Chapter 56.1, Problem 3R

Summary Introduction

To analyze:

The Shannon index value from the given table and the pond that has the higher diversity of species.

Given:

From the ponds of Mount St. Helens, the individuals from different number of species were collected and the data were recorded in Table 1.

Table 1: The number of individuals of each species present in pond A and pond B

Pond A
Species	Abundance	Proportion (pi)	ln (pi)	pi ln (pi)
Pacific tree frog	6
Western toad	8
Cascades frog	2
Northern red-legged frog
Total	20
Pond B
Pacific tree frog	5	0.25	–1.386	–0.347
Western toad	5	0.25	–1.386	–0.347
Cascades frog	5	0.25	–1.386	–0.347
Northern red-legged frog	5	0.25	–1.386	–0.347
Total	20	1.00		–1.388

Introduction:

The species diversity in different regions is calculated by using the Shannon index. In the given table, it is observed that the number of species or the species richness is similar in both the ponds, that is, pond A and pond B. However, the species diversity cannot be observed directly by just looking at the data. The species diversity is calculated by Shannon index, which considers the species evenness in an area.