Explanatory variables
We calculated taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity, and
stand factors, to examine their relative effects on biomass,
productivity and their stability.
1) Taxonomic
diversity
We calculated species richness and Pielou’s evenness for each plot (or
subplot) using the 2010 inventory data. Other species diversity indices
(e.g. Shannon index) were not included in the final data analyses
because of their similar biological meanings and collinearity with
richness and evenness. For taxonomic diversity we did not find an index
that clearly depict divergence.
For instance, Rao’s Q is stated to included information on both richness
and divergence (Mouchet et al. 2010), but a preliminary analysis
revealed that it was highly correlated with species richness. As a
result, the divergence of taxonomic diversity was not included in data
analyses.