evenness in trait space.

ABSTRACT: Most existing functional diversity indices focus on a single facet of functional diversity. Although these indices are useful for quantifying specific aspects of functional diversity, they often present some conceptual or practical limitations in estimating functional diversity. Here, we present a new functional extension and evenness (FEE) index that encompasses two important aspects of functional diversity. This new index is based on the straightforward notion that a community has high diversity when its species are distant from each other in trait space. The index quantifies functional diversity by evaluating the overall extension of species traits and the interspecific differences of a species assemblage in trait space. The concept of minimum spanning tree (MST) of points was adopted t

SUBMITTER: Zhang T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8216966 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature