A consistent terminology for quantifying species diversity?

There is a genuine need for consensus on aclear terminology in the study of species diversity giventhat the nature of the components of diversity is the subjectof an ongoing debate and may be the key to understandingchanges in ecosystem processes. A recent and thought-provokingpaper (Jurasinski et al. Oecologia 159:1526, 2009)draws attention to the lack of precision with which theterms alpha, beta, and gamma diversity are used and proposesthree new terms in their place. While this valuableeVort may improve our understanding of the diVerent facetsof species diversity, it still leaves us far from achieving aconsistent terminology. As such, the conceptual contributionof these authors is limited and does little to elucidatethe facets of species diversity. It is, however, a good startingpoint for an in-depth review of the available conceptsand methods.