Pluralism and diversity: trends in the use and application of ordination methods 1990-2007.

摘要: Abstract Question: What are the trends and patterns in applica-tion of ordination techniques vegetation science since1990?Location: Worldwide literature analysis.Methods: Evaluation five major journals vegetationscience; search all ISI-listed ecological journals. Datawere analysed with ANCOVAs, Spearman rank correla-tions, GLMs, biodiversity indices simple graphs.Results: The ISI retrieved fewer papers that usedordinations than manual evaluation selectedjournals. Both retrieval methods revealed a clear trend inincreasing frequency ofordination applications from 1990to present. Canonical Correspondence Analysis wasfar more frequently detected by anyother method. Applications such as Ana-lysis/Reciprocal Averaging Detrended Correspon-dence have increasingly been used studiespublished ‘‘applied’’ journals, while Corre-spondence Analysis, Redundancy Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling were frequentlyused focusing on ‘‘basic’’ research. Over-all, was mostcommonly applied method within journals,although number publications slightly decreasedover time. Use Scalinghas increased over last 10 years.Conclusion: availability suitable software packageshas facilitated application certain suchas Scaling. However,choices currently less drivenby constraints imposed software; there is alsolimited evidence choice follows socialconsiderations need to use fashionable meth-ods. Methodological diversity has maintained or haseven time reflects researcher’s needfor diverse analytical tools address widerange questions.Keywords: analysis; correspon-dence Non-metric multidimensional scaling;Principal components Principal coordinates analy-sis;Reciprocal averaging; analysis.Abbreviations: AVS5Applied Vegetation Science;CA5Correspondence Analysis; CCA5Canonical DCA5Detrended CorrespondenceAnalysis; FG5Folia Geobotanica; ISI5Institute ofScientific Information (publisher Web ofKnowledge, now published Thomson Reuters); JVS5Journal Science; NMDS5Non-MetricMultidimensional Scaling; PCA5Principal ComponentsAnalysis; PCoA5Principal Coordinates PE5Plant Ecology; PH5Phytocoenologia;RA5ReciprocalAveraging; RDA5Redundancy