Measuring functional dissimilarity among plots. Adapting old methods to new questions
Ecologists routinely use dissimilarity measures between pairs of plots to explore the complex mechanisms that drive community assembly. Traditional dissimilarity measures usually quantify plot-to-plot dissimilarity based either on species presences and absences within plots or on species abundances, thus assuming that all species are equally and maximally distinct from one another. However, the value of dissimilarity measures that incorporate information on functional differences among species is becoming increasingly recognized.