Indicator species and the problem of spatial inconsistency in nestedness patterns

Only two species were identified as potential indicators within all three areas and on average ≈80% of the potential indicator species were lost from one area to another. The results indicate that inconsistency between areas in the species' frequency distributions and their position in nested hierarchies may strongly reduce the general predictive power of indicator species of species richness, even if significantly nested patterns are found at the community level. We suggest that indicators related to amount and quality of habitats may be an alternative to lists of indicator species of species richness.