Question

How is biodiversity measured?

Answer 1

There are multiple ways to measure biodiversity.

Explanation:

There are multiple ways to measure biodiversity.

Biodiversity can be measured in relation to species richness, or the number of species in a given area.

Species diversity, also called alpha diversity, is a combination of species richness and also evenness. For example, if two communities had the same number of species for a given area, but one community had a more equal distribution, that community would have a greater species diversity.

Species evenness:

Species diversity can be measured using the Simpson Index or the Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index.

There's also genetic diversity, which is the genetic variability within a species. This can be measured by looking at phenotypic traits or using molecular methods.

To read related Socratic content, check out this link on the types of biodiversity. To read a lot more on measuring diversity, see this link.