goeveg (version 0.3.0)

racurve: Rank-abundance curves

Description

This function draws a rank-abundance curve for community data. You can optionally add labels for a selected number of species. If you wish to draw multiple rank-abundance curves for selected samples use racurves.

Usage

racurve(matrix, main = "Rank-abundance diagram", nlab = 0, ylog = FALSE, frequency = FALSE)

Arguments

matrix

Community data, a matrix-like object with samples in rows.

main

The main title (optional).

nlab

Number of labeled species (default = 0). Species are labeled in decreasing order beginning from the highest relative abundance.

ylog

If set on TRUE the y-axis is displayed on a log-scale.

frequency

If set on TRUE frequencies of species are calculated instead of relative abundances.

Value

Returns an (invisible) list composed of:

Details

Rank abundance curves or Whittaker plots (see Whittaker 1965) are used to display relative species abundance as biodiversity component. They are a means to visualise species richness and species evenness.

References

Whittaker, R. H. (1965). Dominance and Diversity in Land Plant Communities: Numerical relations of species express the importance of competition in community function and evolution. Science 147 : 250-260.

See Also

racurves

Examples

## Draw rank-abundance curve
racurve(schedenveg)

## Draw rank-abundance curve and label first 5 species
racurve(schedenveg, nlab = 5)

## Draw rank-abundance curve with log-scaled axis
racurve(schedenveg, ylog = TRUE)

## Draw rank-abundance curve with frequencies and no main title
racurve(schedenveg, frequency = TRUE, nlab = 1, main = "")