skbio.diversity.alpha.margalef

skbio.diversity.alpha.margalef(counts)

Calculate Margalef’s richness index.

Margalef’s richness index \(D\) is defined as:

\[D = \frac{(S - 1)}{\ln N}\]

where \(S\) is the number of taxa and \(N\) is the total number of individuals in the sample.

Assumes log accumulation.

Parameters:

counts1-D array_like, int

Vector of counts.

Returns:

double

Margalef’s richness index.

Notes

Margalef’s richness index was originally described in [1].

References

[1]

Margalef, R. (1958) Information Theory in Ecology. General Systems, 3, 36-71.