I agree with Harry, I think.

Speak English next time....I'm from the South.   Kurt


At 06:27 PM 6/21/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Dear Liz et al.,
>
>The distribution of species collected at a single station by their
>frequency, given a good measure of biodiversity, always has a bunch of
>"stragglers" (only one or two examples of certain species).  A typical
>example (and one in which human selective factors had been minimized) is
>Charlotte Lloyd's report discussed recently in this forum
><http://home.sprynet.com/~wfrank/remarkab.htm>.  Look at all the species
>preceded by a "1"!
>
>Corollary to this pattern, which I have witnessed in fossil and Recent
>land, marine and aquatic field collections over 50 years of noodling for
>shells and their contents, is the fact that there WILL be additional taxa
>(given a diverse and robust regional fauna) on a revisit to the same
>collecting site.
>
>The numbers-crunchers can model this frequency distribution into some kind
>of chi-square or asymptotic transmogrification, but the "straggler" concept
>is good enough for me.  I think this experience is a paraphrase of Andy R's
>hypothetical melange of field trips to the Cretaceous pit and Liz's posting
>below.
>
>Now to tackle that recommended reading of high specific gravity prose (vide
>infra)!
>
>Harry
>
>
>At 06:26 PM 6/21/00 +0100, you wrote:
>>Dear all,
>>
>>As Andrew points out, the expectation is a curve which rises sharply
>>and then tails off. Since there is rarely enough time to exhaustively
>>collect and identify every specimen it is not surprising that
>>ecologists have devised various ways of estimating species diversity.
>>If anyone is interested, the friendliest book on the subject I know
>>is:
>>
>>Magurran, A.E. (1988) Ecological Diversity and its Measurement.
>>Chapman & Hall.
>>
>>From the replies coming in, it looks as if conch-l collectively has
>>some interesting data on the subject.
>>Liz
>Harry G. Lee
>Suite 500
>1801 Barrs St.
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>Visit the Jacksonville Shell Club Home Page at:
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>
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