Comparative study of the Far-Eastern Seas and the North Pacific by integral parameters of net zooplankton in the epipelagic layer

Integral parameters of zooplankton community, including species diversity and its components were compared between the Chukchi Sea, Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan, and adjacent Pacific waters based on the data obtained by standard Juday net with a mouth area of 0.1 m2 during the large-scale surveys conducted by the Pacific Fisheries Research Center (TINRO Center) in 1984–2013. These parameters were calculated for the total surveyed area of approximately 7.0 million km2 and separately for each of the considered water bodies. In Pacific waters, species richness is higher than that in all the seas, while the concentration of individuals (expressed in terms of abundance, ind./m3) and evenness of their distribution over species were lower. The only sea with a larger mean size of organisms compared to the ocean is the Bering Sea. A lower species diversity than in the ocean has been recorded only from the Chukchi Sea; a lower density (in terms of biomass, g/m3) was determined only from the Sea of Japan. Among the four seas, the Chukchi Sea ranks first in terms of biomass and abundance of zooplankton, second in species evenness, third in the mean size of individuals, and last in species richness and diversity. The Bering Sea ranks first in terms of mean size of plankton organisms, second in species richness, diversity, and biomass, third in abundance, and last in species evenness. The Sea of Okhotsk ranks second in terms of mean size of individuals, last in their abundance, and third in the other parameters. The Sea of Japan ranks first in terms of species richness, evenness, and diversity, second in abundance, and last in mean size of zooplankton organisms, and, therefore, their biomass. The biomass of zooplankton, in accordance with the concentration of nutrients, increases in the southto-north direction (while its absolute abundance depends largely on the size of the body of water). The mean size of organisms increases in the same direction; the evenness of their distribution over species increases in the reverse direction (with the exception of both parameters for the Chukchi Sea). The rank of a water body for its biodiversity coincides with the species richness rank. The latter increases from north to south (except for the Okhotsk Sea), but greatly depends on the surveyed area and, even more, on the surveyed volume of water. A study of the literature data found some unexpected statistically significant relationships of the integral parameters of zooplankton with those of pelagic and bottom macrofauna, as well as with the parameters of zooplankton production, on the size of the considered bodies of water. The causes and the biological meanings of most of these relationships still do not have any rational interpretation. Their testing at other spatial scales will be continued in future works.

Small-scale plant species richness and evenness in semi-natural grasslands respond differently to habitat fragmentation

Although the relationships between species diversity and aboveground biomass (AGB) are highly debated in grassland ecosystems, it is not well understood how climatic factors influence AGB directly and indirectly via plant coverage and species diversity in large-scale grasslands along a topographic gradient. In doing so, we hypothesized that climatic factors would regulate plant coverage, species diversity and AGB due to maintaining plant metabolic and ecological processes, but the relationship of plant coverage with AGB would be stronger than species diversity due to covering physical niche space. To test the proposed hypothesis, we collected data for calculations of species richness, evenness, plant coverage and AGB across 123 grassland sites (i.e., the mean of 3 plots in each site) dominated by Leymus chinensis in northern China. We used a structural equation model for linking the direct and indirect effects of topographic slope, mean annual precipitation and temperature on AGB via plant coverage, species richness, and evenness through multiple complex pathways. We found that plant coverage increased AGB, but species evenness declined AGB better than species richness. Topographic slope influenced AGB directly but not indirectly via plant coverage and species diversity, whereas temperature and precipitation increased with increasing topographic slope. Regarding opposing mechanisms, on the one hand, precipitation increased AGB directly and indirectly via plant coverage as compared to species richness and evenness. On the other hand, temperature declined AGB indirectly via plant coverage but increased via species evenness as compared to species richness, whereas the direct effect was negligible. Our results show that niche complementarity and selection effects are jointly regulating AGB, but these processes are dependent on climatic factors. Plant coverage promoted the coexistence of species but depended greatly on precipitation and temperature. Our results highlight that precipitation and temperature are two key climatic drivers of species richness, evenness, plant coverage and AGB through complex direct and indirect pathways. Our study suggests that grasslands are sensitive to climate change, i.e., a decline in water availability and an increase in atmospheric heat. We argue that temperature and precipitation should be considered in grassland management for higher productivity in the context of both plant coverage and species diversity which underpin animals and human well-being.

Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships are important research issues in the context of biodiversity loss. However, most studies only explored BEF relationships using species richness as a proxy for biodiversity without considering the effects of species evenness and importance of functional diversity on ecosystem functioning. In the present study, we explored multiple relationships among in-stream environmental variables, species diversity (species richness and species evenness), functional diversity (functional richness, functional evenness and Rao’s quadratic entropy index) and biomass of benthic diatom communities from a Chinese mountainous river network. We tested two hypotheses: (1) species richness and evenness affect community biomass independently, and (2) species diversity directly affects community biomass and also indirectly affects community biomass by influencing functional diversity. We found that benthic diatom diversity and biomass were influenced by wetted width, conductivity, and pH. Species richness and evenness had positive and negative effects on community biomass, respectively; while, the effect of richness (with a pathway coefficient of 0.39) was stronger than that of evenness (−0.28). However, we have not found an interaction pathway between species richness and species evenness in structural equation models, indicating that the two effects on community biomass were independent of each other. Both functional richness and Rao’s quadratic entropy index had positive effects on community biomass, although effects of other variables blurred the relationship between functional richness and community biomass in structural equation modeling. Besides direct effects, species diversity also indirectly affected community biomass through influencing Rao’s quadratic entropy index, with direct effects (0.27) were more than twice stronger than indirect effects (0.12). Our findings imply that the selection effect played a dominant role in the relationship between diatom diversity and biomass, indicated by the negative species evenness and biomass relationship; meanwhile, the complementarity effect was also important. The inclusion of more diversity indices to explore the biodiversity-biomass relationship would help to provide a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of this relationship and its driving mechanisms. We suggest carrying out more studies on BEF relationships in streams and rivers to support protection practices for sustaining biodiversity and their ecosystem functions in natural lotic ecosystems.

QuestionsHow does heavy grazing change plant community structure, composition and species richness and diversity in an ecotone between grassland and semi‐arid shrub steppe‐type vegetation? Does grazing favour plants with arid affinity over those with less arid affinity? Does the grazing‐induced transformation constitute a switch to the equivalent of a shrub‐dominated biome?LocationCentral South Africa.MethodsUsing systematic scanning of SPOT 5 imagery and ground‐truthing, a grazing treatment area was selected that met criteria of intensity of grazing, sampling requirements, and biogeographical position within a broad ecotonal zone. Differential vegetation responses to heavy grazing were tested for significant differences in plant traits, vegetation structure, and species diversity, richness and evenness. Gamma diversity was calculated for the whole study site, whereas, independent beta diversity was calculated across the treatments assuming the additive partitioning of diversity. In addition, the biogeographical association of grazing‐induced species shifts was determined using a range of available databases.ResultsCanopy cover and height of woody shrubs increased significantly with heavy grazing whereas that of graminoid plants declined. The resultant species turnover was modest, apparent extinctions of local species were minimal, species richness was maintained and species diversity was significantly enhanced. There was a significant increase in species evenness, through possible suppression of dominant species. Significant increases in species cover were those associated with mainly the Nama‐Karoo biome indicating that species from more arid areas are more resistant to grazing as would be expected by the convergence model of aridity and grazing resistance.ConclusionsThe significant increase in shrub cover in heavily grazed semi‐arid grassland followed general global expectations. The study confirmed that the supposed former large shift of grassland to shrubby Nama‐Karoo in the eastern upper Karoo can indeed be readily affected by heavy grazing. The negative connotations for biodiversity that have often been associated with intense grazing seem, in terms of the positive responses of plant species diversity in this study, to perhaps be exaggerated. The elevated species diversity with grazing of vegetation with a long evolutionary grazing history in a low resource area may require a reappraisal of the application of certain grazing hypotheses.

<p>Pollution negatively impacts organisms across all marine ecosystems. Coastal areas are particularly vulnerable to pollution due to their proximity to human settlements. Amphipods are commonly used as bioindicators to monitor pollution burdens, due to their high sensitivities and their ubiquity. Pollution can reduce amphipod abundance, species richness, evenness and diversity. Community structure, proportionality of adults to juveniles and sex ratios may also be affected. Sponges often harbour high densities of amphipods, offering food, refuge and nurseries to their symbionts. Sponge-associated amphipods differ in their level of specialization on their host. This study provides first insights into the usefulness of sponge-associated amphipod communities as bioindicators. For this, it hypothesized that amphipod densities, species diversity, community structure, sex ratio and age proportionality will differ according to pollution levels. To test this, sponges were collected from three sites with varying degrees of pollution in Wellington Harbour. The sponges were weighed, and their volume was measured. They were dissected and their amphipods were identified to species level, counted, measured (length) and their sex and life cycle stage (adult or juvenile) were recorded. From this data, amphipod densities, species richness, evenness and Shannon-Wiener diversity indices were calculated and compared among pollution levels. Community structure was also compared between sites and sponge species. Pollution level significantly affected species richness, evenness, diversity and community structure. The highest values for species richness, evenness and diversity were found in sponges from the least polluted. The lowest levels of these factors were found in sponges from the most polluted site. Sponges from the intermediate site generally harboured moderate richness, evenness and diversity compared to the other sites. Community composition was significantly affected by pollution, although effect sizes differed between sponge species. Higher pollution levels seemed to favour dominance of species that are better adapted to living in sponges. Generalists seemed to thrive in low to intermediate pollution levels. The majority of sex ratios measured had a female bias, which appeared to increase with increasing pollution although the difference was not statistically significant. The proportion of adults also showed a non-significant increase with pollution level. There was no significant difference in amphipod abundance per litre of sponge tissue between pollution levels, possibly because pollution levels may have been too low to cause a reduction in amphipod density. These results show that sponge-associated amphipod communities are useful as bioindicators, as amphipod diversity, richness and evenness were significantly reduced by pollution and the sponge association allows for these community-scale comparisons to be made within an easily measurable framework. Species evenness in particular provided an accurate indication of different pollution levels.</p>

<p>Pollution negatively impacts organisms across all marine ecosystems. Coastal areas are particularly vulnerable to pollution due to their proximity to human settlements. Amphipods are commonly used as bioindicators to monitor pollution burdens, due to their high sensitivities and their ubiquity. Pollution can reduce amphipod abundance, species richness, evenness and diversity. Community structure, proportionality of adults to juveniles and sex ratios may also be affected. Sponges often harbour high densities of amphipods, offering food, refuge and nurseries to their symbionts. Sponge-associated amphipods differ in their level of specialization on their host. This study provides first insights into the usefulness of sponge-associated amphipod communities as bioindicators. For this, it hypothesized that amphipod densities, species diversity, community structure, sex ratio and age proportionality will differ according to pollution levels. To test this, sponges were collected from three sites with varying degrees of pollution in Wellington Harbour. The sponges were weighed, and their volume was measured. They were dissected and their amphipods were identified to species level, counted, measured (length) and their sex and life cycle stage (adult or juvenile) were recorded. From this data, amphipod densities, species richness, evenness and Shannon-Wiener diversity indices were calculated and compared among pollution levels. Community structure was also compared between sites and sponge species. Pollution level significantly affected species richness, evenness, diversity and community structure. The highest values for species richness, evenness and diversity were found in sponges from the least polluted. The lowest levels of these factors were found in sponges from the most polluted site. Sponges from the intermediate site generally harboured moderate richness, evenness and diversity compared to the other sites. Community composition was significantly affected by pollution, although effect sizes differed between sponge species. Higher pollution levels seemed to favour dominance of species that are better adapted to living in sponges. Generalists seemed to thrive in low to intermediate pollution levels. The majority of sex ratios measured had a female bias, which appeared to increase with increasing pollution although the difference was not statistically significant. The proportion of adults also showed a non-significant increase with pollution level. There was no significant difference in amphipod abundance per litre of sponge tissue between pollution levels, possibly because pollution levels may have been too low to cause a reduction in amphipod density. These results show that sponge-associated amphipod communities are useful as bioindicators, as amphipod diversity, richness and evenness were significantly reduced by pollution and the sponge association allows for these community-scale comparisons to be made within an easily measurable framework. Species evenness in particular provided an accurate indication of different pollution levels.</p>

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 垫状植物囊种草对群落物种多样性的影响 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201411042163 作者: 作者单位: 甘肃农业大学林学院,甘肃农业大学林学院,甘肃农业大学林学院 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家自然科学基金资助项目(31260122) Effect of the cushion plant Thylacospermum caespitosum Camb. on species diversity within a community Author: Affiliation: College of Forestry,Gansu Agricultural University,College of Forestry,Gansu Agricultural University,College of Forestry,Gansu Agricultural University Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:在甘肃盐池湾国家级自然保护区内海拔4137 m处,选择典型的囊种草垫状植被设置研究样地,研究了垫状植物囊种草对群落物种组成和群落物种多样性的影响,并且定量的研究了囊种草对群落物种丰富度的影响能力和维持潜力。研究结果表明:囊种草为群落中增加了新的植物种类,并且提高了部分生境一般种的多度;囊种草的出现提高了群落物种密度和物种丰富度,进而提高了群落物种多样性;囊种草斑块的增加将会引起景观水平物种丰富度的增加,表明囊种草具有为群落中引入新的植物种类进而提高群落物种丰富度的能力;在景观水平,囊种草所创造的生境多样性则成为一种保障,可以维持景观中物种丰富度从而降低物种损失的风险,表明囊种草具有较高的群落物种丰富度维持潜力。 Abstract:This study was carried out at 4137 m altitude in Gansu Yanchiwan National Nature Reserve where the typical cushion vegetation is dominated by Thylacospermum caespitosum (Camb.). First, we measured the cushion plant cover at the study site to control the estimation of community attributes in engineered situations where there were differences in habitat availability. A ratio of 3:17 was used to set the sample plots, i.e. 60 cushion patches and 340 open areas of the same size were chosen because the cushion cover was 15%. If open areas are considered as a habitat that is not affected by cushions, and open area and cushion patches are considered as a habitat that is affected by cushions, then the species composition, diversity, and density of each habitat can be subsequently determined. Additionally, the capacity of T. caespitosum (Camb.) to influence and maintain the plant community was quantitatively assessed by determination of the relative habitat richness (RHR) at a patch level, the landscape richness enhancement (LRE) at a landscape level, the habitat rescue potential (HRP) at a patch level, and the landscape insurance potential (LIP) at a landscape level. The results showed that cushion plants lead to the creation and maintenance of new habitat patches in landscapes that have different physicochemical conditions compared to the surrounding unmodified habitat matrix. Such a change in habitat conditions may directly affect the distribution of other species, and improve the species diversity of the community. In this study, the cushion plants resulted in the addition of new species to the landscape, changed the species composition, enhanced the species diversity within the community, and altered the abundance of some species. Among the 20 species identified at the study site, four were found exclusively in cushion patches, three in open areas, and 13 in both cushion and open areas, which indicated that the cushion plant T. caespitosum (Camb.) led to the addition of four new species to the habitat. Among the 13 species distributed in both cushion and open areas, four were present at a higher density in habitats that contained by cushion plants. When the species density, diversity, and evenness of two habitats that were or were not influenced by cushions were compared, species density and diversity were both found to be enhanced in habitats that were influenced by cushions, although species evenness was reduced. This shows that in the investigated community, some plant species were more dependent on the environment that was modified by T. caespitosum (Camb.). Therefore, increasing the number of cushion patches will lead to an increase in species richness at a landscape level. This indicates that T. caespitosum (Camb.) has the ability to improve community species richness by adding new plant species. Furthermore, T. caespitosum (Camb.) consolidated the survival of other plant species and reduced their risk of extinction. At a landscape level, the habitat diversity created by T. caespitosum (Camb.) guaranteed the maintenance of species richness and consequently reduced the risk of species loss, and thus, showing that the cushion plant T. caespitosum (Camb.) can potentially maintain species diversity. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Biodiversity has been declining in many areas, and there is great interest in determining whether this decline affects ecosystem functioning. Most biodiversity—ecosystem functioning studies have focused on the effects of species richness on net primary productivity. However, biodiversity encompasses both species richness and evenness, ecosystem functioning includes other important processes such as decomposition, and the effects of richness on ecosystem functioning may change at different levels of evenness. Here, we present two experiments on the effects of litter species evenness and richness on litter decomposition. In the first experiment, we varied the species evenness (three levels), identity of the dominant species (three species), and micro-topographic position (low points [gilgais] or high points between gilgais) of litter in three-species mixtures in a prairie in Texas, USA. In a second experiment, we varied the species evenness (three levels), richness (one, two, or four species per bag), and composition (random draws) of litter in a prairie in Iowa, USA. Greater species evenness significantly increased decomposition, but this effect was dependent on the environmental context. Higher evenness increased decomposition rates only under conditions of higher water availability (in gilgais in the first experiment) or during the earliest stages of decomposition (second experiment). Species richness had no significant effect on decomposition, nor did it interact with evenness. Micro-topographic position and species identity and composition had larger effects on decomposition than species evenness. These results suggest that the effects of litter species diversity on decomposition are more likely to be manifested through the evenness component of diversity than the richness component, and that diversity effects are likely to be environmentally context dependent.

Species richness and evenness, the two principle components of species diversity, are frequently used to describe variation in species assemblages in space and time. Compound indices, including variations of both the Shannon–Wiener index and Simpson’s index, are assumed to intelligibly integrate species richness and evenness into all-encompassing measures. However, the efficacy of compound indices is disputed by the possibility of inverse relationships between species richness and evenness. Past studies have assessed relationships between various diversity measures across survey locations for a variety of taxa, often finding species richness and evenness to be inversely related. Butterflies are one of the most intensively monitored taxa worldwide, but have been largely neglected in such studies. Long-term butterfly monitoring programs provide a unique opportunity for analyzing how trends in species diversity relate to habitat and environmental conditions. However, analyzing trends in butterfly diversity first requires an assessment of the applicability of common diversity measures to butterfly assemblages. To accomplish this, we quantified relationships between butterfly diversity measures estimated from 10 years of butterfly population data collected in the North Saskatchewan River Valley in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Species richness and evenness were inversely related within the butterfly assemblage. We conclude that species evenness may be used in conjunction with richness to deepen our understandings of assemblage organization, but combining these two components within compound indices does not produce measures that consistently align with our intuitive sense of species diversity.

物种多样性是群落结构和功能复杂性的一种度量,物种多样性的空间分布格局受许多环境因子的影响。运用多样性指数,多层感知器网络,分析了松山保护区森林群落物种多样性与群落类型、结构和生境之间的关系。结果表明:(1)大果榆+山杨混交林、油松+青杨混交林物种丰富度、多样性和均匀度均较高,而大果榆林、华北落叶松林的各项指数值均较低。Patrick指数和Shannon-Weiner指数在森林群落中均表现为草本层>灌木层>乔木层;Pielou指数在榆林中表现为草本层>乔木层>灌木层,而在其他森林群落中表现为灌木层>草本层>乔木层。(2)功能层物种多样性在海拔梯度上的变化趋势不同,在乔木层,丰富度、多样性和均匀度随海拔的升高逐渐降低;在灌木层,丰富度、多样性和均匀度均呈比较明显的单峰曲线变化趋势;在草本层,丰富度和多样性随海拔的升高都呈下降趋势,而在草本层,均匀度变化不大。(3)用多层感知器网络预测功能层多样性效果很好,结果发现坡向对乔木层和灌木层物种多样性的影响最大,而海拔高度对草本层物种多样性的影响最大。;Species diversity is a measure of the complexity of community structure and function, and the spatial distribution pattern of species diversity is affected by many environmental factors. In this paper, the relationships between species diversity and community type, habitat and community structure of forests in the Songshan National Nature Reserve were analyzed by diversity indices and multi-layer perceptron network. The dataset included 68 quadrats, 291 species, and 6 environmental variables (elevation, slope, aspect, litter layer thickness, soil depth, and soil solidity). The results showed that species richness, species diversity and evenness values of <em>Ulmus macrocarpa </em>+ <em>Populus davidiana</em> mixed forest and <em>Pinus tabulaeformis</em>+<em> Populus cathayana</em> mixed forest were higher, but these values of<em> Ulmus macrocarpa</em> forest and <em>Larix principis-rupprechtii</em> forest were lower. The Patrick and Shannon-Weiner indices varied in order of herb layer > shrub layer > tree layer; the Pielou value of <em>Ulmus pumila</em> forest varied in order of herb layer > tree layer >shrub layer, and other community types varied in order of shrub layer >herb layer > tree layer.<br>Species diversity of functional layers changed differently along elevational gradient. In tree layer, the species richness, diversity and evenness decreased with increasing elevation. In shrub layer, the species richness, diversity and evenness were significantly peaked at the intermediate elevation. In herb layer, the species richness and diversity decreased with increasing elevation, but the evenness value changed little.<br>Applying multi-perceptron network to predict the diversity of functional layers, we found that aspect affected species diversity of tree and shrub layers greatly, but elevation affected species diversity greatly in herb layer.

The Shannon information function (H) has been extensively used in ecology as a statistic of species diversity. Yet, the use of Shannon diversity index has also been criticized, mainly because of its ambiguous ecological interpretation and because of its relatively great sensitivity to the relative abundances of species in the community. In my opinion, the major shortcoming of the traditional perspective (on the possible relation of species diversity with information theory) is that species need for an external receiver (the scientist or ecologist) to exist and transmit information. Because organisms are self-catalized replicating structures that can transmit genotypic information to offspring, it should be evident that any single species has two possible states or alternatives: to be or not to be. In other words, species have no need for an external receiver since they are their own receivers. Therefore, the amount of biological information (at the species scale) in a community with one only species would be log2(2)1 = 1 species, and not log2(1) = 0 bits as in the traditional perspective. Moreover, species diversity appears to be a monotonic increasing function of log2(2)S (or S) when all species are equally probable (S being species richness), and not a function of log2 S as in the traditional perspective. To avoid the noted shortcoming, we could use 2(H) (instead of H) for calculating species diversity and species evenness (= 2(H)/S). However, owing to the relatively great sensitivity of H to the relative abundances of species in the community, the value of species dominance (= 1 - 2(H)/S) is unreasonably high when differences between dominant and subordinate species are considerable, thereby lowering the value of species evenness and diversity. This unsatisfactory behaviour is even more evident for Simpson index and related algorithms. I propose the use of other statistics for a better analysis of community structure, their relationship being: species evenness + species dominance = 1; species diversity x species uniformity = 1; and species diversity = species richness x species evenness.

Plant coverage is a potential ecological indicator for species diversity and aboveground biomass in semi-steppe rangelands

Understanding species diversity and disturbance relationships is important for biodiversity conservation in disturbance-driven boreal forests. Species richness and evenness may respond differently with stand development following fire. Furthermore, few studies have simultaneously accounted for the influences of climate and local site conditions on species diversity. Using forest inventory data, we examined the relationships between species richness, Shannon's index, evenness, and time since last stand-replacing fire (TSF) in a large landscape of disturbance-driven boreal forest. TSF has negative effect on species richness and Shannon's index, and a positive effect on species evenness. Path analysis revealed that the environmental variables affect richness and Shannon's index only through their effects on TSF while affecting evenness directly as well as through their effects on TSF. Synthesis and applications. Our results demonstrate that species richness and Shannon's index decrease while species evenness increases with TSF in a boreal forest landscape. Furthermore, we show that disturbance frequency, local site conditions, and climate simultaneously influence tree species diversity through complex direct and indirect effects in the studied boreal forest.

This study evaluates and compares lichen diversity at two coastal sites at No. 63 Benab, Berbice, Guyana. The study was completed in three phases. Phase one included the collection of the lichen specimens from the sites; Phase two consisted of the identification of the lichen specimens obtained from field visits and Phase three included the analysis of the data done on R version 4.2.2 (R-Studio) and Microsoft Excel to determine which of the sites had the highest lichen diversity. Sampling plots of 2000 meter square (2000 m2) for each of the two agroecosystems was demarcated and at both locations, 50 m x 40 m study plots were established, and samples of healthy mature trees were identified from each plot to determine species richness, evenness, and diversity of the lichen communities. The trunks of 40 healthy individual trees were intercepted with twine in the North, South, East, and West quadrants (each measuring 50 by 100 cm). A total of fifty-two thousand three hundred eleven (52,311) lichens were identified belonging to fifteen (15) families, twenty-three (23) genera and thirty (30) species. This research based on the available literature has reported seventeen (17) new species of lichens from eleven (11) families as first-time record of species that were not previously identified for Guyana and so adds to the biodiversity of lichen flora in the country. First time records for Guyana included four (4) species of lichens from the family Parmeliaceae; one (1) species from the family Chrysotrichaceae; one (1) species from the family Teloschistaceae; two (2) species from the family Lecanoraceae; one species from the family Arthoniaceae; two (2) species from the family; one (1) species from the family Stereocaulaceae; two (2) species from the family Phlyctidaceae; one species from the family Collemataceae; one species from the family Cladoniaceae and one species from the family Lichinaceae. The lichen communities were compared using the Simpson's Diversity Index, Shannon Diversity Index, Menhinick's Index and Pielou's Index. Statistical analyses were executed with the help of the R and Excel software and it was possible to distinguish between the two sites' species distribution, diversity, and abundance. The results showed that site # 1 lichen community had a higher species richness, species evenness, species diversity and abundance than site # 2. Four (4) species of lichens showed specificity towards twelve (12) species of host trees.