Unbiased estimation of sampling variance for Simpson's diversity index

Autor:	Tiffeau-Mayer, Andreas
Rok vydání:	2023
Předmět:	Quantitative Biology - Populations and Evolution Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics Quantitative Biology - Quantitative Methods
Druh dokumentu:	Working Paper
Popis:	Quantification of measurement uncertainty is crucial for robust scientific inference, yet accurate estimates of this uncertainty remain elusive for ecological measures of diversity. Here, we address this longstanding challenge by deriving a closed-form unbiased estimator for the sampling variance of Simpson's diversity index. In numerical tests the estimator consistently outperforms existing approaches, particularly for applications in which species richness exceeds sample size. We apply the estimator to quantify biodiversity loss in marine ecosystems and to demonstrate ligand-dependent contributions of T cell receptor chains to specificity, illustrating its versatility across fields. The novel estimator provides researchers with a reliable method for comparing diversity between samples, essential for quantifying biodiversity trends and making informed conservation decisions. Comment: updated manuscript with 11 pages, 9 figures
Databáze:	arXiv
Externí odkaz:	http://arxiv.org/abs/2310.03439 Zobrazit plný text záznamu View this record from Arxiv