3.3 | Beta diversities between communities
To investigate the number of effective communities in our sampled
universe, we calculated the beta diversity values for all diversity
levels (Table 2). The combination of Size Fraction, Transect, Time and
Station generates 7.726 different effective communities of rare species
(0D). In contrast, the effective community numbers of common (1D) and
dominant (2D) species was 1.524 and 1.540, respectively, decreased
largely compared to the 0D beta diversity. The differences between the
1D and 2D beta diversities were minimal for all variables. Size Fraction
was the most prominent variable, rendering almost 2 effective
communities of rare species (0D) and the highest numbers of 1D and 2D.
Next, beta diversities were again estimated, but this time each Size
Fraction was treated independently (Table 3). Considering rare and
common species, the beta diversity was noticeably higher on the largest
Size Fraction (F3). In contrast, no clear pattern is observed for
dominant species.