2.7 | Beta diversity estimation
To clarify whether the differences in each sample diversity values observed actually represent different species or not, we used the package ’entropart’ version 1.6-10 (Marcon and Herault, 2015) to calculate the beta (β) diversity (Jost, 2007; Marcon et al., 2012). This method derives beta and alpha indices that, by being independent, remain true to Whittaker’s multiplicative law (alpha x beta = gamma) for any order or diversity (qD). Following this, beta represents the number of effective communities in the sample for any factor or diversity order (qD) considered.