In this chapter, different multiple-site beta diversity metrics (totally 21
metrics) were introduced and calculated by using a R package “MBI”, which was
developed by the author of the book. The calculation of these multiple-site beta
diversity metrics was actually quite easy and straightforward, especially when using the
R package “MBI”. In this chapter of the book, I will also present and compare the
empirical applications of the metrics on the publicly available 290 presence/absence
real-world matrices which were collected by ecologists. It is expected that the readers of
the book could easily understand and learn these multiple-site beta diversity indices
through practicing their own data by using the “MBI” package.
Keywords: Beta diversity, Bonferroni correction, computational ecology,
diversity partitioning, multiple-site comparison, R statistical computing
environment, software development, variance of species composition.
