Fig. 1.

Four theoretical ways that mammal richness (i.e., alpha diversity) and differences in community composition (i.e., beta diversity) could change in response to gentrification, where filled-in shapes in subfigures (A–D) represent the presence of different species. (A) Alpha diversity could remain constant but species assemblages could completely differ between gentrified and nongentrified areas, resulting in no difference in alpha diversity but the highest beta diversity. (B) More species could be gained than lost in gentrified areas, resulting in a large increase in alpha diversity and a smaller increase in beta diversity relative to fully distinct communities. (C) Communities in nongentrified areas could be a nested subset of those in gentrified areas, which could result in large increases in alpha diversity but low beta diversity. (D) The null prediction: no difference; gentrification is not associated with differences in alpha and beta diversity. (E) The difference in alpha diversity (x axis) as well as beta diversity, where a value of 0 indicates identical communities at a pair of sites and 1 indicates completely different communities at a pair of sites (y axis).