Methods relieving comparison of living and death assemblages

Living (LAs) and death assemblages (DAs) from the same samples (sites) can be compared based on total densities, species densities, species richness and heterogeneity (evenness). Preferably densities (standing crop), obtained by normalization of absolute frequencies to unit sample size, should be used to compare samples, especially for LAs. Combinations of the above four characteristics enable a better insight into the relations between LAs and DAs. The 'Incorporation Value' weighs the proportions of living individuals on total individual numbers with similarities in species composition between both assemblages, yielding the instantaneous integration grade of living individuals into the death assemblage. Diversity diagrams based on species richness (abscissa) and heterogeneities (ordinate), standardized over all investigated samples, simultaneously characterize differences in diversities. The standardized vector between LA and DA in the above-mentioned coordinate system characterizes differences in species richness and heterogeneity in a combined manner, where all coefficients of species richness and heterogeneities can be used.