Treating the nestedness temperature calculator as a "black box" can lead to false conclusions
Treating the nestedness temperature calculator as a "black box" can lead to false conclusions
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DOI：
10.1034/j.1600-0706.2002.990121.x
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发表时间：
2002-10-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Lindenmayer, DB
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fischer, J;Lindenmayer, DB
我们使用筑巢温度计算器检查了澳大利亚东南部零散景观中鸟类的两个数据集中的筑巢模式。在我们最初的分析中，我们发现嵌套计算器很容易将嵌套检测为被动抽样的产物。为了更详细地研究这个问题，我们创建了模拟不发生嵌套的情况的随机矩阵，并重新分析了之前发布的两个数据集。我们的结果表明，嵌套计算器可能(1)高估了嵌套的程度及其统计意义，以及(2)认为一些既包括无处不在物种又包括稀有物种的数据集是显著嵌套的，尽管它们不是显著嵌套的。我们的结果突显了盲目依赖分析软件包(如嵌套性计算器)生成的p值的危险。我们建议分析程序包的用户(通常是野外生态学家)在未来需要更具批判性，并更详细地熟悉他们使用的程序包。此外，分析包的开发人员(通常是理论生态学家)将需要更清楚地传达分析工具(如嵌套性计算器)的限制和假设。
We used the nestedness temperature calculator to examine patterns of nestedness in two datasets on birds in fragmented landscapes in southeastern Australia. During our initial analyses, we found that the nestedness calculator was susceptible to detect nestedness as an artifact of passive sampling. To examine this problem in more detail, we created random matrices that simulated a situation where nestedness did not occur, and we re-analysed two previously published datasets. Our results showed that the nestedness calculator may (1) overestimate the degree of nestedness and its statistical significance, and (2) consider some datasets which include both ubiquitous and rare species to be significantly nested although they are not. Our results highlight the danger of blindly relying on the p-values generated by analytical packages such as the nestedness calculator. We suggest that users of analytical packages (often field ecologists) will need to be more critical in future and familiarise themselves in more detail with the packages they use. In addition, the developers of analytical packages (often theoretical ecologists) will need to communicate more clearly the limitations and assumptions underlying analytical tools such as the nestedness calculator.