000			04799nam a22001817a 4500
003			OSt
005			20220107122842.0
008			180703b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
040			_cIIITMK
100			_aVishnu M (91717012) _914462
245			_aAn inclusive mathematical representation for biodiversity
300			_aMPhil EI 2017-2018
500			_a Biodiversity- the variety of life forms on the Earth underpins ecosystem services. Future of mankind is inseparably linked to biological diversity. However, human activities act as pressure points and strain other living organisms. Holistic understanding of biological diversity and their dynamics across time is important to plan and implement conservation measures. Whilst strategic plan for biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi targets have been recognized as an integral component in Sustainable Development Goals, possibly due to paradox of plenty, the global indicator frameworks of biodiversity within SDGs is yet to identify any Tier I or II indicator for biodiversity assessment. It has become a convention to narrow down biological diversity measures to diversity indices. Most of the diversity indices proposed over years are probability functions and convey information about a single level. This report proposes a new inclusive representation of biodiversity and introduces Nair’s Measure of Biodiversity (NMB). A study was carried out within 11 sacred groves Pulikottukonam Nagar Kavu (PNK), Kavil Shree Maheswarashramam (KSMA), Erumakkavu (EK), Shree Bhadrakali Temple (SBT), Dharmasastha kavu (DK), Edayilekkadu kavu (EK), Poonkottukavu (PK), Muchukunnukottah (MK), Vallikkattukavu (VK), Iringole kavu (IK) and Amaramkavu Devi Temple (ADT) in Kerala during January – February 2018 to collect field data. The study was limited to tree species. Representative hemispherical photographs of the groves were also taken. Historical data of these groves (1993 and 2015) were also used for the study. Parameters from multiple levels have been effectively utilized to represent the diversity with more information content. The diversity within each grove was initially estimated using the traditional diversity indices over two periods. True diversity, expressed as effective number of species obtained from the Shannon index was different from Simpson index for all groves. The Present data shows that grove KSMA was most diverse and EK was least diverse. The groves EDK, MK, VK and ADT show similar diversity of 13 equally common species from Shannon index and groves EDK, MK and ADT show a similar true diversity of 9 equally common species from the Simpson index. The diversity observed across the groves using the old data was different from the current results. Similar to present results grove KSMA was most diverse and EK was least diverse for both the indices. But the diversity of these groves was higher than the present data. The groves IK and SBT shows similar true diversity from Shannon index and groves PK and VK show a similar true diversity from Simpson index. The grove EK and KSMA shows a maximum decrease of effective number of species for Shannon index and Simpson index respectively for the two periods. NMB takes into account the conservation status of species. The grove data obtained were classified as per IUCN conservation status and modified to new measures using mathematical transformations. Observed values were reduced to a single variable depicted by the solid angle (in Steradian) subtended by it on a plane. This ensured that there was no loss of information. This facilitates a reader to work back to arrive at the species composition within each site. The mean canopy openness calculated from the groves shows that grove ADT is most dense. Groves DK and MK show high canopy openness. But the standard errors associated with all groves are different. This clearly indicates the uneven distributions of species across the groves. The biodiversity representation introduced here includes multilevel diversity parameters such as effective number of species derived from the Shannon entropy (H' (en)), NMB, mean canopy openness at each location (μ(CO)) and total number of species (NS) with time stamp (in ordinal date (OD); YYYY-DDD). The representation takes the general form [H'(en) ; NMB; μ(CO); NS; OD] and conveys more information than conventional diversity indices. Shannon effective number of species describes the stability of the ecosystem. NMB adds information at species level and mean canopy openness paints a picture of the thickness of stand. The time stamp renders inclusiveness and facilitates comparative studies.
502			_bMPhil EI _c2017-2018 _dINT _eDr. R. Jaishanker
650			_aBIODIVERSITY _914463
650			_aGROVES _914464
942			_2ddc _cPR
999			_c6145 _d6145