https://github.com/ericmarcon/alpha

https://github.com/ericmarcon/alpha

Last synced: 4 months ago
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• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/ericmarcon/alpha
• Owner: EricMarcon
• Created: 2025-10-01T16:16:03.000Z (9 months ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2025-12-17T14:48:32.000Z (6 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-12-21T03:03:33.272Z (6 months ago)
• Language: BibTeX Style
• Homepage: https://ericmarcon.github.io/alpha/
• Size: 3.84 MB
• Stars: 1
• Watchers: 0
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

          
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# Fisher's alpha is generally not a valid metric of biodiversity in tropical forests

Fisher's alpha should not be used to assess the diversity of tropical forest tree species at the local and regional scales.

At the local scale, communities are not distributed in log-series: alpha is the parameter of a model that does not fit the data so it can neither be estimated nor interpreted unambiguously.

At the regional scale, alpha correctly describes the distribution of a metacommunity but its extent is unknown when it is not the whole forest area.

Species richness is always a better diversity metric than alpha, containing basically the same information without relying on uncertain assumptions.

Preprint: [read](https://ericmarcon.github.io/alpha/) or [download](https://ericmarcon.github.io/alpha/index.pdf).