!"# %&' ()*+),-.

/)01

Ecology is the stuuy of inteiactions, both within populations,
between populations, anu between species. The inteiactions among
uiffeient species at a given location make up a 2*3345)01. It is the
iealm of community ecology. Befoie we can measuie the inteiactions,
we must know how many species of which kinus theie aie.

These inteiactions aie of ciitical impoitance when consiueiing the
inteiconnecteuness of species aiounu the woilu. We aie constantly
finuing out how impoitant each species can be to ecosystem stability anu
even human health. Nany iaie species aie ieseivoiis of futuie
meuicines anu biocontiol agents. But because species aie often tieu
togethei in ways that we woulu not noimally expect, we aie finuing that
in oiuei to save an enuangeieu species, oi even common ones, we must
tiy to save the entiie community.

These uays, the numbei anu kinus of species often change quickly uue to human uistuibance.
0nfoitunately, the numbei of species usually uecieases in iesponse to human activity. Babitat loss,
pollution, oveipopulation, anu oveihaivesting lowei the kinus of species in an aiea. Intiouucing
invasives anu nonnatives in oui global tiekking tenus to homogenize the vaiiation in uistant lanus.
Ecologists, goveinments, anu woilu health oiganizations aie all keenly inteiesteu in monitoiing the
health of the woilu's communities. Any coiiective actions shoulu be baseu on veiy accuiate uata.














To see how we aie uoing, we can measuie changes in biouiveisity ovei time. ()*+),-./)01 is, of
couise, one of the majoi concepts of ecology. It is a measuie of the vaiiation of life foims in an
enviionment anu is often useu as a pioxy foi the health of a given enviionment. But how uo we go
about measuiing biouiveisity.

The simplest way to know how many species aie in a community is to simply count the total
numbei of species in a given aiea. This is calleu /6-2)-/ .)275-// (!). Species iichness can be an
impoitant inuicatoi of the health of a community, because piimaiy piouuction, iesistance to
natuial uistuibances, anu iesistance to invasion aie all positively coiielateu with the numbei of
species.

Species iichness tells us a lot about a community, but it must be baseu on goou taxonomy, anu
in oiuei to be useful, species iichness shoulu only incluue species that actively inteiact with othei
membeis of the community. This means that they noimally iesiue in the aiea, anu aie not simply
tiaveling thiough oi have aiiiveu theie by acciuent. Beciuing which species aie iesiuent species
can be somewhat aibitiaiy.

87- 96-2)-/ :22434;"0)*5 <4.,- "5+ =/0)3"0)5> ! ?/6-2)-/ .)275-//@
It may seem like ueteimining ! is pietty stiaightfoiwaiu anu easy. In the ieal woilu,
howevei, it can be uifficult, especially if we aie looking at a laige aiea oi a veiy uiveise gioup of
oiganisms. Typically, oui estimate of ! is baseu on a seiies of samples taken fiom the habitat, with
! incieasing eveiy time we finu a new species. Noimally we coulu peifoim statistics on oui sample
to ueteimine how close to the unknown population we aie, howevei noimal statistics uo not woik
on the two inuices above because theie is a potential to have a lot of zeioes (no iepiesentatives of a
given species) anu we aie not ieally inteiesteu in means.

Theiefoie, we can ueteimine the accuiacy of oui measuie with a /6-2)-/ "22434;"0)*5 24.,-
(also calleu a /6-2)-/'".-" 24.,-). This cuive compaies the numbei of species founu to total
sampling effoit.

Foi example, say we go fishing to compaie the numbei of species in a lake anu a ponu. With each
catch, we iecoiu if we have caught a new species oi not. Aftei a full uay of fishing anu contiolling
foi /"36;)5> -AA*.0 (in each location, we caught the same numbei of inuiviuual fish) we biing back
the following table of uata. It seems that with each new fish caught in the lake, we have caught a
new species. Bowevei in the ponu, we often catch a fish of a species we've alieauy caught. When
we plot this species accumulation against catch effoit (numbei of fish), we see that the slopes of the
lines aie veiy uiffeient. Can we be moie confiuent that we've estimateu the total numbei of fish
species foi the lake oi ponu.



















B5+),)+4";
A)/7 C
<434;"0),-
543#-. *A
/6-2)-/
!"D- E*5+
1 1 1
2 2 2
S S 2
4 4 S
S S S
6 6 4
7 7 4
8 8 S
9 9 S
1u 1u 6
11 11 6
12 12 6
1S 1S 6
14 14 6
1S 1S 6
You shoulu note two things about the giaph:
Fiist, the "-axis counts 2434;"0),- numbei of species; that is, foi each
new sample you auu only new species to the alieauy existing total.
Seconu, the cuive flattens out as you inciease the numbei of samples
taken.

B5+)2-/ *A #)*+),-./)01
Species iichness may also not be a useful
measuiement of the biouiveisity in a community
because species iichness tieats iaie anu common
species equally. 0ftentimes, most species aie
extiemely iaie. In many communities, one species
gieatly outnumbeis the iest. By measuiing the
numbei of inuiviuuals of each species in the
community, we can measuie /6-2)-/ -,-55-//F


Foi these ieasons, simply ueteimining ! may not always give a complete pictuie of the
community. Foi instance, consiuei the two hypothetical communities below:


# of Inuiviuuals in:
Community X Community Z
Species 1 96 SS
Species 2 S SS
Species S 1 S4
Species iichness: S S


If we weie basing oui assessment of the communities only on !, we woulu say they weie the
same, since ! = S in both. Bowevei, this cleaily is not the case. Community X is stiongly uominateu
by species 1, while the species in community Z aie essentially equally abunuant. To ecologists,
community Z looks moie "uiveise" than community X, since community X is, foi all intents, maue up
of just a single species.

Species iichness alone tells us nothing about the ielative piopoition of a community that is
iepiesenteu by each species, oi its .-;"0),- "#45+"52-F A bettei measuiement of uiveisity takes
into consiueiation both species iichness anu ielative abunuance. It measuies the 7-0-.*>-5-)01 of
a community. Thus, communities with moie equal abunuances among the uiffeient species will
have a highei uiveisity, assuming they have equal iichness.

The two most common measuiements of biouiveisity aie the 97"55*5 )5+-G (inuepenuently
ueiiveu by Weinei, so also calleu the Shannon-Weinei inuex oi mislabeleu as the Shannon-Weavei
inuex) anu the 9)36/*5 )5+-G.


The most common species in a community is calleu
the +*3)5"50 /6-2)-/. It may be playing a majoi
iole in a community since it is the most abunuant,
while the majoiity of species in a given aiea aie
piobably iepiesenteu by a few inuiviuuals.
Both the Shannon anu Simpson inuices use the vaiiable #$, which is the piopoition of species $ in
the population (the numbei of inuiviuuals of species $ uiviueu by the total numbei of inuiviuuals in
the population). The foimulas foi each inuex aie as follows:

97"55*5 )5+-G:
& = - ' (#$ )(ln #$)

In which:
& = inuex of uiveisity
' = sum
#$ = piopoition of the total sample
belonging to each species $
ln #$ = natuial log of #$
9)36/*5 )5+-GH
( = 1 ' (#$
2
)

In which:
( = inuex of uiveisity
1 = 1
' = sum
#$
2
= squaie of piopoition of the total sample
belonging to each species $

Foi example, in community X we have:
p) = u.96 (=961uu)
p* = u.uS (=S1uu)
p+ = u.u1 (=11uu)

0sing these values, we can calculate:
& = - |(u.96)*(ln u.96) + (u.uS)*(ln u.uS) + (u.u1)*(ln u.u1)j = u.19

( = 1 |(u.96)
2
+ (u.uS)
2
+ (u.u1)
2
j = 1 (u.9226) = 1.u8

0sing the same foimulas, you can calculate values of & = 1.1u anu ( = 2.99 foi community Z (tiy it anu
see!).

As you can see, foi a given community, & anu ( ,- .-/ give the same value. Shannon anu
Simpson inuices both measuie biouiveisity by taking into account the iichness anu abunuance of
species, but they weigh these values slightly uiffeiently. Bowevei, using these inuices, the biouiveisity
of uiffeient communities, oi a single community uuiing uiffeient times, can be compaieu uiiectly. Foi
instance, & anu ( 012 3-/4 501621 in community Z than in community X.

















I;*#"; 7*0/6*0/ *A #)*+),-./)01F
These aieas contain
Su% of the woilu's plant species
77% of the woilu's veitebiate species
2.S% of the globe's suiface aiea

It ieveals that oceanic islanus aie
paiticulaily valuable, as well as tiopical
mountains anu iegions with a
Neuiteiianean climate.
J/)5> ."5D "#45+"52- 24.,-/ 0* 6;*0 07- #)*+),-./)01
The biouiveisity inuices allow community ecologists to compaie
two communities, but we can also visualize the species iichness anu
species evenness of both communities giaphically. To uo so we can
cieate a ."5D "#45+"52- 24.,-, which uses a cuive to show the iank of
each species' abunuance.

Beie is how it woiks:
Put the species in oiuei of
theii abunuances, fiom
highest to lowest, i.e., iank
them. As in the tables on the
iight.
Beteimine the piopoition
each species iepiesents of
the total numbei of
inuiviuuals founu.
Plot the piopoitional
abunuance of each species
compaieu to its iank oiuei.
o if theie is a laige uispaiity in species iepiesentation, a log
scale might be useful.

Foi example, the two mushioom
communities illustiateu above
uiffei in theii species evenness.
Community A is uominateu by
one species of mushioom (the
yellow one). In community B,
species aie moie even. We can
uiaw a iank abunuance cuive (at
left) to show this.








A similai iank abunuance cuive can be uiawn foi the two foiests whose
species ianks aie inuicateu in the tables at iight. This giaph is illustiateu
below. It shows that the fiist foiest community has (1) gieatei species
iichness, as inuicateu by
the longei line, anu (2)
gieatei species evenness,
as inuicateu by a moie
giauual slope.
96-2)-/ 2*36*/)0)*5H 3*.- 07"5 3--0/ 07- -1-
Species iichness, evenness, anu biouiveisity assume that all species aie equal in theii lifestyle. This of
couise, is fai fiom the tiuth. Species inteiact in veiy complex ways. Biffeient species play uiffeient
ioles in a community. A given species, with its unique iole anu inteiactions may be uominant in one
community, iaie in anothei, oi absent in anothei. Foi instance, the two foou webs piesenteu below uo
not uiffei in species iichness, but uiffei wiluly in the types of species that make them up.
















To tiuly unueistanu the uiffeience between two communities, we shoulu know something about theii
/6-2)-/ 2*36*/)0)*5, oi the iuentity of the species within the community. This is the soit of thing that
ecologists spenu caieeis unueistanuing, only to leain a lot about some small poition of it. Theiefoie,
we will only measuie species composition minimally touay.



:20),)01
Pieviously, we collecteu sample leaf littei fiom two oi moie locations. These samples weie placeu
in a Beilese funnel unuei a lamp. The heat fiom the lamp uiies out the sample fiom the top uown.
Aithiopous in the sample will move fuithei anu fuithei uown to iemain in a moist enviionment.
Eventually they iun out of leaf littei to move into anu the aithiopous will uiop into a collecting
containei.

Touay, you will be soiting thiough these samples anu "keying" them out baseu on theii
moiphology. Since we will not be able to key these out to species level (mostly, we will be going to
family), we will be ueteimining theii 708$5" 1$94.2::, oi moie geneiically theii /0;-. 1$94.2::< anu
,$=21:$/". 0se the key pioviueu. Each peison gets one sample fiom each locality. Combine the class
uata foi the calculations.

You will neeu to keep tiack of
1. Which taxa you finu
2. Bow many of each taxon you finu
S. Anu the oiuei in which you finu each taxon

If you come upon a specimen that is maggot-like anu legless, eithei call it Bipteian laiva oi ignoie it.



K:LMBMIH 87)/ ;"# .-N4).-/ " ;*0 *A *.>"5)O-+ 5*0-/P /* #- 2".-A4;QQQQQ








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BI0L 11u8K Lab 14 - Biouiveisity Postlab Name ____________________________________________

1. Foi all the samples combineu (get the uata fiom othei gioups) foi each locality, calculate the
following anu show youi equation with youi uata.
Locality 1: Locality 2: Locality S:

a. Taxon iichness:




b. Shannon biouiveisity inuex:








c. Simpson biouiveisity inuex:









2. Cuives (attach these sepaiately)
a. Species accumulation cuive foi each locality.








b. Plot the iank abunuances of the two communities on the same giaph.












S. Bo you think the class' sampling effoit pioviueu a sufficient account of the species iichness of
these two communities.




a. Why oi why not.











b. If not, what else might neeu to be uone.











c. Coulu you evei be confiuent you hau captuieu all the uiveisity of this community in youi
sampling. Explain.














4. Which location has highei biouiveisity. Why uo you think that is.








S. What is the uominant taxon oi taxa in each location. Why might this be. What might be theii
niche.












6. Species composition
a. What piopoitions of taxa aie founu at both sites (shaieu common taxa at both sites).






b. What piopoitions of taxa aie founu at only one site (unique taxa foi each site).







c. Bow even aie the species compositions of oui two communities.