Linking indices for biodiversity monitoring to extinction risk theory.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity indices often combine data from different species when used in monitoring programs. Heuristic properties can suggest preferred indices, but we lack objective ways to discriminate between indices with similar heuristics. Biodiversity indices can be evaluated by determining how well they reflect management objectives that a monitoring program aims to support. For example, the Convention on Biological Diversity requires reporting about extinction rates, so simple indices that reflect extinction risk would be valuable. We developed 3 biodiversity indices that are based on simple models of population viability that relate extinction risk to abundance. We based the first index on the geometric mean abundance of species and the second on a more general power mean. In a third index, w

SUBMITTER: McCarthy MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4253318 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature