A Shannon-Weaver Diversity Index was carried out to give us some idea of the species richness and evenness within each inflorescence. The closer this index number is to 1, the more diverse and even the species abundance, which are indicators of ecosystem health. We did find a large difference in species richness and abundance between the two areas. The disturbed area around the soccer field had an average value of .48 while the secondary forest treatment area along the trail had an average index of .77. These numbers indicate that the secondary forest Heliconia floral bract microecosystems are ecologically healthier with a greater species evenness and diversity than those within the floral bracts from the disturbed area.
Biodiversity refers to genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity.
Biodiversity stabilizes ecosystems and strengthens their ability to recover from damage. The different diversity indices of the Heliconia bract microecosytems could reflect a greater stability of the secondary forest ecosystem versus that of the disturbed area around the soccer field. While we are confident that our results represent a definite trend, there are some consideration that would help researchers in the future conduct a better study. If time had permitted, more flowers could have been collected to give us a larger sample size to work with. There may have been errors made in classifying individuals, particularly different stages of the same species.