## How to calculate species abundance and diversity

1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data
This is the sample population taken along a 5m transect:
ants:9
grasshoppers:1
pill bugs:4
spiders:1

2. Relevant equations
What formulas would i use to calculate the species abundance and diversity?

3. The attempt at a solution
I only know this formula H'=-$\Sigma$ (n$_{}i$/N)xIn(n$_{}i$/N) and i dont know what to do with this formula.
1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data

2. Relevant equations

3. The attempt at a solution
 PhysOrg.com science news on PhysOrg.com >> New language discovery reveals linguistic insights>> US official: Solar plane to help ground energy use (Update)>> Four microphones, computer algorithm enough to produce 3-D model of simple, convex room
 Recognitions: Homework Help Hi blicker! Can it be that your formula is actually: where "ln" is the natural logarithm (and also a button on your calculator), and where ni is the number of individuals of species i? See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_index
 yes thats it! but i dont know what numbers go where or how to calculate it. like would i include the sigma symbol and the letters above and below it?

Recognitions:
Homework Help

## How to calculate species abundance and diversity

The sigma symbol indicates that you have to sum.
So:
$$H'=-\sum_{i=1}^S {n_i \over N} \ln {n_i \over N} = -({n_1 \over N} \ln {n_1 \over N} + {n_2 \over N} \ln {n_2 \over N} + {n_3 \over N} \ln {n_3 \over N} + {n_4 \over N} \ln {n_4 \over N})$$

From wiki:
* ni The number of individuals in species i; the abundance of species i.
* S The number of species. Also called species richness.
* N The total number of all individuals
* pi The relative abundance of each species, calculated as the proportion of individuals of a given species to the total number of individuals in the community: $n_i\over N$
 so would the equation for ants look like this: -(9/15)In(9/15)

Recognitions:
Homework Help
 Quote by blicker so would the equation for ants look like this: -(9/15)In(9/15)
Well, Shannon's index specifies to sum all the terms.
So what you mention is only part of H'.

Btw, it is $ln$ ("logarithmus naturalis").

And apparently $n_i$ is the "species abundance".
Furthermore $p_i={n_i \over N}$ is the "relative species abundance".