20.8 – Diversity indexes

[under construction]

A diversity index is a measure of how many different kinds (e.g., species) are present in a dataset.  These indexes are more than a count of the different types; they also account for how common (or rare) a kinds is. Diversity indexes are examples of use of multivariate statistics: two or more predictor variables and two or more response variables.

There are many varieties of diversity indexes, but two are well known.

H, Shannon’s Diversity Index

Shannon’s Index accounts for abundance and evenness of all species present in an area. Evenness refers to how close the numbers of each species are in an area.

Simpson

Statistical significance

Comparing indices

Software:

Download and install the BiodiversityR package, a GUI for biodiversity, suitability and community ecology analysis.  Utilizes vegan package.

Chapter 20 contents

• Additional topics
• Area under the curve
• Peak detection
• Baseline correction
• Surveys
• Time series
• Cluster analysis
• Estimating population size
• Diversity indexes
• Survival analysis
• Growth equations and dose response calculations
• Plot a Newick tree
• Phylogenetically independent contrasts
• How to get the distances from a distance tree
• Binary classification

/MD