Estimating the maximum probability of categorical classes with applications to biological diversity measurements

Biodiversity;Biological diversity;Multinomial maximum;Gumbel;Tracy-Widom;Berger-Parker

Huynh, Huy ; Mathematics

University:Georgia Institute of Technology

Department:Mathematics

关键词: Biodiversity;    Biological diversity;    Multinomial maximum;    Gumbel;    Tracy-Widom;    Berger-Parker;   

Others  :  https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/1853/44868/1/huynh_huy_n_201208_phd.pdf

美国|英语

来源: SMARTech Repository

【 摘 要 】

The study of biological diversity has seen a tremendous growth over the past few decades. Among the commonly used indices capturing both the richness and evenness of a community, the Berger-Parker index, which relates to the maximum proportion of all species, is particularly effective. However, when the number of individuals and species grows without bound this index changes, and it is important to develop statistical tools to measure this change. In this thesis, we introduce two estimators for this maximum: the multinomial maximum and the length of the longest increasing subsequence. In both cases, the limiting distribution of the estimators, as the number of individuals and species simultaneously grows without bound, is obtained. Then, constructing the 95% confidence intervals for the maximum proportion helps improve the comparison of the Berger-Parker index among communities. Finally, we compare the two approaches by examining their associated bias corrected estimators and apply our results to environmental data.