balance {ape}

Balance of a Dichotomous Phylogenetic Tree

Description

This function computes the balance of a phylogenetic tree, that is for each node of the tree the numbers of descendants (i.e. tips) on each of its daughter-branch. The tree must be fully dichotomous.

Usage

balance(phy)

Arguments

phy

an object of class "phylo".

Value

a numeric matrix with two columns and one row for each node of the tree. The columns give the numbers of descendants on each daughter-branches (the order of both columns being arbitrary). If the phylogeny phy has an element node.label, this is used as rownames for the returned matrix; otherwise the numbers (of mode character) of the matrix edge of phy are used as rownames.

Author(s)

Emmanuel Paradis

References

Aldous, D. J. (2001) Stochastic models and descriptive statistics for phylogenetic trees, from Yule to today. Statistical Science, 16, 23–34.