Community ecology

Community ecology or synecology is the study

of the interactions between species
in communities on many spatial and temporal
scales, including the distribution, structure,
abundance, demography, and interactions
between coexisting populations.
Chapter 17 Community Structure
• A community has attributes that differ from those of its components
• Number of species
• Relative abundance of species
• Nature of species interactions
• Physical structure
17.1 The Number of Species and Their
Relative Abundance Define Diversity
• Species richness (S) is the count of the number of species occurring
within the community
• Relative abundance represents the percentage each species
contributes to the total number of individuals of all species
Species Rank - Abundance Curves
17.1 The Number of Species and Their
Relative Abundance Define Diversity
• Diversity indexes provide a way to quantify the relationship between
species number and relative abundance
• Simpson's index (D) = (ni/N)2
•  = summation for all species
• ni = number of individuals of species i
• N = total number of individuals of all species
• D ranges between 0 and 1 and as both species' richness and evenness
increase, the value approaches 0
17.1 The Number of Species and Their
Relative Abundance Define Diversity
• Simpson's index (D) = (ni/N)2
• Simpson's reciprocal index or Simpson's diversity index = 1/D
• The lowest possible value is 1, representing a community containing only one
species
• The maximum value is the number of species in the community (species
richness: S)
• Maximum value with perfect even-ness of relative abundance
17.1 The Number of Species and Their
Relative Abundance Define Diversity
• Shannon (or Shannon-Weiner) index = H = -(pi)(loge pi)
• Relative abundance of each species =
p i = ni / N
• pi = proportion of species i
• In the absence of diversity, where only one species is present, H = 0
• Hmax = ln S, occurs when all species are present in equal numbers
Not all species within a community are equivalent