Quantifyingα-diversity as a continuous function of location——a case study of a temperate forest

α-diversity describes species diversity at local scales.The Simpson’s and Shannon-Wiener indices are widely used to characterizeα-diversity based on species abundances within a fixed study site(e.g.,a quadrat or plot).Although such indices provide overall diversity estimates that can be analyzed,their values are not spatially continuous nor applicable in theory to any point within the study region,and thus they cannot be treated as spatial covariates for analyses of other variables.Herein,we extended the Simpson’s and Shannon-Wiener indices to create point estimates ofα-diversity for any location based on spatially explicit species occurrences within different bandwidths(i.e.,radii,with the location of interest as the center).For an arbitrary point in the study region,species occurrences within the circle plotting the bandwidth were weighted according to their distance from the center using a tri-cube kernel function,with occurrences closer to the center having greater weight than more distant ones.These novel kernel-basedα-diversity indices were tested using a tree dataset from a 400 m×400 m study region comprising a 200 m×200 m core region surrounded by a 100-m width buffer zone.Our newly extendedα-diversity indices did not disagree qualitatively with the traditional indices,and the former were slightly lower than the latter by<2%at medium and large band widths.The present work demonstrates the feasibility of using kernel-basedα-diversity indices to estimate diversity at any location in the study region and allows them to be used as quantifiable spatial covariates or predictors for other dependent variables of interest in future ecological studies.Spatially continuousα-diversity indices are useful to compare and monitor species trends in space and time,which is valuable for conservation practitioners.

An elliptical blade is not a true ellipse,but a superellipse–Evidence from two Michelia species

The shape of leaf laminae exhibits considerable diversity and complexity that reflects adaptations to environmental factors such as ambient light and precipitation as well as phyletic legacy.Many leaves appear to be elliptical which may represent a‘default’developmental condition.However,whether their geometry truly conforms to the ellipse equation(EE),i.e.,(x/a)^(2)+(y/b)^(2)=1,remains conjectural.One alternative is described by the superellipse equation(SE),a generalized version of EE,i.e.,|x/a|^(n)+|y/b|^(n)=1.To test the efficacy of EE versus SE to describe leaf geometry,the leaf shapes of two Michelia species(i.e.,M.cavaleriei var.platypetala,and M.maudiae),were investigated using 60 leaves from each species.Analysis shows that the majority of leaves(118 out of 120)had adjusted root-mean-square errors of<0.05 for the nonlinear fitting of SE to leaf geometry,i.e.,the mean absolute deviation from the polar point to leaf marginal points was smaller than 5%of the radius of a hypothesized circle with its area equaling leaf area.The estimates of n for the two species were<2,indicating that all sampled leaves conformed to SE and not to EE.This study confirms the existence of SE in leaves,linking this to its potential functional advantages,particularly the possible influence of leaf shape on hydraulic conductance.