Simpson's Index of Diversity Flashcards
1
Q
What is Simpson’s Index of Diversity ?
A
- It is measure of Species biodiversity
2
Q
What is Simpson’s Index of Diversity good?
A
- Takes into account (both of them):
- Species Richness - number of species
- Species Evenness - abundance of each species
3
Q
What is the formula of Simpson’s Index of Diversity ?
A
D = 1 - (Σ(n/N)^2)
4
Q
What is ‘n’ in Simpson’s Index of Diversity?
A
- Total number of individuals of one species
5
Q
What is ‘N’ in Simpson’s Index of Diversity?
A
- total number of individuals of all species
6
Q
How do you calculate Simpson’s Index of Diversity?
A
- Find the total of ‘n’ (adding all the values together)
- Then do ‘n/N’ for each value
- Then do ‘(n/N)^2’ of each value
- (the total) = Find the total of ‘(n/N)^2’
- Then do ‘1 - the total’
7
Q
How do you know that you calculate your Simpson’s Index of Diversity correctly?
A
- The Value for ‘D’ is always between 0 and 1
8
Q
What does a high value indicate?
A
- High species biodiversity
- High species richness
- High species Evenness
- stable ecosystem
- Ecosystem should be conserved
9
Q
What does a low value indicate?
A
- low species biodiversity
- low species richness
- low species Evenness
- not a stable ecosystem
- Ecosystem is dominated by one/few species (low species evenness)
- change to one species is likely to have a big effect on the whole ecosystem
