Ecosystems &Biodiversity

Practical 4

Measuring Species Diversity

Measuring and Comparing Species Diversity

Reading
Burgman M.A. & Lindenmayer D.B (1998) Conservation Biology for the Australian
Environment. Surrey Beatty & Sons. Chapter 2 What should be conserved ? sections 2.1-2.5.

Introduction
In an earlier practical we examined the difficulties faced when we try to place individuals
into separate taxa, or species, based on their morphology only. In this practical we will
look at an example, where we use morphospecies of moths collected from three
islands, to compare species diversity, and then make some recommendations about
conservation priorities based on the comparison. (What is a morphospecies?)

Comparing Species Diversity Moths of SE Asia

Invertebrates are frequently used as biodiversity indicators because, taxonomically there
are many species, and ecologically because of the variety of habitats, niches and
strategies they utilize. Some groups, such as beetles, ants and moths and butterflies are
also relatively easy to distinguish into morhospecies using only external morphological
characteristics.

The Task
The moths in this practical come from the severely
degraded islands of Pulau Sipadan, Pulau TalangTalang and Pulau Redang. They have been brought to
you by Dr.Dale and you are going to use the differences in
species diversity as the rational to prioritize restoration
ecology programs for the islands. There are many Diversity Indices which can be
calculated and compared we will use Simpsons Diversity Index. Read the explanation
at the end of this practical.

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Measuring Species Diversity

First, you must sort all the moths into groups. Use characteristics which all the
moths have in common, but whose states vary. For example, relative antenna
length or ornimentation, wing colouration, wing markings, abdomen or thorax
size or shape might all be useful characters, but number of legs is not! Size is also
not a good characteristic to use (why?).

The operational taxonomic units or OTUs, that you define (the groups) can be
considered as separate species. Give each species a unique name, for ease of
discussion (this is what taxonomists do).

First, pick a moth species, comapre all three islands at the same time, and colourin or mark all the individuals you think belong to the same group (species). Then
pick the next moth species and repeat the procedure, untill all moths have been
assigned to a group.

Second, count how many individuals belong to each species on each island and
enter the values into the table provided.

Then, calculate species diversity for each island using the Simpson index D. You
can do this by hand, or you can use one of the calculators on the web. There are
instructions at the end on the practical. If you use the online calculator you can
also easily calculate species richness and evenness.

Your Report
You should discuss the following points in an essay style report (about 600 words).
Give a title, brief introduction, and present a neat table giving the
richness, eveness and D values for the moth species, and your priority for
conserving the three islands. Reference your report .

What are the basic building blocks or operational taxonomic units of

biodiversity ? Explain.

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Briefly explain what (1) species richness and (2) species evenness mean.

What was the order of the islands, from highest to lowest diversity?

How did you rank the islands for conservation? Did this follow the diversity values?
What other factors could you take into account when determining conservation
priority?

If we do not have the resources to protect all species, what criteria could we use to
decide where to focus our conservation efforts?

Due Date
Check the Assessment Details File for the date. This report is worth 10% of your total
mark.

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Table 1. Number of species and number of individuals of each species for three
Malaysian Islands. D = Simpson diversity index. P = priority ranking for restoration; 1
most urgent, 3=least urgent.

Species

Pulau Sipadan

Pulau
Talang

species richness
species evenness
Simpson Index (D)
Priority for Conservation

Talang- Pulau Redang

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Measuring Species Diversity

Understanding Simpsons Diversity Index

There are a number of good web sites which explain how to compare species diversity,
and some allow you to use their online calculator.
http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/simpsons.htm
http://www.umanitoba.ca/institutes/natural_resources/biodiversity/biodiversity.html

Simpson's Diversity Index is a measure of diversity. In ecology, it is often used to

quantify the biodiversity of a habitat. It takes into account the number of species present,
as well as the abundance of each species.

Biological Diversity - the great variety of life

Biological diversity can be quantified in many different ways. The two main factors taken
into account when measuring diversity are richness and evenness. Richness is a measure
of the number of different kinds of organisms present in a particular area. For example,
species richness is the number of different species present. However, diversity depends
not only on richness, but also on evenness. Evenness compares the similarity of the
population size of each of the species present.

1. Richness
The number of species per sample is a measure of richness. The more species present in a
sample, the 'richer' the sample.
Species richness as a measure on its own takes no account of the number of individuals
of each species present. It gives as much weight to those species which have very few
individuals as to those which have many individuals. Thus, one daisy has as much
influence on the richness of an area as 1000 buttercups.

2. Evenness
Evenness is a measure of the relative abundance of the different species making up the
richness of an area.
To give an example, we might have sampled two different fields for wildflowers. The
sample from the first field consists of 300 daisies, 335 dandelions and 365 buttercups.
The sample from the second field comprises 20 daisies, 49 dandelions and 931
buttercups (see the table below). Both samples have the same richness (3 species) and
the same total number of individuals (1000). However, the first sample has more
evenness than the second. This is because the total number of individuals in the sample is
quite evenly distributed between the three species. In the second sample, most of the

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individuals are buttercups, with only a few daisies and dandelions present. Sample 2 is
therefore considered to be less diverse than sample 1.

Flower Species
Daisy
Dandelion
Buttercup
Total

Numbers of individuals
Sample 1
Sample 2
300
20
335
49
365
931
1000
1000

A community dominated by one or two species is considered to be less diverse than one
in which several different species have a similar abundance.
As species richness and evenness increase, so diversity increases. Simpson's Diversity
Index is a measure of diversity which takes into account both richness and evenness.
As the species diversity increases, so does the value of Simpsons Diversity Index D.

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Measuring Species Diversity

Calculating Simpsons Diversity Index online

Step 1. Log on to your computer and navigate to the following website
http://www.umanitoba.ca/institutes/natural_resources/biodiversity/biodiversity.html
You should see the following screen.

Step 2. Click on the calculator shown

in Figure 1 on the screen, and the
following screen should appear.

Step 3. In the on-screen

data entry form, type in the
numer of individuals of each
moth species found on the
the first island. The values
must be separated by a
space. This screen shows and example with seven species; the first one has 10 individuals
and the seventh species has 12 individuals.

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Measuring Species Diversity

Step 4. Click the calculate diversity button, and a results box will appear like the one
below.

Step 5. In Table 1, record the Simpsons D value (2 decimal places only), Species
Richness and Shannons Eveness value. From the above example D=0.82, Richness=7
and Evenness=0.92.
Step 6. Repeat the calculation for the other two islands.

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Measuring Species Diversity

Calculating the Simpson Diversity Index by hand

This index is calculated as follows:

D = 1/pi2
where

pi

= the fractional abundance of the ith species on the island. For example if you

had a sample of two species with 5 individuals of one species and 8 individuals of the
other species (a total of 13 individuals)
D = 1 / (5/13)2 + (8/13)2)
= 1 / (0.38)2 + (0.62)2)
= 1/(0.52)
D = 1.92
so, as the value of D increases, so does the diversity.

Please note that you do not need to memorize how to do these calculations, but you
do need to remember that there are quantitative measures of species diversity.

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Measuring Species Diversity

Calculating the Simpson diversity index an example

Species

Pulau Sipadan

Pulau

1.
2.
3.
4.

5
8
9

5
7
2
6

total indiviuals
Simpson index (D)

22
2.8

20
3.6

Talang- Pulau Redang

Talang

Pulau Sipadan

D = 1/((5/22)2 + (8/22)2 + (9/22)2)

= 1/(0.23)2 + (0.36)2 + (0.41)2)
= 1/(0.05 + 0.13 + 0.17)
= 1/0.35
D = 2.8

Pulau Talang-Talang

D = 1/((5/20)2 + (7/20)2 + (2/20)2 + (6/20)2)

= 1/(0.25)2 + (0.35)2 + (0.10)2 + (0.30)2)
= 1/0.06 + 0.12 + 0.01 + 0.01)
= 1/0.28
D = 3.6

Therefore, as D = 3.6 is greater than D = 2.8 we can say that Pulau TalangTalang has more moth diversity than Pulau Sipadan.

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Measuring Species Diversity

Moths of SE Asia

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Measuring Species Diversity

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Measuring Species Diversity

Ecosystems &Biodiversity

Measuring Species Diversity

Ecosystems &Biodiversity

Measuring Species Diversity

Ecosystems &Biodiversity

Measuring Species Diversity

Ecosystems &Biodiversity

Measuring Species Diversity