Advanced Biology

Biodiversity Lab Report

March 4th, 2016

Group members:

Kittikhom Wannapak
Jiravadee Tangjariyatam
Luksika Wisitthipakdeekul
Nichanan Suteeduangsamorn

Grade 11 Section 5
Abstract

Shannon diversity index could be applied to compare the species diversity within the

area of a different community. The data of different areas are gathered and applied to the

formula. The results calculated can be use to determine the number and relative abundance of

a species in a community which could be later use as a comparison to compare the diversity

between two or more community.

Introduction

Biodiversity is the variety of species on the earth including plant, animal, and

microorganism. Biodiversity is significant to ecosystem because every species whether small

species or large species also play important roles to drive the ecosystem[1]. There are two

main components of biodiversity which are species richness and relative abundance. Species

richness is the number of species in the particular community, while relative abundance is the

proportion of each species represent for all individuals in the community. The method to

calculate how diverse of each community is called the Shannon diversity index. It is the

calculation based on species richness and relative abundance. The Shannon diversity is

represented by (H) in the formula: ,

whereas p is strand for the proportion of species and total area and A, B, C, represent the

variation of species type. The community that has higher Shannon diversity will be more

diverse than others[2].

Not only it could be use to calculate in only one marked fields, the results calculated

from different fields could be use in comparison to determine which community is more

diverse than the other. After comparing, its possible that we could analyse and figure out the

reason why different community have a different results. The possibility that the minor

differences of each community(different marked field) would have an impact on their

diversity due to the fact that the different marked fields might slightly have a different

environment, such as water resources, which is sensible that it may or may not leads to a

presence of serveral species in those marked field.

Purpose

Use the Shannon diversity index to compare biodiversity between 2 quadrants.

Materials

1. two 1m*1m quadrants

2. rulers

3. cameras

4. Data tables

5. Calculator

Methods

1. Find the area with the same environment such as same specis of plant.

2. Find seperate area of studing.

3. Mark the plot 1m 1m to study and separate each area the soem distance.

4. Indentify different plant and weeds species.

5. Countthe number of each species.

Results

Table 1. The number and proportion of individuals in each species in quadrant 1

Species Number found Pi ln(Pi) Piln(Pi)

A 60 0.1446 -1.9338 -0.2796

B 60 0.1446 -1.9338 -0.2796

C 20 0.0481 -3.0345 -0.1460

Ant 10 0.0241 -3.7255 -0.0898

D 265 0.6386 -0.4485 -0.2864

Total 415 1.0000 0 -1.084

H = 1.084

Table 1. The number and proportion of individuals in each species in quadrant 2

Species Number found Pi ln(Pi) Piln(Pi)

Dandelion 35 0.0512 -2.9720 -0.1521

B 130 0.1903 -1.6591 -0.3157

C 4 5.9*10^-3 -5.1329 -0.0303

D 1 1.5*10^-3 -6.5023 -9.8*10^-3

E 513 0.7511 -0.2862 -0.2150

Total 683 1.0000 0 -0.7229

H = 0.7229
Quadrant 1
Quadrant 2
-Shannon Index calculations

Discussion

For this experiment, using the 1m*1m quadrants in order to create the two locations,

which both areas were selected not far from each other. The organisms that stay inside the

quadrant were counted by using plot sample and real counting. For the organism that exist all

around the area, using plot sample method is easier than the actual counting by counting the

number of individual in small proportion in big quadrant (20cm*20cm) and multiply the real

number by the big quadrant. However, some species that exist in some area in the experiment

is suitable for real counting in order to make the number to be more accurate. In addition, the

species richness is the total number of species in the two areas. Both areas have 5 different

species each; therefore, the species richness is the same. On the other hand, the relative

abundance is the proportion of each species in the area. In the first area, the number of

individual species A, B, C, ant, and D were 60, 60, 20, 10, and 265, respectively, while the

second area has dandelion, species B, C, D, and E were 35, 130, 4, 1, 513 in order.

Therefore, the relative species abundance is different. The first area had more relative species

abundance than the second area because in the first area number of individual species had

almost as same number as each other, while number of individual species in the second area

were different a lot. For example, specie E in the second area is more easily to notice than

specie D in the same area due to the proportion of each specie. Moreover, shanon diversity

also plays a role in calculating the diversity, which is based on species richness and relative

abundance. This is the formula of shanon diversity . This

formula was used to determine whether which area has more diversity. For the first area, H=

-0.1446ln0.1446 + 0.1446ln0.1446 + 0.0481ln0.0481 + 0.0241ln0.0241 + 0.6386ln0.06386,

which H is equal to 1.084. In the second area, H= -0.0512ln0.0512 + 0.1903ln0.1903 +

5.9*10^-3ln5.9*10^-3 + 1.5*10^-3ln1.5*10^-3 + 0.7511ln0.7511, so H is equal to 0.7229.

According from the value of H in both areas, the first area was more diverse than the second

area.

Conclusion:

The first quadrant from the experiment has result which are 1.084, more than the

second quadrant that has 0.7229.

References

[1] Shah, A. (2014, January 19). Biodiversity. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org

[2] Reece, J. (2011). Campbell Biology (9th ed., Global ed.). San Francisco: Pearson

Education.