AP Environmental Pre-Lab

What is the range of H values? What does a high H value mean in terms of species diversity?

0 for a community with a single taxon, to over 7 for a very diverse community

What is the maximum possible values of Shannon-Weiner?

1 with 1 being complete evenness and zero being no diversity.

A 1 ha of boreal forest contains 1500 trees. Species identified include black spruce, white spruce, balsam fir, Jack pine, tamarack, and larch. What is the species' richness?

6

What is true of a value close to zero? Close to 1?

D will equal 0 for a community with a single taxon (with no possibility of individuals being from different species)

If the same index value is calculated for two different communities, can we assume the communities look the same in terms of the species present? Why or why not?

No, because

Say you were comparing the biodiversity of two different habitats, one which is rich in birds and another that is rich in butterflies. Would it be acceptable to use data from these different species to draw a conclusion on which community is more biodiverse? Why or why not?

No, because when comparing two habitats, it is assumed that the data is collected in the same way and represent the same type of organisms

What two indices of diversity take evenness into consideration? (hint: both begin with S)

Shannon-Wiener and Simpon's

How does species evenness give a clearer picture of biodiversity?

Species evenness gives a clearer picture of biodiversity because it describes how much the species differ from each other in numbers of individuals.

What is species richness and why is it considered an inadequate measure of biodiversity?

Species richness is the total number of species present in the community. It is considered an inadequate measure of biodiversity because it fails to take into account the evenness of those species.

What is the correlation between species richness and evenness and biodiversity?

The correlation between species richness and evenness is that as species richness and evenness increases, the measure of biodiversity increases.

What is the correlation between variable habitats and community diversity?

The correlation between variable habitats and community diversity is that community diversity is when all species are interacting with each other in a community and variable habitats are when there are various types of habitats in a community. The more variable habitats there are, the greater the community diversity will be.

What is a biological community?

The sum of all the populations interacting in a given area at a given time

What is the maximum possible values of Simpson's?

equal zero and will approach 1 as diversity is maximized.

n variable

number of individuals in a certain morphotype

Describe an example of a region with several habitats.

rainforest (trees, plants, water)

What is the maximum possible values of Species Richness?

the effective number of types equals the actual number of types

If you wanted to extrapolate your data from a small pilot study of community diversity to a larger area, what must be true of the new, larger area?

the habitat and organisms being studied must be very similar

s variable

the number of morphotypes (species)

What does the term morphotype mean?

the number of species

What two variables are used to determine the Shannon-Wiener Index of Diversity?

the number of species and the distribution of individuals among those species (relative dominance)

What two variables does Simpson's index of Diversity consider?

the number of species and their relative dominance

N variable

the total number of individuals collected (for all morphotypes)