Species Richness

Question 1

Species richness is the number

Answer 1

is number of species in community

Question 1

A community is a

Answer 1

group of populations of different species living in the same place at the same time that interact with each other

Question 2

Species richness is the simplest way to measure species diversity
A community with a greater number of species will have a

Answer 2

greater richness score

Question 3

Species richness can be a misleading indicator of diversity as it does not take into account the

Answer 3

number of individuals of each species

For example, habitat A has 10 different plant species and habitat B has 7 different plant species

Habitat A would be described as being more species-rich than habitat B

However, in habitat A there is only one individual of each plant species present (10 individuals present) while in habitat B there are over 20 individuals of each species present (over 140 individuals present)

This example illustrates the limitations of species richness

Question 4

Conservationists often favour the use of an index of diversity as it takes into account species number and evenness