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• 3.4 Species Diversity <br /> Based on quantitative cover data gathered in 1979 and 1980, the greatest <br /> diversity or richness ( i .e. , number of species) was in the Spruce/Fir Park- <br /> land community type, which also had the highest equitability ( i .e. , evenness) . <br /> The large variety found within parkland sites is due to the mosaic of open <br /> slopes and dense tree islands which results in a wide range of microhabitats. <br /> Aspen Woodland was intermediate in diversity, but was lowest in equitability <br /> because of the extreme dominance of Quaking Aspen. Aspen Shrubland had the <br /> lowest diversity, but was intermediate in equitability due to the rather <br /> uniform distribution of shrubs in the understory. <br /> Although the ranking of diversity and equitability were the same in the <br /> reference areas and affected areas, reference areas had consistently lower <br /> values. This result was expected, because each reference area contained only <br /> a small percentage of the total study area. <br /> Diversity and equitability indices are presented in Table 20. <br /> 3.5 Sample Characteristics and Adequacy <br /> Table 21 provides data on the adequacy of cover, production, and density <br /> (both shrub and tree) sampling for each affected and reference area and <br /> illustrates the comparability of each reference area to the affected area <br /> community type. A statistically adequate number of samples was taken for <br /> cover, production, and density in all affected and reference areas. Further- <br /> more, all reference areas are statistically valid with respect to cover data. <br /> The Aspen Woodland reference is also valid by production data. The higher <br /> production of the Aspen Shrubland and Spruce/Fir Parkland reference areas <br /> results in their being slightly unrepresentative. <br /> -13- <br /> I <br />