The Assessment of Biological Diversity
on the Basis of Occurrence

Yu. G. Puzachenko, A. P. Bezdelova, T. A. Vinogradova, and G. M. Aleshchenko

Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii pr. 33, Moscow, 117071 Russia

Received November 23, 1998

Abstract—The relation between parameters of various types of rank distributions and parameters of the species
number–area empirical relationships is deduced from the thermostatic model of biological diversity. A rank dis-
tribution is constructed based on parameters calculated for actually existing relationships. Another type of rank
distribution for the same original data is obtained by converting the frequency of species into relative parame-
ters of their abundance, based on Poisson distribution. The resulting rank distributions are used for assessing
diversity on the basis of entropy. This approach is illustrated by the example of measuring the biological diver-
sity of higher plants in middle taiga communities. The method is sufficiently universal to be used for measuring
the diversity of any organisms, their communities, and ecosystems.

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