Measuring temporal trends in biodiversity

In 2002, nearly 200 nations signed up to the 2010 target of the Convention for Biological Diversity, ‘to significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010’. In order to assess whether the target was met, it became necessary to quantify temporal trends in measures of diversity. This resulted in a marked shift in focus for biodiversity measurement. We explore the developments in measuring biodiversity that were prompted by the 2010 target. We consider measures based on species proportions, and also explain why a geometric mean of relative abundance estimates was preferred to such measures for assessing progress towards the target. We look at the use of diversity profiles, and consider how species similarity can be incorporated into diversity measures. We also discuss measures of turnover that can be used to quantify shifts in community composition arising for example from climate change.