Related topics: species

Only 10 vaquita porpoises survive, but species may not be doomed

The vaquita porpoise, the world's smallest marine mammal, is on the brink of extinction, with 10 or fewer still living in Mexico's Gulf of California, their sole habitat. But a genetic analysis by a team of UCLA biologists ...

Geneticists map the rhinoceros family tree

There's been an age-old question going back to Darwin's time about the relationships among the world's five living rhinoceros species. One reason answers have been hard to come by is that most rhinos went extinct before the ...

A diversity of wildlife is good for our health

A growing body of evidence suggests that biodiversity loss increases our exposure to both new and established zoonotic pathogens. Restoring and protecting nature is essential to preventing future pandemics. So reports a new ...

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Species diversity

Species diversity is an index that incorporates the number of species in an area and also their relative abundance. It is generally a much more useful value than species richness.

The most common index of species diversity is a family of equations called Simpson's Diversity Index[1].

Here is one such example

D = (n / N)2

Where n is the total number of organisms of a particular species and N is the total number of organisms of all species.D is the value of diversity. It can range between 0 and 1, whre 1 is the richest an Ecosystem can possibly be.

Humans have a huge effect on species diversity; the main reasons are: - Destruction, Modification, and/or Fragmentation of Habitat - Introduction of Exotic Species - Overharvest - Global Climate Change

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA