In all cases the non‐linear dependence of productivity and nutrient acquisition on Σ r and NUE during exponential growth was the single mechanism underlying these effects. Species richness (S) is the number of species within a defined region.The species richness of a region is obtained through sampling or via a census. It is important to measure the “baseline” of species richness and evenness in an ecosystem because then scientists can tell how much the ecosystem has changed. A diverse species assemblage also contributes to ecosystem diversity. If an ecosystem has poor species diversity, it may not function properly or efficiently. Species evenness is a measure of the relative abundances of species within a community. In fact, it turns out that nearly all quantitative measures of diversity are some combination of two components, species richness and evenness, where evenness describes how equally individuals are distributed amongst the species. While the losses of large, iconic species like the wolf, tiger, rhino, and polar bear may make for more stimulating news stories than the disappearance of moths or mussels, even small species … 1 See answer Meghzz Meghzz Specie evenness is important to biodiversity because imbalance in an ecosystem affects the circulation of life or the food web which can affect the whole. Species Evenness High species in ecosystem; whether a particular ecosystem is numerically dominant by 1 species or energy Which one do you think is more important for ecosystem health - species richness or evenness? According to the Encyclopedia of Earth, species diversity is a measurement of an ecosystem’s species richness and species evenness. Species richness has a saturating influence, whereas effects of E and D are linear and exponential, respectively. Why is species evenness important to biodiversity? John C. Moore, in Encyclopedia of Biodiversity (Second Edition), 2013. Each species has an important role to play in an ecosystem. So if there are 40 foxes and 1000 dogs, the community is not very even. New questions in Science. High evenness … Species richness is an important index when thinking about conservation of a given habitat. Species evenness: Relative abundance of individuals of each of those species. It is important to conserve diversity because once extinct, we can not get it back. Species Richness. are distributed amongst those species, i.e., the species frequency distribution. But if there are 40 foxes and 42 dogs, the community is quite even. Why is knowing what species are in a given ecosystem important? Diversity has two components: species richness, or the number of plant species in a given area, and species evenness, or how well distributed abundance or biomass is among species within a community. However it’s important to note that, the negative relationship between species richness and species evenness at relatively small scales suggests that small scale disturbance such as selective foraging can have important effects on the structure of the plant communities of sub-alpine meadows. Mathematically it is defined as a diversity index, a measure of biodiversity which quantifies how equal the community is numerically. Because “region” is defined by the observer, species richness has been further categorized into three components to account for changes in spatial scale. Quantitative metrics of species diversity, such as the Shannon Index or Simpson Index, combine both species richness and species evenness to derive a value that characterizes a community. Species evenness refers to how close in numbers each species in an environment is.