Question

New York Shannon Diversity Index 3.52 vs. houston 4.01 what does this tell me about their biodiversity?

Answer 1

Hi Answer:

The Shannon diversity index (H) is an another type of index which is commonly used to measure the number of species or in another words we can say that it is a method used to characterize the species diversity in a particular community.

Shannon diversity index (H) is calculated by following method:

1. Number of individual of particular species divided by total number of individuals of all species.
2. Multiply the result of step 1 with its natural log
3. Repeat this procedure for each and every individual’s species which is found in community.
4. Sum up all the natural logs (of every species ) products to get the H value.

The Shannon diversity Index (H) can be made more biological understandable by converting it to the effective number of species (ENS), which shows the real biodiversity and allow us to compare the biodiversities of two communities with each other. The ENS is equal to the exp(H) means a community with Shannon index of H has an equivalent diversity as a community containing equally-common species of exp(H), the ENS. So by using this formula we can calculate the ENS from H.

As we have Shannon diversity index of two cities i.e. New York= 3.52 and Houston= 4.01, then we will go for the calculation of ENS of these two cities:

New York= 3.52 = exp (3.52)= 33.78. so ENS = 33.78

Houston= 4.01= exp (4.01)= 55.14. so ENS = 55.14

These results shows that the New York having H= 3.52 have equivalent diversity as a community with approximately 34 equally common species. It is similar for Houston having H=4.01 have about 55 equal common species. So by knowing the number of common species in every community we can compare them with each other. In this case Houston diversity have more common number of species as compared to the New York diversity.