Biodiversity What is Biodiversity Calculating Biodiversity What is

Biodiversity -What is Biodiversity? -Calculating Biodiversity

What is Biodiversity? • Well lets break the word biodiversity down • Bio: Life • Diversity: Having Variety • Scientists use biodiversity to examine, predict, and increase the health of an environment.

Biodiverse Ecosystems • What are the components of biodiversity in an ecosystem? • Variety of: • • • Plants Animals Fungi Insects Bacteria Many species, many traits, many varieties • An ecosystem that has a high level of diversity is a system that can support itself, stay healthy, and be resistant to changes within the entire environment.

How Does a Rain Garden Increase Biodiversity? • A rain garden increases biodiversity by increasing the species richness of an ecosystem. • Scientists will use a specific equation to measure the amount of biodiversity, species evenness and species richness within a rain garden. • To the right this is what a typical rain garden looks like. • Lets explore how to measure and use the biodiversity equation.

How do Scientists Measure Biodiversity • How do we measure biodiversity? • Species Richness: The total number of species in an area. Must count and then add them up. • Species Evenness: How are the entire amount of species represented in the area (are most of the species the same? ). • Simpson’s Index: This index is found by taking species richness and species evenness and converting it into one number.

Calculations •

Example Time! • In a rain garden there are many species of organisms. Species A has 13 individual organisms, Species B has 4, Species C has 8, Species D has 5, and Species E has 9. Step 1 Put data in to a Chart Species Number of a Particular Species (n) A 13 B 4 C 8 D 5 E 9

• Species n n-1 n(n-1) Species A 13 13 -1=12 13(13 -1)=156 Species B 4 4 -1=3 4(4 -1)=12 Species C 8 8 -1=7 8(8 -1)=56 Species D 5 5 -1=4 5(5 -1)=20 Species E 9 9 -1=8 9(9 -1)=72 316

• Species n A 13 B 4 C 8 D 5 E 9 N 39

• Step 5: Analysis of Simpson’s Index • Simpson’s Index ranges from 0 -1 • 0 limited biodiversity in an area • 1 high biodiversity in an area • Our number is 0. 7753 • We have a high level of biodiversity within our sample area.