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Simulations to manipulate the structure of pairs of species assemblages, calculate 33 beta-diversity metrics and score the desirable properties (including conceptual and sampling properties) and the personality properties of each metric. These are the simulations used to generate the results in the manuscript Barwell, Isaac and Kunin. Measuring beta-diversity with abundance data. Journal of Animal Ecology. Conceptual properties (C1-C16) are intrinsic and depend on the design of the metric. Sampling properties (S1 - S2) reflect the statistical behaviour of the metrics when applied to sampled assemblage data, as opposed to the true assemblage structure. The method of evaluation for each property is given in brackets below. Conceptual properties C1) Independence of alpha diversity (RMSE) C2) Beta is cumulative along gradient of species turnover (RMSE) C3) Similarity is probabilistic when assemblages are distributed indepndently and identically in space (RMSE) C4) Minimum of zero and positiveness (TRUE/FALSE) C5) Fixed upper bound R (TRUE/FALSE) C6) Monotonic increase with species turnover (TRUE/FALSE) C7) Monotonic increase with decoupling of species ranks (TRUE/FALSE) C8) Monotonic increase with differences in evenness (TRUE/FALSE) C9) Beta under extreme decoupling of species ranks < beta when species turnover is complete (TRUE/FALSE) C10) Beta under extreme differences in evenness < beta when species turnover is complete (TRUE/FALSE) C11) Symmetry (Beta(x1, x2)==Beta(x2,x1)) (TRUE/FALSE) C12) Double zero asymmetry (TRUE/FALSE) C13) Beta does not decrease in a series of nested assemblages (TRUE/FALSE) C14) Independence of species replication (RMSE) C15) Independence of the measurement units (RMSE) C16) Independence of differences in abundance (RMSE) Sampling properties S1) Independence of sample size (RMSE) S2) Independence of unequal sample sizes (RMSE) Personality properties P1) Sensitivity to nestedness R P2) Relative sensitivity to nestedness and turnover components of beta P3) Relative sensitivity to decoupling of species ranks and species turnover components of beta P4) Relative sensitivity to evenness differences and species turnover components of beta P5) Relative sensitivity to turnover in rare versus common species We also consider two additional scenarios in our discussion and report the results in the Supplementary Information E1) Patterns of turnover predicted by a positive occupancy-abundance relationship (ONR): rare species are more likely to be turned over E2) Scale-dependence of beta-diversity.