Question

How do species richness and relative abundance of species affect species diversity?

Answer 1

Hint: The number of diverse species represented in an ecological community- Species richness. A component of biodiversity that refers to how rare or common a species- Relative species abundance.

Complete answer: The number of diverse species represented in an ecological community, region, or landscape is known as Species richness.
-A component of biodiversity which refers to how rare or common a species is relative to other species in a specific location or community is known as Relative species abundance.
-To measure species diversity, species richness and the relative abundance of species are two essential factors. Let's take an example, there are two communities that are composed of the same species and are identical in consideration to species richness and they are four diverse species of trees but the relative species abundance differs.
-While community two is mostly composed of A species. The relative species abundance is high b species A whereas species B, C, and D lacks relative species abundance. While going back at Community 1, the contribution of each of the four species was equal (25 percent of the population). When we compare, we see that the relative abundance of each species is more uniformly distributed.
-Both Community 1 and 2 have the same species richness. But the diversity of community 1 would be more because of the relative abundance of each species present. The number of species affects species diversity, but the number of individuals in each species is also important. Therefore, species diversity is affected by both.

Note: Both, the species richness and the relative species abundance describe key components of diversity. The Origin of Species, written by Charles Darwin explains about evolution and rarity of species.