BLY 111: GENERAL BIOLOGY

Ombugadu, Akwashiki

SPECIES DIVERSITY
Species diversity is defined on the basis of two factors, the number of species in the
community which is called species richness (number of species in a given or defined
unit) and the relative abundance of species or species evenness. A community with 20
species is obviously less diverse than one with 80 species. The effects of species
evenness on diversity are more subtle. Therefore species diversity depends upon levels
of species richness and evenness.
Richness and Evenness
Richness is the number of species per sample which is a measure of richness.
Evenness is a measure of the relative abundance of different species, example we
might have sampled two different fields for wildflowers. The sample from the first field
consists of 300 Celosia argentia, 335 Magnifera indica and 365 Striga. The sample from
the second field comprises 20 Celosia argentia, 49 Magnifera indica and 931 Striga, the
sample has the same richness (3 species) and same number of individual (1000).
However, the first sample has more evenness than the second because the number of
individual species is not evenly distributed.
There are two indices that can be used to measure species diversity:
1. Shannon-Wiener index
2. Simpson's Index
Shannon-Wiener index
A commonly applied measure of species diversity is the Shannon-Wiener index
s
H '=−∑ pilnpi …..……Equation 1
i=1

Where:
pi is the proportion of individuals found in the ith species and ln is the natural logarithm.
S is the total number of species in the habitat and
i is the proportion of S species (Begon, Harper and Townsend, 2003).

Notice that there is a negative sign in front of the summation sign.

This index is often calculated using natural logarithms (base e) but other bases can be
used. The ln key on a calculator calculates logarithms to base e; the log key calculates
to base 10. In our calculations, we will use natural logarithms (the ln key on your
calculator).

Shannon-Wiener diversity index is on a scale of 0 to 5. Where 0 to 2.4 is low diversity

while 2.5 to 5 is high diversity.
Example 1:
We will use equation 1 to calculate diversity of the community in Table 1 below.

You must first calculate pi for each species. This is done in column 3 below. Next,
calculate ln pi. This is done in column 4. Remember, use the ln key on your calculator.

Table 1: A community of three tree species

No. of pi (ln pi)

Species pi ln pi
Individuals

32 0.52 x -0.65 =-0.338

Beech 32 __ = -0.65
0.52
62
18 0.29 X -1.24 =-0.360
Maple 18 __ = -1.24
0.29
62
12 0.19 X -1.66 =-0.315
Oak 12 __ = -1.66
0.19
62
Total 62 -1.01

We can now calculate diversity using equation 1.

H' = - (0.52 X -0.65) + (0.29 X -1.24) + (0.19 X -1.66)

H' = -(-0.338) + (-0.360) + (-0.315)

H' = -(-1.01)
H' = +1.01
This means that diversity in the community is low.
Example 2: A worked example from a community containing 100 trees distributed
among 5 species as shown in Table 2.
Table 2: A community of five tree species
Specie
Abundance pi ln pi pi (ln pi)
s
A 50 0.5 -0.69314718 -0.34657359
B 30 0.3 -1.2039728 -0.361191841
C 10 0.1 -2.30258509 -0.230258509
D 9 0.09 -2.40794561 -0.216715105
E 1 0.01 -4.60517019 -0.046051702
100 -1.200790748

H' = - (-1.200790748)
H' = +1.201
This means that diversity of trees in that community is low.

The maximum diversity (Hmax) of a sample is found when all species are equally
abundant. Hmax = ln S, where S is the total number of species.
We can compare the actual diversity value to the maximum possible diversity by using a
measure called evenness. The evenness of the sample is obtained from the formula:
Evenness = H'/Hmax = H'/lnS.

Simpson's Index
Also Simpson's Index can also be used in measuring species diversity
• Simpson's Index gives the probability of any two individuals drawn at random
from an infinitely large community belonging to different species. The bias
corrected form of Simpson's Index is:
 • The value of D ranges from 0 and 1, with this index, 0 represents infinite diversity
and 1, is no diversity i.e. the bigger the value of D, the lower the diversity.

s
D s=∑ ¿ ¿ ¿
i=1

Where:

ni = the number of individuals of species i

N = the total number of individuals of all species

Example 3: We will illustrate using Simpson's index on a hypothetical community with

three species.

Table 3: A hypothetical community with 3 species.

No. of
Species
Individuals

Beech 32

Maple 18

Oak 12

For this community, N = 32 + 18 + 12 = 62. The calculations using equation 1 are

shown below.

(32 X 31) + (18 X 17) + (12 X 11)

Ds = __________________________
_
62 X 61

1430
Ds = ____
3782

Ds = 0.3781