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Jaccard Index (jaccard + index)
Selected AbstractsA latitudinal gradient in large-scale beta diversity for vascular plants in North AmericaECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 8 2007Hong Qian Abstract Species turnover, or beta diversity, has been predicted to decrease with increasing latitude, but few studies have tested this relationship. Here, we examined the beta diversity,latitude relationship for vascular plants at a continental scale, based on complete species lists of native vascular plants for entire states or provinces in North America (north of Mexico). We calculated beta diversity as the slope of the relationship between the natural logarithm of the Jaccard index (lnJ,) for families, genera or species, and both geographic distance and climate difference within five latitude zones. We found that beta diversity decreased from south to north; within latitude zones, it decreased from species to genera and families. Geographic and climatic distance explained about the same proportion of the variance in lnJ in zones south of c. 50°N. North of this latitude, nearly all the explained variance in lnJ was attributable to geographic distance. Therefore, decreasing beta diversity from south to north reflects decreasing climate differentiation within more northerly latitude zones, and primarily post-glacial dispersal limitation north of 50°N. [source] The latitudinal gradient of beta diversity in relation to climate and topography for mammals in North AmericaGLOBAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Hong Qian ABSTRACT Aim Spatial turnover of species, or beta diversity, varies in relation to geographical distance and environmental conditions, as well as spatial scale. We evaluated the explanatory power of distance, climate and topography on beta diversity of mammalian faunas of North America in relation to latitude. Location North America north of Mexico. Methods The study area was divided into 313 equal-area quadrats (241 × 241 km). Faunal data for all continental mammals were compiled for these quadrats, which were divided among five latitudinal zones. These zones were comparable in terms of latitudinal and longitudinal span, climatic gradients and elevational gradients. We used the natural logarithm of the Jaccard index (lnJ) to measure species turnover between pairs of quadrats within each latitudinal zone. The slope of lnJ in relation to distance was compared among latitudinal zones. We used partial regression to partition the variance in lnJ into the components uniquely explained by distance and by environmental differences, as well as jointly by distance and environmental differences. Results Mammalian faunas of North America differ more from each other at lower latitudes than at higher latitudes. Regression models of lnJ in relation to distance, climatic difference and topographic difference for each zone demonstrated that these variables have high explanatory power that diminishes with latitude. Beta diversity is higher for zones with higher mean annual temperature, lower seasonality of temperature and greater topographic complexity. For each latitudinal zone, distance and environmental differences explain a greater proportion of the variance in lnJ than distance, climate or topography does separately. Main conclusions The latitudinal gradient in beta diversity of North American mammals corresponds to a macroclimatic gradient of decreasing mean annual temperature and increasing seasonality of temperature from south to north. Most of the variance in spatial turnover is explained by distance and environmental differences jointly rather than distance, climate or topography separately. The high predictive power of geographical distance, climatic conditions and topography on spatial turnover could result from the direct effects of physical limiting factors or from ecological and evolutionary processes that are also influenced by the geographical template. [source] Spatial analysis of taxonomic and genetic patterns and their potential for understanding evolutionary historiesJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 11 2004Sophia A. Bickford Abstract Aim, The aim of this research is to develop and investigate methods for the spatial analysis of diversity based on genetic and taxonomic units of difference. We use monophyletic groups of species to assess the potential for these diversity indices to elucidate the geographical components of macro-scaled evolutionary processes. Location, The range occupied by Pultenaea species in temperate and sub-tropical eastern Australia, extending from western South Australia (133° E,32° S) to Tasmania (146° E,43° S) to coastal central Queensland (148° E,20° S). Methods, We applied a series of both spatially explicit and spatially implicit analyses to explore the nature of diversity patterns in the genus Pultenaea, Fabaceae. We first analysed the eastern species as a whole and then the phylogenetic groups within them. We delineated patterns of endemism and biotic (taxon) regions that have been traditionally circumscribed in biogeographical studies of taxa. Centres of endemism were calculated using corrected weighted endemism at a range of spatial scales. Biotic regions were defined by comparing the similarity of species assemblages of grid cells using the Jaccard index and clustering similar cells using hierarchical clustering. On the basis that genetically coherent areas were likely to be more evolutionary informative than species patterns, genetic indices of similarity and difference were derived. A matrix of similarity distances between taxa was generated based on the number of shared informative characters of two sections of trnL-F and ndhF chloroplast nuclear regions. To identify genetically similar areas, we clustered cells using the mean genetic similarities of the species contained within each pair of cells. Measures of the mean genetic similarity of species in areas were delineated using a geographically local multi-scalar approach. Resultant patterns of genetic diversity are interpreted in relation to theories of the evolutionary relationships between species and species groups. Results, Centres of Pultenaea endemism were defined, those of clades 1 congruent with the spatially separated centres of clades 2 and 3. The taxonomic classification analysis defined cells with shared groups of species, which in some cases clustered when plotted in geographic space, defining biotic regions. In some instances the distribution of biotic regions was congruent with centres of endemism, however larger scale groupings were also apparent. In clade 1 one set of species was replaced by another along the extent of the range, with some connectivity between some geographically disjunct regions due to the presence of widespread species. In the combined analysis of clade 2 and 3 species the major biotic (taxonomic) groups with geographic coherence were defined by species in the respective clades, representing the geographic separation of these clades. However distinctive biotic regions within these main groupings of clades 2 and 3 were also apparent. Clustering cells using the mean genetic similarities of the species contained within each pair of cells indicated that some of the taxonomically defined biotic boundaries were the result of changes in composition of closely related species. This was most apparent in clades 1 and 2 where most cells were highly genetically similar. In clade 3 genetically distinct groups remained and were in part defined by sister taxa with disjunct distributions. Gradients in mean genetic similarity became more apparent from small to larger scales of analysis. At larger scales of analysis, regions of different levels of genetic diversity were delineated. Regions with highest diversity levels (lowest level of similarity) often represented regions where the ranges of phylogenetically distinctive species intergraded. Main conclusions, The combined analysis of diversity, phylogeny and geography has potential to reveal macro-scaled evolutionary patterns from which evolutionary processes may be inferred. The spatial genetic diversity indices developed in this study contribute new methods for identifying coherent evolutionary units in the landscape, which overcome some of the limitations of using taxonomic data, and from which the role of geography in evolutionary processes can be tested. We also conclude that a multiple-index approach to diversity pattern analysis is useful, especially where patterns may be the result of a long history of different environmental changes and related evolutionary events. The analysis contributes to the knowledge of large-scale diversity patterns of Pultenaea which has relevance for the assessment of the conservation status of the genus. [source] On the relation between the association strength and other similarity measuresJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 7 2010Leo Egghe A graph in van Eck and Waltman [JASIST, 60(8), 2009, p. 1644], representing the relation between the association strength and the cosine, is partially explained as a sheaf of parabolas, each parabola being the functional relation between these similarity measures on the trajectories , a constant. Based on earlier obtained relations between cosine and other similarity measures (e.g., Jaccard index), we can prove new relations between the association strength and these other measures. [source] Taxonomic homogenization and differentiation across Southern Ocean Islands differ among insects and vascular plantsJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2010Justine D. Shaw Abstract Aim, To investigate taxonomic homogenization and/or differentiation of insect and vascular plant assemblages across the Southern Ocean Islands (SOI), and how they differ with changing spatial extent and taxonomic resolution. Location, Twenty-two islands located across the Southern Ocean, further subdivided into five island biogeographical provinces. These islands are used because comprehensive data on both indigenous and non-indigenous insect and plant species are available. Methods, An existing database was updated, using newly published species records, identifying the indigenous and non-indigenous insect and vascular plant species recorded for each island. Homogenization and differentiation were measured using Jaccard's index (JI) of similarity for assemblages across all islands on a pairwise basis, and for island pairs within each of the biogeographical provinces. The effects of taxonomic resolution (species, genus, family) and distance on levels of homogenization or differentiation were examined. To explore further the patterns of similarity among islands for each of the taxa and groupings (indigenous and non-indigenous), islands were clustered based on JI similarity matrices and using group averaging. Results, Across the SOI, insect assemblages have become homogenized (0.7% increase in similarity at species level) while plant assemblages have become differentiated at genus and species levels. Homogenization was recorded only when pairwise distances among islands exceeded 3000 km for insect assemblages, but distances had to exceed 10,000 km for plant assemblages. Widely distributed non-indigenous plant species tend to have wider distributions across the SOI than do their insect counterparts, and this is also true of the indigenous species. Main conclusions, Insect assemblages across the SOI have become homogenized as a consequence of the establishment of non-indigenous species, while plant assemblages have become more differentiated. The likely reason is that indigenous plant assemblages are more similar across the SOI than are insect assemblages, which show greater regionalization. Thus, although a suite of widespread, typically European, weedy, non-indigenous plant species has established on many islands, the outcome has largely been differentiation. Because further introductions of insects and vascular plants are probable as climates warm across the region, the patterns documented here are likely to change through time. [source] | ||||||||||