ENV 313.

2 BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION OF SPECIES

ASSIGNMENT 1

Biodiversity Indexes and Explanations

Submitted to: Md. Shawkat Islam Sohel

Submitted by:
Antara Rizwani 1831833626
Mehjabee Mattra Mattra 1831653026
Tawfic Noor 1912846026
Sudipta Sarkar 1831704626
Lamia Mahzabin 1831870626
Soil nutrients and tree species data from 5 sites is given for this exercise. You need to analyze the

following task:

1. Vegetation Diversity using Shannon Index, Simpson Index and evenness index

METHOD/NAME SHANON INDEX SIMPSON INDEX EVENNESS INDEX

T1 1.061266 0.458560 0.321114

T2 2.090970 0.834944 0.476045

T3 1.312086 0.638922 0.285686

T4 0.833426 0.473016 0.575297

T5 0.473033 0.220096 0.320971

The Shannon index has a range from 0 to 5. From the obtained results we can see that T2-2.090970
has the highest value, indicating the highest diversity among all the samples. The lowest value is for
T5- 0.473033, indicating the least diversity among all samples.

The Simpson index has a range from 0 to 1. The greater the value, the greater the diversity. From
the results we can see that, T2 with a value of 0.834944 has the highest diversity and T5 with a value
of 0.220096 has the lowest diversity.

The Evenness index has a range from 0 to 1. From the data table we can see that T4 has the greatest
evenness of species whereas T3 has the least evenness. T2 had the highest diversity in terms of
Shannon and Simpson index values. However, it has the second highest evenness with a value of
0.476045.

So, from all the analysis, we can see that results are consistent with the values of Simpson and
Shannon, with deviation from the evenness index.
2. Rank abundance curve

The rank abundance curve calculates the total number of each species. Then all the species are
ranked from most abundant to least abundant. Here, the most prominent species are Gewa, Sundari
and Kakra. Gewa is the most abundant, with around 1000 individuals. This is followed by Sundari
with more than 750 individuals. Then comes Kakra with a lower number of less than 100 individuals.
There is a number of other species as well, but they are few in number with respect to the
prominent species.
3. Species Accumulation Curve

This curve shows the cumulative number of species for all the sites surveyed. Site 1 has a species
richness score of approximately 10. Site 2 has roughly a score of (14-10) = 4. This carries on till site 5,
which shows a cumulative richness score of slightly above 20.
4. Ordination graph using MDS analysis and CCA ordination

This graph shows the ecological distance between sites. We can see that T1, T2 and T3 are far apart
from each other. T4 and T5 are very close to each other, indicating similarities in biodiversity. T1 and
T2 are equally apart from T3. In addition to that, T1, T2, and T3 are equally far apart from T5.
CCA is Canonical Correspondence Analysis. Such  a graph is used to relate the way environmental
variables are connected with the abundance of species in a given area.

The map shown below depicts the way species of vegetation are sensitive to environmental factors,
more importantly the features of soil e.g. plant species such as Golpata and Kali lota show a clear
sensitivity to pH levels of the soil, however they show a negative association with levels of BD, EC,
and a relatively low sensitivity to OC. 

Plants which are in a cluster also tend to share similar preference and sensitivity to the clusters. An
example would be the cluster on the right of Goran, Keora, and Gewa. Those species have a
relatively high dependency on OC and a slight dependency on pH which indicates all of the species
here can grow on similar soil types even in close proximity to one another.
5. Cluster analysis

The clusters show that there is similarity between the species of T2 and T3, and between T4 and T5.
However, T1 does not have any similarities with any of the other samples, which is why it has a
separate branch with no other members. The similarities between T4 and T5 was also shown in the
MDS graph. There, T4 and T5 were very close to each other. The cluster further proves that fact.