Addressing the removal of rare species in multivariate bioassessments: The impact of methodological choices

Multivariate analyses are important tools for the biological assessment of ecological communities. Despite the popularity of multivariate analyses in bioassessments, there is considerable controversy over how to treat rare species. As this debate remains unresolved, the objective of this study was to develop a methodology to quantify the impacts of removing rare species relative to other decisions inherent in multivariate analyses and to provide...