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Example Calculations

This document provides an example of how to calculate various ecological metrics from raw diameter and count data from two plant species across two samples. It shows converting diameters to areas, then calculating density, dominance, frequency, relative metrics, and importance values for each species using provided formulas. Formulas include density as the number of individuals divided by total area, dominance as the area of a species divided by total area, and importance value as the sum of relative density, dominance and frequency.

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Ella Bowling
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63 views4 pages

Example Calculations

This document provides an example of how to calculate various ecological metrics from raw diameter and count data from two plant species across two samples. It shows converting diameters to areas, then calculating density, dominance, frequency, relative metrics, and importance values for each species using provided formulas. Formulas include density as the number of individuals divided by total area, dominance as the area of a species divided by total area, and importance value as the sum of relative density, dominance and frequency.

Uploaded by

Ella Bowling
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Example Calculations

The example below shows how to do the calculations. In order to simplify things for this example, we will use only two samples. In each sample there are two species. We will call these species #1 and species #2.

Raw Data Table


Sample #:1 Species #1 #2 Sample #: 2 Species #1 #2 Diameters 0.2, 0.2 cm 0.3, 0.4, 0.4 cm Diameters 0.2, 0.3, 0.1 cm 0.2, 0.3, 0.1, 0.4, 0.2 cm

Density
The formula for density is: Number of Individuals Density= _________________ Equation #1 Sum of all plot areas For species #1, this becomes: 5 individuals Density(Species #1) =_________________ = 25 individuals/m2 0.2 sq m.

8 individuals Density(Species #2) =_________________ = 40 individuals/m2 0.2 sq m.

Dominance
The formula for dominance is: Area covered by a species Dominance = ____________________ Equation #2 Sum of all plot areas

Plant diameters in the data table must be converted to metric measure if they were measured in feet or inches. In the table above, the measurements are already in centimeters. Each diameter must be converted to area. This can be done by using the table provided or by using the formula:

Using the Diameter to Area Conversion table, the areas for each individual of species #1 are: Diameter 0.2 cm 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.2 Area 0.0314 cm2 0.0707 0.0079 0.0314 0.0314

The areas listed above are in the same units as the diameters. The diameters were measured in centimeters so the areas are in square centimeters. They can be converted to square meters by dividing by 10,000. The five areas listed above become 0.00000314 m2, 0.00000707, 0.00000079, 0.00000314, 0.00000314. The sum of these numbers is 0.00001728. The equation for dominance (equation #2 above) becomes: 0.00001728 Dominance (species #1) = ____________________ = 0.0000864 = 8.64 X 10-5 0.2 Similar calculations for species #2 are Diameter 0.2 cm 0.3 0.1 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.4 Area 0.0314 cm2 0.0707 0.0079 0.1257 0.0314 0.0707 0.1257 0.1257

Each of these numbers divided by 10,000 become: 0.00000314, 0.00000707, 0.00000079, 0.00001257, 0.00000314, 0.00000707, 0.00001257, 0.00001257 The sum of these numbers is 0.00005892. 0.00005892 Dominance (species #2) = ____________________ = 0.000295 = 2.95 X 10-4 0.2

Frequency

The equation for calculating frequency is: Number of plots which have at least 1 individual Frequency = ____________________________________ Equation #3 Total number of plots sampled For species #1: 2 Frequency (species #1)= ___ = 1 2

2 Frequency (species #1) = ___ = 1 2

Relative Density
The equation for calculating relative density is: Relative Density = density/total density of all species 25 Relative Density (species #1) = ______ = 0.385 25 + 40 Equation #4

40 Relative Density (species #2) = ______ = 0.615 25 + 40

Relative Dominance
Relative Dominance = dominance/total dominance for all species 0.0000864 Relative Dominance (species #1) = __________________ = 0.227 0.0000864 + 0.000295 Equation #5

0.000295 Relative Dominance (species #2) = __________________ = 0.773 0.0000864 + 0.000295

Relative Frequency
Relative Frequency = frequency/total frequency of all species Equation #6

1 Relative Frequency (species #1) = __________________ = 0.5 1+1

1 Relative Frequency (species #2) = __________________ = 0.5 1+1

Importance Value
Importance Value = relative density + relative dominance + relative frequency Importance Value (species #1) = 0.385 + 0.773 + 0.5 = 1.11 Importance Value (species #2) = 0.615 + 0.773 + 0.5 = 1.89 Equation #7

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