Species Richness

Species richness is the simplest measure of Biodiversity and is simply a count of the number of different species in a given area. It is referred to in Equation s as

S

.

There is a strong inverse Correlation in many groups between species richness and Latitude - the further from the Equator you go, the fewer species you will find, even when compensating for the reduced Surface Area of the Globe in higher latitudes. Equally, as altitude increases, species richness decreases, indicating an effect of area, avaiable energy, isolation and/or zonation (intermediate elevations can receive species from higher and lower). Other measures of biodiversity may also take into account the Rarity of the Taxa , and the amount of evolutionary Novelty they embody. As a measure of biodiversity, species richness suffers from the lack of a good definition of " Species ", but it is easy to measure, and is well studied.

Species richness has been found to be a good Surrogate for other measures of biodiversity that would be harder to measure directly. However, it fails to take into consideration Species Evenness . Other measures of biodiversity, such as the Simpson Index ,the Shannon-Wiener Index , and the fundamental biodiversity parameter

heta

of the Unified Neutral Theory Of Biodiversity take species evenness into consideration.

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Species Richness