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L1 quantify communities

The lecture focuses on the quantification of community structure in ecology, highlighting components such as species richness, abundance, evenness, and composition. Ecologists study these aspects to understand biodiversity and inform conservation efforts, particularly in the context of restoring ecosystems like North American prairies. Methods for estimating species richness and diversity indices, such as Simpson's and Shannon-Wiener, are discussed to aid in the analysis of community dynamics.

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2 views

L1 quantify communities

The lecture focuses on the quantification of community structure in ecology, highlighting components such as species richness, abundance, evenness, and composition. Ecologists study these aspects to understand biodiversity and inform conservation efforts, particularly in the context of restoring ecosystems like North American prairies. Methods for estimating species richness and diversity indices, such as Simpson's and Shannon-Wiener, are discussed to aid in the analysis of community dynamics.

Uploaded by

karenalexandra267
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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BIOL 353 – Communities and Ecosystems

Lecture #2
Quantification of community structure:
species composition, species richness, relative abundance
and dominance, indices of diversity and evenness

[email protected]
Outline

1. What is community ecology?


2. Quantifying community structure
Chapter 16 COMMUNITY STRUCTURE
A broad definition of ecological community is
a group of species that occupy a given area,
interacting either directly or indirectly
– A spatial concept
COMMUNITY STRUCTURE
What are the components of the structure of
ecological communities?

1. The number of species in the community (Species richness)

2. The total number of individuals in the community (Abundance)

3. The spread of individuals among species (Evenness)

4. The identity of species in a community (Composition)


COMMUNITY STRUCTURE
Why do ecologists care about the structure
of ecological communities?

1. Understand the processes that enable the maintenance, and


govern the distribution, of biological diversity (a.k.a.
biodiversity)

2. Biodiversity relates to the diversity of life forms, which has an


intrinsic value for many of us, and which provide services to
humans

3. A better understanding of how biodiversity is maintained


through time and distributed in space is essential for effective
conservation efforts
Part Five COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

The prairies of North America once covered a large portion


of the continent. Today, less than 1% of the prairie remains
intact, mostly in small isolated patches

Western prairie fringed orchid


Part Five COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
In the early 1960s efforts to reverse the loss of prairie
ecosystems met with failure due to a poor understanding of
ecological communities

– Small populations that were too distant from other


patches (preventing pollination)

– A lack of understanding of the role of natural


disturbances (e.g., fire)

– Not the full complement of species diversity


Part Five COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
• Success in community restoration today is the
product of a better understanding of
community dynamics

Western prairie fringed orchid


Part Five COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
• Attempts at reconstructing communities raise
countless questions — questions central to
the study of ecological studies:

– What controls the relative abundance of species


within the community?
– What determines the composition of species in a
community?
– Do species in the community partition niches to
coexist?
– Do species all play the same function in the
community?
The community of trees on Mont Royal…
The community of trees in the Blue Ridge
Mountains of West Virginia…
16.1
• Species richness (S) is the count of the number of
species occurring within the community

• Abundance (N) is the total number of individuals in a


community (all species confounded)

• Relative abundance (P) represents the percentage of


individuals (ni) each species contributes to the total
number of individuals (N) in a community
QUANTIFYING ECOLOGY 16.1 Estimating
Species Richness
• Species richness (S) is the simplest measure of
diversity

• Some consider species richness one of the most


important component of community structure
– Robert May (1936 – 2020) famously stated if aliens were to visit
the planet and ask how many different life forms exist, we would
not be able to give an accurate response

• Estimating richness within a single community is less


daunting, but even then, we usually rely on an estimate
rather than an absolute number
QUANTIFYING ECOLOGY 16.1 Estimating
Species Richness
• To estimate the number of species we need to delineate a
sampling area (e.g. site)

• More species will be encountered with increasing


sampling effort; i.e. the more sample taken at a site, the
higher the estimated species richness (S)

• We can use « accumulation curves » to asses the


completeness of the sampling effort, and therefore our
level of confidence in the estimation of S
QUANTIFYING ECOLOGY 16.1 Estimating
Species Richness
QUANTIFYING ECOLOGY 16.1 Estimating
Species Richness
Species accumulation curve:
– Where the abscissa (x-axis) = number of samples
– Ordinate (y-axis) = estimated species richness (S)
– Species richness can be estimated based on the asymptote of
the accumulation curve
– If no plateau is reached, then we cannot be confident in our
estimation of S
Context:
Pretend that you are working for a National Park as a
conservation scientist. One area of the park has
serpentine soil, which is a type of soil that few plants can
grow on. As a result, many of the plants in that area are
rare and therefore a concern for conservation.

Question:
In order to convince the Quebec Government to invest
funds in protecting this area of the park, you must
estimate the number of plant species occurring there.
You therefore carry on a survey by identifying the species
found in 20 quadrats. However, your accumulation curve
doesn’t reach a plateau. What can you do to improve
your estimation of (S)?
16.1 Rank abundance curves
A common method for comparing patterns of species
richness and evenness between communities is
to plot the relative abundance of each species against
rank (called a rank- abundance curve or the Whittaker plot)
16.3 DOMINANCE

• When a single or few species predominate within a


community, these species are referred to as
dominants

• Dominant species are usually defined separately


for different taxonomic or functional groups of
organisms within the community (e.g., tree versus
herbaceous plant species)

• A community with a high level of dominance also


exhibit low evenness
16.3 DOMINANCE

• Dominance can reflect the number of individuals, size of


individuals, or some combination of characteristics that
include both the number and size of individuals

• Dominant species are


typically the dominant
competitors under the
prevailing environmental
conditions

(N.B. Other factors may also


determine dominance within
communities)
16.3 DOMINANCE

• Why are some species dominant?


Zebra mussel: an invasive species

Kudzu: an invasive species


16.1 SPECIES DIVERSITY
• Diversity indices provide a way to quantify the
relationship between species richness and
relative abundance

• Example of diversity indices:


-Simpson’s diversity index
-Shannon-Wiener diversity index
16.1 SPECIES DIVERSITY

Simpson’s diversity index

D = 1/SPi2

S = summation for all species


Pi = relative abundance of each species expressed as a proportion
• Pi = ni / N

ni = number of individuals of species i


N = total number of individuals of all species

D ranges from 1 to S (Dmax = species richness)


16.1 SPECIES DIVERSITY

• Species evenness
E = D/Dmax
– Dmax = species richness
– D = diversity index
– Is a measure used to determine the equitable
distribution of individuals among species in a
community
– Ranges from 0 to 1 (maximum evenness indicates the
relative abundance of all individuals belonging to n-
species is equal)
Which of these communities is more even?
Community A Community B
16.5 SPECIES COMPOSITION

• Species composition relates to the identity or


make up of species in a community
– Sometimes takes into consideration abundance,
but the focus is on identity

• Species composition can only be quantified in


relation to another community
– Similarity in the composition of species between community A and B
Which component of community structure
differs between these communities?
Community A Community B
16.5 SPECIES COMPOSITION

• Communities may have similar richness and


diversity indices but differ in composition

• In the southern Boreal forest, variation in stand


types (e.g., black spruce stands) can reflect
composition of understory species (e.g., lichens
and mosses)
– Changes in species composition may indicate
differences in substrate conditions
16.5 SPECIES COMPOSITION

• Multivariate statistical methods (e.g. Ordination)


allow for more sophisticated comparisons of
community structure based on species
composition

data from Fowler et al. 2014, Journal of Animal Ecology

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