Assessing group differences in biodiversity by simultaneously testing a user-defined selection of diversity indices

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Authors

  • Philip Pallmann
  • Frank Schaarschmidt
  • Ludwig A. Hothorn
  • Christiane Fischer
  • Heiko Nacke
  • Kai U. Priesnitz
  • Nicholas J. Schork

Research Organisations

External Research Organisations

  • University of Göttingen
  • The Scripps Research Translational Institute
  • Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture (LfL)
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Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1068-1078
Number of pages11
JournalMolecular Ecology Resources
Volume12
Issue number6
Early online date30 Aug 2012
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2012

Abstract

Comparing diversities between groups is a task biologists are frequently faced with, for example in ecological field trials or when dealing with metagenomics data. However, researchers often waver about which measure of diversity to choose as there is a multitude of approaches available. As Jost (2008, Molecular Ecology, 17, 4015) has pointed out, widely used measures such as the Shannon or Simpson index have undesirable properties which make them hard to compare and interpret. Many of the problems associated with the use of these 'raw' indices can be corrected by transforming them into 'true' diversity measures. We introduce a technique that allows the comparison of two or more groups of observations and simultaneously tests a user-defined selection of a number of 'true' diversity measures. This procedure yields multiplicity-adjusted P-values according to the method of Westfall and Young (1993, Resampling-Based Multiple Testing: Examples and Methods for p-Value Adjustment, 49, 941), which ensures that the rate of false positives (type I error) does not rise when the number of groups and/or diversity indices is extended. Software is available in the R package 'simboot'.

Keywords

    Bootstrap, Metagenomics, Multiple contrasts, Shannon entropy, Simpson index, Westfall-Young

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cite this

Assessing group differences in biodiversity by simultaneously testing a user-defined selection of diversity indices. / Pallmann, Philip; Schaarschmidt, Frank; Hothorn, Ludwig A. et al.
In: Molecular Ecology Resources, Vol. 12, No. 6, 11.2012, p. 1068-1078.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Pallmann P, Schaarschmidt F, Hothorn LA, Fischer C, Nacke H, Priesnitz KU et al. Assessing group differences in biodiversity by simultaneously testing a user-defined selection of diversity indices. Molecular Ecology Resources. 2012 Nov;12(6):1068-1078. Epub 2012 Aug 30. doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.12004
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