Biological Diversity Practice Problems:
http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/simpsons.htm
Biological diversity can be quantified in many different ways. The two main factors taken into account when measuring diversity are richness and evenness. 1. Richness The number of species per sample is a measure of richness. The more species present in a sample, the 'richer' the sample. Species richness as a measure on its own takes no account of the number of individuals of each species present. It gives as much weight to those species which have very few individuals as to those which have many individuals. Thus, one daisy has as much influence on the richness of an area as 1000 buttercups. 2. Evenness Evenness is a measure of the relative abundance of the different species making up the richness of an area. For example, we might have sampled two different fields for wildflowers. The results are in the table below. Both samples have the same richness (3 species) and the same total number of individuals (1000). However, the first sample has more evenness than the second. This is because the total number of individuals in the sample is quite evenly distributed between the three species. In the second sample, most of the individuals are buttercups, with only a few daisies and dandelions present. Sample 2 is therefore considered to be less diverse than sample 1.
Numbers of Individuals Flower Species Daisy Dandelion Buttercup Total Sample 1 300 335 365 1000 Sample 2 20 49 931 1000
*A community dominated by one or two species is considered to be less diverse than one in which several different species have a similar abundance.
**As Species richness and evenness increase, so diversity increases. Simpson's Diversity Index is a measure of diversity which takes into account bothrichness and evenness.
3. Simpson's Reciprocal Index The Simpson's Diversity Index is a measure of diversity which takes into account both richness and evenness. The value of this index starts with 1 as the lowest possible figure. This figure would represent a community containing only one species. The higher the value, the greater the diversity. The maximum value is the number of species (or other category being used) in the sample. For example if there are five species in the sample, then the maximum value is 5. D= N(N-1) n(n-1)
N = the total number of organisms of all species n = the total number of organisms of a particular species
Sample Problem 1: Calculate the Simpson's Index (using the Reciprocal Formula above) for the two Wildflower fields (Sample 1 and Sample 2) For Sample 1 and Sample 2, N is the same (1000) For Sample 1, what is n(n-1) for each species? - Daisy = _______ - Dandelion = _______ - Buttercup = _______ n(n-1) = _____ n(n-1) Sample 2? = _______ = _______ = _______ = _____
Now calculate a single value for Simpson's Diversity (D) for each sample. Sample 1:
Sample 2:
Sample Problem 2: Siemann et al. (1997) collected the following data on oak savanna
arthropod communities to investigate the effects of prescribed burning on arthropods. The abundance data below represent the number of individuals per family (rather than per species) collected in sweep-net sampling during a two year period (1992-1993) (from Siemann et al. 1997). This is a small subset of the actual data which was truncated to simplify the activity for learning purposes only.
Order Coleoptera
Diptera
Hemiptera Homoptera Lepidoptera Odonata
Family Chrysomelidae Helodidae Scarabaeidae Staphylinidae Anthomyiidae Chamaemyidae Chloropidae Platystomatidae Syrphidae Miridae Cicadellidae Delphacidae Membracidae Noctuidae Pyralidae Coenagrionidae
1992 128 164 1 5 262 27 87 345 100 2177 1465 272 265 72 13 0
1993 58 5 2 2 172 29 1 137 29 55 86 21 23 5 20 202
1. What is the richness (in terms of numbers of unique families present instead of species) of this oak savanna in 1992? ______ In 1993? ______ 2. In which year was there more evenness? Explain. 3. Calculate the Simpson's (Reciprocal) Index for the the oak savanna in 1992 using the following: a) N = _________ N(N-1) = _________ b) What is the SUM of all the species counts n(n-1) for 1992 = _________ c) Simpson's Reciprocal Index = _______________________ (1992) 4. Do all the same calculations for 1993. Comment on the significance of any differences. (Use the back of this sheet).
