I currently try to calculate community weighted mean for leaves traits of forest undergrow - grasses and small shrubs. I use protected area of plants as a weighted coefficient. Only half of the studied plot have some cover. I wonder should i use relative cover for weighting or absolute.
For example if there is three species on plot -
First cover 10% of plot, second and third one cover 20% each. Should i use weighted coefficient 0.1 or 0.2 for first species and 0.2 or 0.4 for second?
Thanks in advance for response.
We are talking here about a weighted coefficient, about a relative coverage. That is, the sum of all parts equals 100%. Therefore, using your example, if there are three species in the plot, with the first covering 10% of the plot and the second and third covering 20% each, you should use the following weighted coefficients:
For the first species: 10% / 100% = 0.1 For the second species: 20% / 100% = 0.2 For the third species: 20% / 100% = 0.2
So each species is weighted based on its relative contribution to the total (100%) coverage of the plot. Just do the SUM of it. I hope this helps.
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