Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
Contradictory Results

Effect sizes and standardization in neighborhood models of forest stands

Peter Stoll, David J. Murrell, David M. Newbery
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/010520
Peter Stoll
Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
David J. Murrell
Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
David M. Newbery
Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Effects of conspecific neighbors on growth and survival of trees have been found to be related to species abundance. Both positive and negative relationships may explain observed abundance patterns. Surprisingly, it is rarely tested whether such relationships could be biased or even spurious due to influences of spatial aggregation, distance decay of neighbor effects and standardization of effect sizes. To investigate potential biases, we simulated communities of 20 identical species with log-series abundances but without species-specific interactions. We expected no relationship of conspecific neighbor effects with species abundance. Growth of individual trees was simulated in random and aggregated spatial patterns using no, linear, or squared distance decay. Regression coefficients of statistical neighborhood models were unbiased and unrelated to species abundance. However, variation in the number of conspecific neighbors was positively or negatively related to species abundance depending on spatial pattern and type of distance decay. Consequently, effect sizes and standardized regression coefficients were also positively or negatively related to species abundance depending on spatial pattern and distance decay. We argue that tests using randomized tree positions and identities provide the best bench marks by which to critically evaluate relationships of effect sizes or standardized regression coefficients with tree species abundance.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted October 20, 2014.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Effect sizes and standardization in neighborhood models of forest stands
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Effect sizes and standardization in neighborhood models of forest stands
Peter Stoll, David J. Murrell, David M. Newbery
bioRxiv 010520; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/010520
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Effect sizes and standardization in neighborhood models of forest stands
Peter Stoll, David J. Murrell, David M. Newbery
bioRxiv 010520; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/010520

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Ecology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4095)
  • Biochemistry (8788)
  • Bioengineering (6493)
  • Bioinformatics (23395)
  • Biophysics (11766)
  • Cancer Biology (9171)
  • Cell Biology (13292)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7423)
  • Ecology (11389)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15121)
  • Genetics (10415)
  • Genomics (14026)
  • Immunology (9152)
  • Microbiology (22111)
  • Molecular Biology (8793)
  • Neuroscience (47460)
  • Paleontology (350)
  • Pathology (1423)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2486)
  • Physiology (3712)
  • Plant Biology (8069)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1433)
  • Synthetic Biology (2216)
  • Systems Biology (6022)
  • Zoology (1251)