Berger-Parker Index: Understanding Biodiversity Dominance

The Berger-Parker index is a measure of biodiversity that indicates the relative abundance of the most dominant species in a community. It is calculated by dividing the number of individuals of the most abundant species by the total number of individuals in the community. The resulting value ranges from 0 to 1, with a value of 1 indicating that the community is composed entirely of one species. The Berger-Parker index is a simple and easy-to-calculate measure of biodiversity, but it has been criticized for neglecting the presence of less abundant species and for being sensitive to sample size.