Biodiversity and Its Measurement
Big idea: Biodiversity includes genetic, species and ecosystem variation; reliable assessment requires defined sampling, detection methods and metrics that separate richness from evenness.
Learning goals
- species richness
- evenness
- sampling effort
- transect
- environmental DNA
Core concepts
species richness
The number of species detected in a defined area or sample.
evenness
How equally individuals are distributed among the species in a community.
sampling effort
The amount of search time, area, traps or observations used to detect organisms.
transect
A line or belt along which observations are made systematically across an environmental gradient.
environmental DNA
Genetic material collected from water, soil or air and used to detect organisms without direct capture.