Application and Evaluation of Dale's Non-Parametric Method for Detecting Community Structure through Zonation

Dale's non-parametric method for analysing zonation was tested on three coastal ecosystems in New Zealand. The method, intended to investigate community structure, is based on a prediction that the upslope (i.e. top) boundary of one species will be followed upwards, more often than expected at...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oikos 1999-02, Vol.84 (2), p.261-265
Main Authors: Thomas, Karli R., Munro, Cathy L., Graeme, Claire B., Steel, John B., Wilson, J. Bastow
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Brackish
Community structure
Contiguity
Dune soils
Forest soils
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects. Techniques
Marine
Methods and techniques (sampling, tagging, trapping, modelling...)
Organic soils
Plants
Salt marshes
Sand dunes
Species
Vegetation
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Summary:Dale's non-parametric method for analysing zonation was tested on three coastal ecosystems in New Zealand. The method, intended to investigate community structure, is based on a prediction that the upslope (i.e. top) boundary of one species will be followed upwards, more often than expected at random, by the downslope (i.e. bottom) boundary of another species. In the present study, the predicted pattern was not found: only one transect out of 12 had significantly more top/bottom boundary (TB) contiguities than would be expected on a random basis. Rather, the opposite trend was seen in two transects, of a deficit of TB contiguities. One of these deficits was significant even after Bonferroni correction for the number of tests made. Such TB deficits might be expected if there were community boundaries, and indeed TB deficits are predicted by several theoretical models of community structure. The results contrast with Dale's own results, in which there were considerably more TB contiguities than would be expected on a random basis. This confirms suggestions that the pattern envisaged by Dale is likely to be uncommon.
ISSN:0030-1299
1600-0706
DOI:10.2307/3546720