04-10-2011

Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth and the essential interdependence of all living things

Scientists have identified more than 2 million species. Tens of millions -- remain unknown

The tremendous variety of life on Earth is made possible by complex interactions among all living things including microscopic species like algae and mites.

There are 3 components of biodiversity

Diversity of genes Chihuahuas, beagles, and rottweilers are all dogsbut they're not the same because d b t th ' t th b their genes are different. Diversity of species For example, monkeys, dragonflies, and meadow beauties are all different species. p
Variety of ecosystems Prairies, Ponds, and tropical rain forests are all ecosystems. Each one is different, with its own set of species living in it.

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Biodiversity has Intrinsic Value

Intrinsic Value = Something that has value in and of itself

BiodiversityalsohasutilitarianValue
UtilitarianValue=thevaluesomethinghasasa g meanstoanothersend. Utilitarian values include: Goods S i Services Information

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Whyquantifybiodiversity?
Initiallythoughtthatmorediversity=more stableecosystem* t bl t * Nowusedtomeasureandtrackchanges

*MacArthur, R. 1955. Fluctuations of animal populations and a measure of community stability. Ecology 35:533-536

SpeciesRichness
Numberofspeciesinacommunity Thesimplestmeasure The simplest measure Cancountallspponlyisfewsimpleecosystems Doesnotconsidernumberofindividuals Difficulties
Whenisitaspecie?
Aphids Clonalplants

Cannotcountallspecieswithlimitedtime

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SpeciesRichness
How? Identifyorganismgroupsofinterest Identifyboundariesofcommunity Surveyareafororganismsofinterest

Speciesdiversity
Speciesrichnessnotveryinformative Eachcommunityhas5spp&50individuals Spp1 Spp 2 Spp 3 Spp 4 Spp 5
Comm A Comm B 10 46 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1

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Diversityindices
Togetabetterdescriptionofthecommunity weneedtogetameasureofspp richness and dt t f i h d evennessoftheirdistribution Weusuallyuseanindextorepresentseveral differentmeasures
E.g. stock markets, air pollution, etc. E.g.stockmarkets,airpollution,etc.

SimpsonDiversityIndex(D)
Simpsons index considered a dominance index because it weights towards the abundance of the most common species. measures the probability two individuals randomly selected from a sample will belong to the same category For example, the probability of two trees, picked at random from a tropical rainforest being of the same species would be relatively low , whereas in the boreal forest would be relatively high.

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SimpsonDiversityIndex(D)
Ds = (n1(n1 1)/N(N1)) Where: Ds=BiascorrectedformforSimpsonIndex n1=numberofindividualsofspp1 N=Totalnumberofsppincommunity N T t l b f i it Inthisformasdiversityincreasesindexvalue getssmaller

SimpsonDiversityIndex(D)
Tomakeiteasiertoreadtheindexisoften readas: d Reciprocali.e.1/Ds Complimentaryform:1 Ds HereasdiversityincreasesIndexvalue increases

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SimpsonDiversityIndex(D)
Sugar S gar Red Yello Yellow Maple Maple Birch # Trees 56 48 12 Red Oak 6 White Ash 3 Total 125

((56*55)/(125*124))+ ((48*47)/(125*124)) + . .((3*2)/125*124)) = 0.35509

SimpsonDiversityIndex(D)
Complimentaryform=1D =10.35509=0.6449 Reciprocal1/D 1/0.35509=2.816

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ShannonWeinerIndex(H')
Theindexmeasurestheuncertaintyofa categoryinaparticularset t i ti l t Itisameasureofevenness Forexample,verylowuncertaintythelettery isthenextletterinthisstring:yyyyyyy(H'= 0)

ShannonWeinerIndex(H')
Assumptions:
All species represented Allspeciesrepresented Samplerandomized(equalprobabilityofbeingselectedin thesample)

H'= pilnpi
pi=proportionoftheith species f h th ln=naturallogarithm

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ShannonWeinerIndex(H')
Sugar g Maple Red Yellow Maple Birch Red Oak White Ash Total

# Trees p

56

48

12

3
3/125

125

56/125 48/125 12/125 6/125 0.44 0.38 0.096 0.048

0.024

-plnp 0.359 0.367 0.224 0.146 0.089 1.187

ShannonWeinerIndex(H')
Indexaffectedbybothnumberofspeciesand evennessoftheirpopulation f th i l ti Diversityincreasesasbothincrease Diversitymaximumwhenallspeciesequally abundant

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Evenness
CanuseShannonWeinerindextogeta measureofevenness f FirstcalculateHmax Evenness=H/Hmax Evennesswillvarybetween1and0

Evenness
Inthelastexample H=1.1875 Hmax=1.609 ThereforeE=1.1875/1.609=0.738 Thecloserto1themoreeventhepopulations thatformthecommunity

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