Sampling and Ordination Characteristics of Computer-Simulated Individualistic Communities

A set of artificial communities which simulate a series of one—dimensional continua with varying tendencies of species modes to aggregate into species groupings of discrete communities is produced by computer. In one of these, complexity is increased by the inclusion of small—scale pattern on the overall continuum pattern. These communities are sampled with a variety of sample shapes. The sample data show that the detection of large—scale pattern is unaffected by sample shape, but for strong small—scale pattern rectangular quadrats are more efficient as predicted. Both direct on environmental and indirect or vegetational ordinations approximate the underlying parametric species distribution with reasonable accuracy. The sampling and analytic procedures used in ordination do not necessarily bias the interpretation of vegetational data toward the continuum as suggested by some of the critics of the continuum concept. See full-text article at JSTOR

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