How to Assess Biodiversity?

Assignment 3

Submitted to- Dr.Kassahun Embaye

(Envtal Dept Head)

Prepared by- Kaleb Assefa

ESSD/408/18

H.U.C

MAY 2020
 How do you assess biodiversity?
Assessing areas of high biodiversity plays a vital role in determining key areas for
conservation and establishing conservation priorities.

When scientists assess an area’s biodiversity, they look at species richness (how

many different species there are) and relative abundance (the number of organisms
each species has). A healthy ecosystem is a balanced one—with enough predators,
prey, producers and decomposers to keep the food web stable which is known as.
When the system is thrown off balance, that web can quickly unravel. Forests may
struggle to grow when the deer population explodes, or fish near the top of the food
chain may suffer when tiny organisms at the base disappear. But when biodiversity
levels are right, it can strengthen the ecosystem to better resist stresses like climate
change and invasive species.

Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological

community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it
does not take into account the abundances of the species or their relative abundance
distributions. It is a relevant diversity component of community ecology and many
standardized techniques are available for data estimations.

Methods for assessing (surveying) biodiversity

1. Total assessement (census)

The total assessment (census) is the procedure of systematically acquiring and

recording information about the members of a given species population.
It is usually inefficient because it costs a lot of money and consumes a large
amount of time.

2. Sampling method

In this each individual species is chosen entirely by chance and each member of
the population has an equal chance, or probability, of being selected.

There are further two broad methods for sampling assessment of biodiversity.
a) Point sampling- A method of sampling a geographical area by
selecting points in it, especially by choosing points at random on a
map or aerial photograph.
 b) Non point sampling it’s a method of sampling an area without
selecting a specific point.

 Characteristics of sampling shape and size

 Sampling intensity
 Sample shapes

 Sampling designs
Two ways of sample area selection

I. Subjective- derived from an individual's personal judgment or

own experience about whether a specific outcome is likely to
occur in a given area.

II. Objective- using statistics, experiments, and mathematical

measurements rather than relying on things like anecdotes,
personal experience, educated guesses, or hunches.
 Systematic
 Random
o Equal probability
o Probability proportional to size