[Ecoed] Comparing Diversities

[cpicone]

Hi William at all:

I recommend Colwell¹s free EstimateS program.

http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/estimates

It generates species accumulation curves  from your samples, and rarefaction
curves from Species vs individuals.  The user¹s guide is very friendly.  I
would also recommend the pdf linked to the user¹s guide:

Gotelli, N.J. and R.K. Colwell. 2001. Quantifying biodiversity: procedures
and pitfalls in the measurement and comparison of species richness. Ecology
Letters 4: 379-391.

This article explains why accumulation curves (or rarefaction) are
appropriate measures of diversity.

Cheers, 

Chris Picone
Biology Dept.
Fitchburg State College
160 Pearl St.
Fitchburg, MA 01420




On 1/21/08 10:01 PM, "William E Williams" <WEWilliams at smcm.edu> wrote:

> Dear Ecoed,
> 
> A student of mine wants to compare the diversity of two similar communities in
> different places. Can someone point me at references about how to do this? Is
> it possible to determine whether, for example, two values of the Shannon index
> are significantly different? I have this feeling that I've seen such
> comparisons somewhere, but a quick search of my bookshelf and the web didn't
> turn up anything useful.
> 
> -W2
> 
>  
> 
> William E. Williams <mailto:WEWilliams at smcm.edu>
>  
> 
> Professor of Biology
>  
> 
> Saint Mary's College of Maryland
>  
> 
> 18952 E Fisher Rd, Saint Marys City, MD 20686
>  
> 
> (240)895-4365
>   
> 
> 
> 
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