Secondary IV • 8mo.
Hello, I have a question about grade 10 science :). To determine whether a space is more biodiverse, there are two factors that must be considered: richness of species or relative abundance. I have an example that I’m not sure which one is more biodiverse.
Forest A contains maple trees, fir trees, and birch trees, and the relative abundance is quite different. However, Forest B contains only two types of trees, but the relative abundance is all similar. So I wonder which one is with greater biodiversity? :)
Explanation from Alloprof
This Explanation was submitted by a member of the Alloprof team.
Thank you for question!
When in doubt about what biodiversity metric to use, prefer considering species richness. Therefore, the most biodiverse forest would be forest A, because forest A has 3 tree species.
If both forests had equal numbers of species, you could consider that the most biodiverse forest is the one with the most even relative abundance of each tree species.
All this said, some biodiversity metrics consider both species richness and relative abundance at once. These can provide a more holistic understanding of the biodiversity in an area.
Thank you for your question!