Natural Landcover/Vegetation Diversity - Shannon's Diversity Index (SHDI), 1km, DRECP

Each 1km reporting unit in this dataset contains three metrics which quantify landcover/vegetative diversity within a 49km2 moving window positioned over the reporting unit:

• Shannon's diversity index (SHDI)
• Shannon's Evenness Index (SHEI)
• Patch Richness Density (PRD)

Higher values for each of these metrics are indicative of more diverse communities.

Calculations were performed using FRAGSTATS v3.3 in batch mode, with each input grid (i.e., "landscape") representing an area on the ground equal to ~49km2 (approximately forty-nine (7x7) 1km reporting units). Note that input grids on the periphery of the study area will constitute smaller landscapes.

Shannon’s Diversity Index (SHDI) values are based on two factors: richness & evenness. Richness refers to the number of different vegetation types within each 49km2 moving window, and evenness refers to the proportional area distribution of all the vegetation types within each 49km2 moving window.  SHDI values increase as the number of different vegetation types goes up and/or the proportional distribution of each vegetation type becomes more balanced.  

The input surface was derived from the "NLCD Name" values in the updated Land Cover/Natural Vegetation Communities dataset provided by Aerial Information Systems and the California Dept. of Fish and Game (available on Data Basin: http://databasin.org/datasets/0a419342ec904b3c8fc710003f52ebe0). The following classes were removed prior to running FRAGSTATS: 'Agriculture', 'Urban', 'Developed', 'Developed and Disturbed Areas', 'Not Mapped', 'Rural', 'Cropland, Barren', 'Deciduous Orchard, Vineyard', 'Irrigated Row and Field Crops'.

Caution is warranted in interpreting these results because the input data was aggregated from multiple sources at various levels of detail. Consequently, areas where more detailed/specific vegetation data was integrated (e.g., the western Mojave) will tend to have inflated diversity values relative to reporting units where less detailed information was available.

Additional information on the metrics calculated, taken from the FRAGSTATS documentation:

FRAGSTATS Metrics.–FRAGSTATS computes several statistics that quantify diversity at the landscape level. These metrics quantify landscape composition at the landscape level; they are not affected by the spatial configuration of patches. The most popular diversity index is Shannon's diversity index (SHDI) based on information theory (Shannon and Weaver 1949). The value of this index represents the amount of "information" per individual (or patch, in this case). Information is a somewhat abstract mathematical concept that we will not attempt to define. The absolute magnitude of Shannon's diversity index is not particularly meaningful; therefore, it is used as a relative index for comparing different landscapes or the same landscape at different times. Simpson's diversity index (SIDI) is another popular diversity measure that is not based on information theory (Simpson 1949). Simpson's index is less sensitive to the presence of rare types and has an interpretation that is much more intuitive than Shannon's index. Specifically, the value of Simpson's index represents the probability that any two cells selected at random would be different patch types. Thus, the higher the value the greater the likelihood that any 2 randomly drawn cells would be different patch types. Because Simpson's index is a probability, it can be interpreted in both absolute and relative terms. FRAGSTATS also computes a modified Simpson's diversity index (MSIDI) based on Pielou's (1975) modification of Simpson's diversity index; this index was used by Romme (1982). The modification eliminates the intuitive interpretation of Simpson's index as a probability, but transforms the index into one that belongs to a general class of diversity indices to which Shannon's diversity index belongs (Pielou 1975). Thus, the modified Simpson's and Shannon's diversity indices are similar in many respects and have the same applicability.


Patch richness (PR) measures the number of patch types present; it is not affected by the relative abundance of each patch type or the spatial arrangement of patches. Therefore, two landscapes may have very different structure yet have the same richness. For example, one landscape may be comprised of 96% patch type A and 1% each of patch types B-E, whereas another landscape may be comprised of 20% each of patch types A-E. Although patch richness would be the same, the functioning of these landscapes and the structure of the animal and plant communities would likely be greatly different. Because richness does not account for the relative abundance of each patch type, rare patch types and common patch types contribute equally to richness. Nevertheless, patch richness is a key element of landscape structure because the variety of landscape elements present in a landscape can have an important influence on a variety of ecological processes. Because many organisms are associated with a single patch type, patch richness often correlates well with species richness.


Richness is partially a function of scale. Larger areas are generally richer because there is generally greater heterogeneity over larger areas than over comparable smaller areas. This contributes to the species-area relationship predicted by island biogeographic theory (MacArthur and Wilson 1967). Therefore, comparing richness among landscapes that vary in size can be problematic. Patch richness density (PRD) standardizes richness to a per area basis that facilitates comparison among landscapes, although it does not correct for this interaction with scale. FRAGSTATS also computes a relative richness index. Relative patch richness (RPR) is similar to patch richness, but it represents richness as a percentage of the maximum potential richness as specified by the user (Romme 1982). This form may have more interpretive value than absolute richness or richness density in some applications. Note that relative patch richness and patch richness are completely redundant and would not be used simultaneously in any subsequent statistical analysis.

Evenness measures the other aspect of landscape diversity--the distribution of area among patch types. There are numerous ways to quantify evenness and most diversity indices have a corresponding evenness index derived from them. In addition, evenness can be expressed as its compliment--dominance (i.e., evenness = 1 - dominance). Indeed, dominance has often been the chosen form in landscape ecological investigations (e.g., O'Neill et al. 1988, Turner et al. 1989, Turner 1990a), although we prefer evenness because larger values imply greater landscape diversity. FRAGSTATS computes 3 evenness indices (Shannon's evenness index, SHEI; Simpson's evenness index, SIEI; modified Simpson's evenness index, MSIEI), corresponding to the 3 diversity indices. Each evenness index isolates the evenness component of diversity by controlling for the contribution of richness to the diversity index.  Evenness is expressed as the observed level of diversity divided by the maximum possible diversity for a given patch richness. Maximum diversity for any level of richness is achieved when there is an equal distribution of area among patch types. Therefore, the observed diversity divided by the maximum diversity (i.e., equal distribution) for a given number of patch types represents the proportional reduction in the diversity index attributed to lack of perfect evenness. As the evenness index approaches 1, the observed diversity approaches perfect evenness. Because evenness is represented as a proportion of maximum evenness, Shannon's evenness index does not suffer from the limitation of Shannon's diversity index with respect to interpretability.