Question

Consider the following data from four well established islands of similar size that lie off the coast of Australia.

Species	Number of individuals by species on:
	Island 1	Island 2	Island 3	Island 4
A	0	25	0	50
B	0	6	0	45
C	100	16	65	40
D	0	0	50	0
E	0	100	0	55
F	50	0	60	0
G	80	75	10	45
H	0	25	300	40
I	0	48	0	0
J	0	0	0	50

Which of these islands has the greatest species richness. Which of these islands has the highest diversity (just “eyeball it” - you do not need to actually calculate with a formula).

Assuming these islands are all about the same size which is most likely closest to a mainland? Why?

Answer 1

ans-island 2 and 4 have the highest species richness as they have 7 species compared to 3 species in island 1 and 5 species in island 3

Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region

island 4 will have more genetic diversity eventhough island 2 and 4 have equal no. of species because all the species have almost similar abundance in island 4

in island 2 there is species dominance of E and G as compared to other species so there is less diversity

the island closest to the mainland will have least diversity because it has been not seperated for long ,while the island with most diversity would have seperated a long time ago

so island 1 will be closest to the mainland as it has least diversity