Multiple rank-abundance curves

This function draws multiple rank-abundance curves for selected samples into one diagram. If you wish to draw a simple rank-abundance curve see racurve.

racurves(matrix, main = "Rank-abundance diagram", bw = TRUE)

Arguments

matrix

Community data, a matrix-like object with samples in rows and species in columns. Rank-abundance curves are drawn for all selected rows (samples).

main

The main title (optional).

bw

If set on FALSE the lines will be drawn in colors instead of black/white lines with different line types.

Value

No return value, only diagram.

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 visualize species richness and species evenness.

The axes of the diagram will be scaled according automatically. As the line type is used to differentiate between samples, a maximum of 6 curves per diagram is feasible in black/white mode.

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. doi:10.1126/science.147.3655.250

See also

racurve for a simple curve and rankabundance from package BiodiversityR for a more sophisticated function

Author

Friedemann von Lampe (fvonlampe@uni-goettingen.de)

Examples

## Draw multiple rank-abundance curves for selected samples
racurves(schedenveg[c(1,7,20,25), ])


## Draw multiple rank-abundance curves for selected samples with coloured lines
racurves(schedenveg[c(1,7,20,25), ], bw = FALSE)