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Enhancement to the pielou method for estimating the diversity of aquatic communities
Author(s) -
Clark Malcolm John Roy
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1002/etc.5620111106
Subject(s) - diversity (politics) , abundance (ecology) , relative species abundance , ecology , sample (material) , environmental science , water quality , phytoplankton , species diversity , statistics , mathematics , biology , chemistry , sociology , nutrient , chromatography , anthropology
The Pielou abundance ratio method of estimating the diversity of aquatic communities by plotting the relative abundances of the three most common species per sample on ternary plots has been further developed. Algorithms are presented that permit the ternary plots to be readily produced via any computer spreadsheet having orthogonal graphics capability. The Pielou method is modified to present time‐series‐diversity data as chronological tables or plots similar to those used for other water‐quality variables and to accommodate n ‐dimensional relationships. The modified method is applied to phytoplankton data from two lakes, one impacted by acid mine drainage and one pristine.