Comparison of diversity indices applied to macrophyte incidence-based data (original) (raw)

Conceptual and statistical problems associated with the use of diversity indices in ecology

Revista de Biología Tropical, 2008

Diversity indices, particularly the Shannon-Wiener index, have extensively been used in analyzing patterns of diversity at different geographic and ecological scales. These indices have serious conceptual and statistical problems which make comparisons of species richness or species abundances across communities nearly impossible. There is often no a single statistical method that retains all information needed to answer even a simple question. However, multivariate analyses could be used instead of diversity indices, such as cluster analyses or multiple regressions. More complex multivariate analyses, such as Canonical Correspondence Analysis, provide very valuable information on environmental variables associated to the presence and abundance of the species in a community. in addition, particular hypotheses associated to changes in species richness across localities, or change in abundance of one, or a group of species can be tested using univariate, bivariate, and/or rarefaction statistical tests. The rarefaction method has proved to be robust to standardize all samples to a common size. Even the simplest method as reporting the number of species per taxonomic category possibly provides more information than a diversity index value. Rev. Biol. Trop. 57 : 451-460. Epub 2009 September 30.

Use of Pilou and Shannon Diversity Indexes in Description of Edaphic Fauna in Forests in South America

2nd Annual International Symposium on Animal Science & Zoology, Athens, 2018

The recognition and identification of the fauna and flora of an area, in particular a conservation unit, is of fundamental importance to protect and conserve local biodiversity. Agroforestry Systems (AFSs) are forms of use of land or management, in which tree species (fruit and timber) are combined with agricultural crops. When compared to conventional agriculture, AFSs such as advanced systems for supplying green fertilizers, controlling weeds and mainly, recovering and maintaining soil fertility, since it maintains a great variety in the fauna, simultaneously or in temporal sequence promoting the economic and ecological benefits. A diversity index is a mathematical measure of species diversity in a community. Measuring diversity is important in understanding the structure of the community. Diversity indexes are important because they provide more information about a community than just species richness. Diversity indexes also consider the relative abundance of different species and provide information on the rarity of the species, as the number of different species present as well. The biodiversity of edaphic fauna can be measured using statistical parameters derived from the idea of Entropy. In the present work the following parameters were used: the Pielou index, Pielou Equability, Pielou Equitability and Shannon-Wiener index. Five areas were selected: one for Agroforestry (AFS), one Pasture Area and one Preserved Forest area located at Private Reserve of Natural Heritage (RPPN) Serrinha Farmer (Serrinha Neighborhood - Bragança Paulista city, São Paulo State, Brazil).The fourth place was an area formerly used as a vegetable garden in a basic education school in the same city, and the fifth was an area for eucalyptus (Eucalyptus) in the rural zone of city of Pedra Bela, São Paulo.The area of the greatest biodiversity was the Eucalyptus Plantation, followed by the area of Preserved Forest and Agroforestry. The Pasture area was in fourth place, presenting the largest number of individuals, however, divided into a few groups. The area of lower biodiversity was the area represented by the vegetable garden.

A unified index to measure ecological diversity and species rarity. Ecography 31

2008

Several indices have been created to measure diversity, and the most frequently used are the Shannon-Wiener (H) and Simpson (D) indices along with the number of species (S) and evenness (E). Controversies about which index should be used are common in literature. However, a generalized entropy (Tsallis entropy) has the potential to solve part of these problems. Here we explore a family of diversity indices (S q ; where q is the Tsallis index) and evenness (E q ), based on Tsallis entropy that incorporates the most used indices. It approaches S when q 00, H when q 01 and gives D when q 0 2. In general, varying the value of the Tsallis index (q), S q varies from emphasis on species richness (qB1) to emphasis on dominance (q 1). Similarly, E q also works as a tool to investigate diversity. In particular, for a given community, its minimum value represents the maximum deviation from homogeneity (E q

A unified index to measure ecological diversity and species rarity

Ecography, 2008

Several indices have been created to measure diversity, and the most frequently used are the Shannon-Wiener (H) and Simpson (D) indices along with the number of species (S) and evenness (E). Controversies about which index should be used are common in literature. However, a generalized entropy (Tsallis entropy) has the potential to solve part of these problems. Here we explore a family of diversity indices (S q ; where q is the Tsallis index) and evenness (E q ), based on Tsallis entropy that incorporates the most used indices. It approaches S when q 00, H when q 01 and gives D when q 0 2. In general, varying the value of the Tsallis index (q), S q varies from emphasis on species richness (qB1) to emphasis on dominance (q 1). Similarly, E q also works as a tool to investigate diversity. In particular, for a given community, its minimum value represents the maximum deviation from homogeneity (E q

Statistical Properties and Performance of Ecological Indices Based On Relative Abundances

Journal of World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology. International Journal of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, 2013

The Improved Generalized Diversity Index (IGDI) has been proposed as a tool that can be used to identify areas that have high conservation value and measure the ecological condition of an area. IGDI is based on the species relative abundances. This paper is concerned with particular attention is given to comparisons involving the MacArthur model of species abundances. The properties and performance of various species indices were assessed. Both IGDI and species richness increased with sampling area according to a power function. IGDI were also found to be acceptable ecological indicators of conditions and consistently outperformed coefficient of conservatism indices. Keywords—Statistical ecology, MacArthur model, Functional Diversity.

Generalized entropy indices to measure α- and β-diversities of macrophytes

Brazilian Journal of Physics, 2009

A family of entropy indices constructed in the framework of Tsallis entropy formalism is used to investigate ecological diversity. It represents a new perspective in ecology because a simple equation can incorporate all aspects of α−diversity, from richness to dominance and can be also related to a measure of species rarity. In addition, a generalized Kullback-Leibler distance, constructed in the framework of a nonextensive formalism, is recalled and used as a measure of β−diversity between two systems. These tools are applied to data relative to the macrophytes collected from two not far apart arms of Itaipu Reservoir, in Paraná River basin.

Using Dispersion Statistic Scales as an Indicator for assessing the Biological Diversity

2018

Usi ng statistical analysis is important for ecology ministry, municipality organization, agriculture and industrial sectors. Means, standard deviations, variance, CV% and correlations were used as an indicator to assess the biological diversity. SPSS and PAST programs were used to analysis the data collected from natural habitats. Based on the dispersion statistics variance and CV% showed the most informative measures. High values of CV% recorded the highest biological diversity as well variance showed similar findings. CV% affirmed that diversity increased with increasing the elevation of regions above sea level. The coefficient of variation is valuable since the standard deviation of facts must always be known in the context of the mean of the data. Correlation coefficient (R) demonstrated the negative relationship between the species grown at the wild habitats. Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) was used and emphasized that there is wide diversity among the wild type biological species. Statistical tools and its applications are very important in evaluation the biological diversity which helping in developing conservation action plan for national, regional and international level.