czekanowski: Czekanowski Niche Overlap Metric

In EcoSimR: Null Model Analysis for Ecological Data

Description

Takes a resource utilization matrix as input and returns the average pairwise Czekanowki niche overlap index.

Usage

czekanowski(m = matrix(rpois(80, 1), nrow = 10))

Arguments

m	a matrix of resource utilization values.

Details

The Czekanowski niche overlap index is averaged over each unique species pair. The index measures the area of intersection of the resource utilization histograms of each species pair. Values of Czekanowski niche overlap index close to 0.0 reflect usage of exclusive resource categories, whereas values close to 1.0 reflect similar resource utilization spectra.

O_jk = O_kj = 1 - 0.5*sum|p_ij - p_ik|

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Value

Returns the average pairwise niche overlap.

Note

The resource utilization matrix (rows = species, columns = discrete resource categories) may include zeroes, but no negative numbers or missing values. Relative resource within a species is first calculated, so the rows need not sum to 1.0.

References

Feinsinger, P., E.E. Spears, and R. Poole. 1981. A simple measure of niche breadth. Ecology 62: 27-32.

Winemiller, K.O. and E.R. Pianka. 1990. Organization in natural assemblages of desert lizards and tropical fishes. Ecological Monographs 60: 27-55.

See Also

pianka niche overlap index.

Examples

obsOverlap <- czekanowski(m=matrix(rpois(40,0.5),nrow=8))

Example output

Loading required package: MASS

EcoSimR documentation built on May 2, 2019, 7:26 a.m.