Species evenness

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Species evenness is a diversity index, a measure of biodiversity which quantifies how equal the community are numerically. So if there are 40 foxes, and 1000 dogs, the community is not very even. But if there are 40 foxes and 42 dogs, the community is quite even. The evenness of a community can be represented by Pielou's evenness index:

E={ H^\prime \over H_\max^\prime }

Where H' is the number derived from the Shannon diversity index and H' max is the maximum value of H', equal to:

H_\max = - \sum_{i=1}^S {1\over S} \ln {1\over S} = \ln S.

E is constrained between 0 and 1. The less variation in communities between the species, the higher E is. Other indices have been proposed by authors where H'min > 0 eg. Hurlburt's evenness index.

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