A New Species Richness Measure Improved from Margalef and Menhinick Indices

In the present study, a new estimator ((alpha)*D-MM) is proposed to measure species richness. Its' essential inputs are alfa (alpha) scale parameters of Margalef (D-MG) and Menhinick (D-MN) indices. To evaluate the performance of (alpha)*D-MM, both hypothetical and natural community datasets were used. The computations were performed using a spreadsheet program created for (alpha)*D-MM. The new proposed estimator is also integrated into the BICEB software. According to estimation results, (alpha)*D-MM seems to be a better form rather than D-MG and D-MN. Therefore it may be employed for comparing species richness of the natural communities. To better understand the performance of (alpha)*D-MM, further studies should be generated using various types of real ecological data.