Abstract
A method for the measurement of the size diversity based on the classical Shannon–Wiener expression
was proposed as a proxy of the shape of the size distribution. The summatory of probabilities of a discrete
variable (such as species relative abundances) in the original Shannon–Wiener expression was substituted by
an integral ...»»»»
A method for the measurement of the size diversity based on the classical Shannon–Wiener expression
was proposed as a proxy of the shape of the size distribution. The summatory of probabilities of a discrete
variable (such as species relative abundances) in the original Shannon–Wiener expression was substituted by
an integral of the probability density function of a continuous variable (such as body size). Here, we propose
an update of this method by including the measurement of the size e-evenness, just dividing the exponential
of the size diversity by its possible maximum for a given size range. Assuming a domain of the size range of
(0,1), for a given logarithmic mean (mln) and a logarithmic standard deviation ðrlnÞ, the distribution with
the highest diversity is the Log-Normal. The size e-evenness ranges between 0 and 1 because of the division
by the maximum exponential diversity. Size e-evenness is useful to discriminate whether variations in size
diversity are due to changes in the shape of the size distribution or caused by differences in size dispersion.^^^^
Citation:
Quintana, X. D., Egozcue, J. J., Martinez-Abella, O., Lopez-Flores, R., Gascon, S., Brucet, S., et al. (2016). Update: A non-parametric method for the measurement of size diversity, with emphasis on data standardization. the measurement of the size evenness. Limnology and Oceanography-Methods, 14(6), 408-413.