Log-normality of biodiversity and abundance in diagnosis and measuring of ecosystemic health: pesticide stress on pollinators on blueberry heaths.
Abstract
Data were collected from sampling pollinating bees [Apoidea] over 8 years in 13 blueberry fields in New Brunswick, Canada, and used to test the log-normality of the species diversity and abundance relationships with respect to the disruption of communities by application of fenitrothion to nearby forests. On both spatial and temporal bases, fields unaffected by fenitrothion fitted well to the log-normal model of species diversity and abundance, whereas affected fields departed from that pattern. Thus, the relationship was useful as samples from fields affected by fenitrothion were presumed to represent compromised integrity and decline in ecosystem health.