4.6 Index of Diversity

• What is species richness?

  The number of species in a community.
• Fill in the blank:

  A) 3

  B) 5

  
• What is a disadvantage of using species richness?

  It gives us no indication as to how many individuals there are within each species.
• Index of diversity is the relationship between the number of species and the number of individuals of each species in a community.
• Why is the index of diversity useful?

  It accounts for there being very many or very few of some species, unlike species richness.
• What is the equation for index of diversity?

  Fill in the blank:

  A) N

  B) N-1

  C) n

  D) n-1

  
• What does N reprosent in the equation for index of diversity?

  It reprosents the total number of organisms of all species.
• What does n reprosent in the equation for index of diversity?

  It reprosents the total number of organisms of each species