The species richness of a community is the number of different species found within that community, but to know about species diversity requires taking into consideration the relative numbers of individuals of each species within the community. Species richness can be calculated in several ways and here we'll use the Shannon diversity index (Hs) to determine the species diversity in some hypothetical communities. This way of calculating species diversity takes into account even small contributions to diversity made by rare species; this makes the index useful for conservation biologists studying the contributions of those species to the community.
The table shows data about the richness and numbers of different species in a particular community.
a) Fill in the blanks in the table to calculate the Shannon diversity index (Hs) for the community. Calculate all values to two decimal places.
Species Abundance Pi lnpi pilnpi
A 597
B 665
C 109
D 771
E 681
Total Hs