Answer to Question #64730 in Ecology for Sanjukta Ghosh

Question

What are biodiversity indices? What are the broad categories of biodiversity indices and what falls under them?

Answer 1

Biodiversity index is a mathematical measure of species diversity in a community.

There are 2 categories of biodiversity indices:
1. Dominance Indices are weighted toward the abundance of the commonest species. A widely used dominance index is Simpson’s diversity index. It takes into account both richness and evenness.

2. Information-Statistic Indices can take into account rare species in a community. Information- statistic indices are based on the rationale that diversity in a natural system can be measured in a way that is similar to the way information contained in a code or message is measured.