Alpha Diversity - Scale Considerations

Scale Considerations

Both the area or landscape of interest and the sites or habitats within it may be of very different sizes in different situations, and no consensus has been reached on what spatial scales are appropriate to quantify alpha diversity. It has therefore been proposed that the definition of alpha diversity does not need to be tied to a specific spatial scale: alpha diversity can be measured for an existing dataset that consists of subunits at any scale. The subunits can be, for example, sampling units that were already used in the field when carrying out the inventory, or grid cells that are delimited just for the purpose of analysis. If results are extrapolated beyond the actual observations, it needs to be taken into account that the species diversity in the subunits generally gives an underestimation of the species diversity in larger areas.