Abstract

Keywords

vegetation dynamics, forest ecology, Methods: methodological development, methodological development

Abstract

Survival, growth and development of plants depend on suitable environmental conditions which are continuously modified by environmental change including human activities. The present species diversity, including its composition and competition, reflects historical and environmental factors. Hence, measures of diversity are regarded as indicators of the wellbeing of ecological systems [1]. However, the scale, design, plot sizes and shape vary enormously among monitoring systems of biological diversity, which strongly influence the values of diversity due to the species-area patterns, and the latitudinal and altitudinal patterns. Although a quick dip into the literature on diversity reveals a bewildering range of indices, none of these can be directly used for a cross-scale evaluation and comparison of biodiversity measures. Hence, the development of suitable methods is urgently needed to evaluate and compare cross-scale data for a better understanding of the responses of vegetation and ecosystems to global change including human activities.

LWF Classification

Network: LWF, Category: peer-reviewed,