The many forms of beta diversity: a comment on McGill et al. and some notational suggestions

Fundamentally, beta diversity is a measure of species turnover across time or space. In practice, it is sometimes unclear exactly what aspect of beta diversity that is implied in studies. For instance, a trend in ’spatial beta diversity’ can be used to refer to both differences in spatial beta diversity between sites, as well as a temporal trend in spatial beta diversity (at the same site). In a recent review, McGill et al. [1] provide a useful and much needed overview of different aspects of biodiversity change, and show areas where we lack knowledge. Even so, McGill et al. ignore some aspects of beta diversity and sometimes pool different types of beta diversity under the same heading. However, their review mainly focused on temporal trends in diversity, while I here want to highlight spatial patterns in temporal β -diversity (species turnover) as an important but somewhat overlooked component of biodiversity change. Furthermore, I propose a slightly modified classification and nomenclature of metrics of biodiversity change, with the aim of complementing their review. The notation used here can hopefully be useful to other authors as well.