Richness is the least interesting number
All three sites carry a similar count of taxa. The differences appear when you ask which taxa: how many are found at one site only, how much the assemblages overlap, and which orders take over as the ground opens up.
Taxa recorded per site
Taxa found at one site only
A taxon recorded at a single point is the clearest signal a site gives: it is either specialised to the conditions there, or it cannot persist elsewhere on the gradient.
71% of the 21 taxa recorded here were not found at either of the other two points.
81% of the 26 taxa recorded here were not found at either of the other two points.
81% of the 27 taxa recorded here were not found at either of the other two points.
How much the sites share
Overlap is given as a Jaccard index — shared taxa divided by the combined list of both sites. A value of 1 would mean identical assemblages; 0 would mean no taxon in common.
Low overlap between the reference woodland and the roadside margin, with the managed grounds sitting between them, is the pattern a disturbance gradient predicts: the middle site borrows from both ends while each end keeps a set of taxa the other does not.
Which orders dominate where
Read across the three columns rather than down any one of them. Ground-associated and litter-dependent groups thin out as cover is removed, while highly mobile flies and open-ground grasshoppers hold their position or gain it. Browse the records →