Lab 1.

Exercises on biodiversity
Industrial Ecology, Academic Year 2024/25

Exercise 1.1
A team of field ecologists is studying the diversity of two terrestrial communities. To that end, they
have sampled some individuals from each community. The results are as follows:

A, C, B, A, A, B, D, D, A, A,
C, B, A, A, C, A, B, B, A, C,
• community 1
B, C, A, C, D, D, A, A, A, A,
A, B, A, D, A

A, A, B, B, A, C, E, A, B, C,
• community 2 D, C, E, B, A, D, D, E, C, D,
E, B, C, C, D, A

(each capital letter corresponds to a sampled individual; individuals belonging to the same species are
listed with the same letter). Determine which community is characterized by higher α-biodiversity
using both Shannon and Simpson indexes, as well as the related evenness indexes.

Exercise 1.2
While studying a simple mountain community, a researcher compiled the following list of organisms
found in a random sample:

S1 = 2, S2 = 1, S3 = 4, S4 = 2,

where Sr indicates the number of species represented by r individuals in the sample. Estimate the
α-diversity of the community using Shannon index and the related evenness index.

Exercise 1.3
A representative sample of an aquatic community contains organisms from 20 different species. The
fraction pr of species represented by r individuals in the sample can be well approximated by the
geometric distribution
pr = z r −1 (1 − z) ,

with z = 0.5. Estimate the α-diversity of the aquatic community using Simpson index and the
related evenness index.

Exercise 1.4
A group of ornithologists has observed the species of birds that live in the coniferous forests of South
Finland. The results of their survey are reported in the following table:

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 Species # observed pairs
Dendrocopos maior 2
Prunella modularis 2
Erithacus rubecola 4
Phoenicurus phoenicurus 2
Regulus regulus 6
Muscicapa striata 11
Ficedula hypoleuca 3
Parus montanus 6
Parus cristatus 3
Parus maior 4
Certhia familiaris 1
Fringilla coelebs 23
Fringilla montifringilla 4
Carduelis spinus 18

Evaluate the α-diversity of the bird community using Shannon and Simpson indexes. Also, plot the
species-abundance frequency histogram in scale of octaves. In all cases, consider pairs of birds as
single individuals.

Exercise 1.5
The figure below diagrams classical data (elaborated after Preston, 1948) on the abundance of
various species of moths (as collected by Dirks, 1937).

The number of species Sr represented by r individuals in the sample is quite well approximated
by a lognormal distribution. The number of species in scale of octaves thus follows the normal
distribution  2
z
Sz = S0 exp − ,
2
where
log2 (r ) − µ
z= ,
σ

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with µ = 3 and σ = 3.4 being the mean and the standard deviation of the distribution (in scale of
octaves), respectively. Knowing that the number of species found in Dirks’ sample is 349, evaluate
the number of species that are present in the community, yet missing from the sample. To that
purpose, use the following table reporting the areas under a standard normal distribution.

Exercise 1.6
A team of ecologists is studying the biodiversity of the bird community living in a natural reserve.
The researchers are capable of recognizing the bird species by their songs. They also know that the
birds living in the reserve are highly territorial. They thus decide to walk along five different paths

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within the reserve, carefully taking notes of the birds they encounter. The results of the experiment
can be summarized as follows:
A, C, C, H, B, A, N, E,
• path 1 H, C, M, I, C, D, C, B,
H, H, C, P, G, I, N, B

Q, C, H, I, C, L, B, C,
• path 2 G, A, G, C, H, F, C, N,
I, L, B, I, A, C

I, C, P, C, H, B, C, G,
• path 3 C, I, I, A, E, C, N, B,
H, Q, A, L, P, C, C

O, C, H, B, A, I, P, H,
• path 4 C, B, N, C, L, C, H, D,
G, C, Q, E, H, B, C

H, F, C, H, B, H, A, N,
• path 5 H, G, I, R, B, C, A, L,
H, E, P, B, I, H, A, G

(each capital letter corresponds to a bird encounter; birds belonging to the same species are listed
with the same letter). Grouping the data from all five samples into one, estimate α-diversity using
Simpson and Shannon indexes, along with the respective evenness indexes. Also, plot the species-
abundance histogram in scale of octaves. Afterwards, by considering the data from two paths (e.g. 1
and 2) as samples from independent communities, provide an estimate of the β-diversity of the bird
community using Jaccard and Sorensen indexes.

Exercise 1.7
The figure below shows three contiguous farms (1, 2 and 3) and the vegetation patches within them.
Each letter corresponds to a different tree species. Estimate:

• α-diversity via Shannon diversity index and the related evenness index for each single vegetation
patch, each farm, and the whole area;

• β-diversity according to Jaccard index between each pair of patches within the same farm and
each pair of farms.

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Exercise 1.8
The figure below shows data obtained from the 12 islands of the Enchanted Isles archipelago.
Biogeographical research in the area has shown that the immigration end extinction rates can be
reasonably well approximated as linear functions of island-mainland distances and island areal extents,
respectively (in the figure, dots are experimental observations from the 12 islands, while lines are
best-fit regressions).

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Using MacArthur and Wilson model and the data shown in the figure above, estimate the species
richness for:

• an island at distance D = 200 km from the mainland and an areal extent A = 50 km2 ;

• an island at distance D = 350 km from the mainland and an areal extent A = 30 km2 ;

as the fraction of mainland species that are expected to be present on the islands at equilibrium.

Exercise 1.9
The table below reports data about the countries of origin of the natural gas imported by Italy in
2010 and 2020. The data is from the Ministry of Ecological Transition (dgsaie.mise.gov.it/
gas_naturale_importazioni.php?lang=en_US) and is expressed as the fraction (%) of the total
volume of imported gas coming from each country.

Source country 2010 2020

Algeria 36.7 22.8
Austria 4.7 0.0
Egypt 1.2 0.0
Germany 2.2 0.0
Libya 12.5 6.7
Netherlands 4.2 1.4
Norway 4.0 11.0
Qatar 8.2 10.6
Russia 19.9 43.3
USA 0.0 2.6
Others EU 3.6 1.0
Others non-EU 2.8 0.6

Determine which of the two geographic mixes is the most diverse using species richness, Shannon
index, and the related evenness index. Also, evaluate the compositional diversity of the two mixes
using Jaccard index.

[IndEco exam—January 31, 2022]

Exercise 1.10
The Brillouin index is an alternative to the Shannon or Simpson indexes that is better suited to
quantify α-diversity when the randomness of a sample cannot be guaranteed, for example when
certain species are preferentially sampled. The index reads as
" S
#
1 X
H= log(Ntot !) − log(Ni !) ,
Ntot i=1

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where Ni is the number of individuals in the sample belonging to species i, S is the species richness,
and Ntot = Si=1 Ni is the total abundance of individuals in the sample. Note that n! = 1 × 2 ×
P

3 × . . . × n is the factorial of n, while log(n) indicates the natural logarithm of n.

Consider the following biodiversity survey data from two nearby forest plots (A and B):

Species i NiA NiB

1 10 0
2 8 2
3 6 4
4 0 5
5 0 13

For each forest plot, evaluate:

• the α-diversity of the two communities in terms of the Brillouin index,

• the maximum value of the Brillouin index (given the species richness and the total abundance
of individuals in each plot), and

• the corresponding evenness index.

Furthermore, estimate the β-diversity of the two communities using the Jaccard index.

[IndEco exam—June 25, 2024]