ABSTRACT
Species diversity has two components: richness, also called species density, based on the total number of species present, and evenness, based on the rela tive abundance of species and the degree of its dominance thereof (Odum, 1983; Hamilton, 2005). This concept has been used to formulate ecotope diver sity (Yue et al., 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007). An ecotope is the smallest holistic land unit, characterized by homogeneity of at least one land attribute of the geo sphere-namely, atmosphere, vegetation, soil, rock, water, and so on, with nonexcessive variations in other attributes (Naveh and Lieberman, 1994). An ecotope commonly includes three characteristics: (1) The smallest homo genous mapable unit of land, (2) homogenous in general substrate condition, potential natural vegetation, and potential ecosystem functioning, and (3) the composition of patches in different successional stages of landuse (Forman, 1995). Species diversity can be distinguished into individualcounting diver sity and biomassbased diversity. Ecotope diversity can be classified into indi vidual ecotopecounting diversity and ecotopeareabased diversity.
