Abstract
The identification of differentiating species, also termed indicator species, is a key issue in striving for group pattern in vegetation samples. With this objective in mind Jancey (1979) proposed species ranking on a variance ratio (F-ratio) criterion, the mechanism of analysis of variance. Almost 20 years later Dufrêne and Legendre (1997) presented their indicator value analysis with the same objective in mind but based on different reasoning. This raises the question if (i) the results of the two approaches are equivalent or (ii), if one of the measures of performance is superior in predicting specific properties of ecosystems, such as site conditions, biodiversity, succession or other. Because the outcome of both methods strictly relies on the strength of vegetation pattern reflected by the data sets used as well as the quality of classifications, we compare results from a small and also a large real-world data set and we evaluate the effect of the number of groups involved when clustering sites. In a subsequent step, the ranking of indicator species identified by either of the methods is compared with a ranking obtained by correlating species with measured environmental factors. The results confirm that the outcome of ranking by maximum indicator value (IndVal) according to Dufrêne and Legendre (1997) is very similar to the ranking devised by Jancey (1979). Rank correlation reaches a maximum of r > 0.95 when the data set is large and group number in clustering is low. In our examples Jancey’s method is generally more closely related to the environmental predictive power of species, outperforming IndVal when applied to continuous variables measured in the field. We conclude that the potential of Jancey’s method is generally underrated. As expected, the agreement of results between the two approaches depends on the strength of similarity patterns inherent in the data sets analysed. The method of Dufrêne and Legendre (1997) is well adapted to issues of phytoso-ciology where classification is frequently based on expert knowledge. If the resolving power of species is used as a surrogate for patterns and processes of plant-environment systems, then ranking by variance ratio may be the more promising approach.
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Wildi, O., Feldmeyer-Christe, E. Indicator values (IndVal) mimic ranking by F-ratio in real-world vegetation data. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 14, 139–143 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1556/ComEc.14.2013.2.3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/ComEc.14.2013.2.3