How do variable patch sizes hold higher beta diversity?
- 1Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract
Beta diversity is a fundamental component of regional biodiversity that accumulates from compositional differences between local species assemblages. Although beta diversity is increasingly applied across spatial scales, its scale dependence remains incompletely synthesized, particularly concerning variation in spatial scale used to define alpha diversity (grain size). Using tree community data from Barro Colorado Island, we find that both additive and multiplicative beta diversity are consistently higher for unequal than equal grain divisions across different spatial extents and numbers of grains. These results can be explained by Jensen's inequality based on the concave-down relationship of alpha diversity with area that in turn increases beta diversity through the scaling relationship between alpha and gamma diversity. Combined with our additional analysis showing that this prediction is robust to more general models of species richness, including species--area and species--sampling-effort curves, these results reveal a previously unrecognized, predictable range of beta diversity variation.
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BibTeX
@misc{naka2026variable,
title = {{How do variable patch sizes hold higher beta diversity?}},
author = {M. Naka and A. S. Mori and R. Iritani},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.29.755527},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.29.755527v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - How do variable patch sizes hold higher beta diversity?
AU - M. Naka
AU - A. S. Mori
AU - R. Iritani
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/29
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.29.755527
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.29.755527v1
AB - Beta diversity is a fundamental component of regional biodiversity that accumulates from compositional differences between local species assemblages. Although beta diversity is increasingly applied across spatial scales, its scale dependence remains incompletely synthesized, particularly concerning variation in spatial scale used to define alpha diversity (grain size). Using tree community data from Barro Colorado Island, we find that both additive and multiplicative beta diversity are consistently higher for unequal than equal grain divisions across different spatial extents and numbers of grains. These results can be explained by Jensen's inequality based on the concave-down relationship of alpha diversity with area that in turn increases beta diversity through the scaling relationship between alpha and gamma diversity. Combined with our additional analysis showing that this prediction is robust to more general models of species richness, including species--area and species--sampling-effort curves, these results reveal a previously unrecognized, predictable range of beta diversity variation.
ER -