Fig. 3

Location and variation of either species or assemblages can be visualized within a three-dimensional trait space, where in the case of species the dimensions are provided by traits and in the case of assemblages (this study) the dimensions are provided by trait-based indices. There are thus three functional components in the multidimensional space of a trait distribution (here, two nematode communities labeled as A and B for simplicity) at any given location. Evenness quantifies the regularity in the body-mass distribution of the individual nematodes in their functional spaces (nematofauna A or B); Richness quantifies the functional space occupied by the same individual nematodes with their body-mass values; Divergence is the degree to which the abundance in functional space of individual nematodes belonging to either nematofauna A or B is distributed towards the tails of a weight range