A Minimal Compact Description of the Diversity Index Polytope
Martin Frohn, Kerry Manson · SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics · 2026
Abstract. A phylogenetic tree is an edge-weighted binary tree, with leaves labeled by a collection of species, that represents the evolutionary relationships between those species. For such a tree, a phylogenetic diversity index is a function that apportions the biodiversity of the collection across its constituent species. The diversity index polytope is the convex hull of the images of phylogenetic diversity indices. We study the combinatorics of phylogenetic diversity indices to provide a minimal compact description of the diversity index polytope. Furthermore, we discuss extensions of the polytope to expand the study of biodiversity measurement.