A tool for computing diversity and consideration on differences between diversity indices

Diversity represents a key concept in ecology, and there are various methods of assessing it. The multitude of diversity indices are quite puzzling and sometimes difficult to compute for a large volume of data. This paper promotes a computational tool used to assess the diversity of different entities. The BIODIV software is a user-friendly tool, developed using Microsoft Visual Basic. It is capable to compute several diversity indices such as: Shannon, Simpson, Pielou, Brillouin, Berger-Parker, McIntosh, Margalef, Menhinick and Gleason. The software tool was tested using real data sets and the results were analysed in order to make assumption on the indices behaviour. The results showed a clear segregation of indices in two major groups with similar expressivity.