Question

What is the difference between species diversity and species richness?

Answer 1

Species is a group of organisms that consist of individuals that have similar characteristics and are capable of breeding among themselves and thus bring about an exchange of genes. An example of a species is all the individuals of Homo sapiens or human beings. Species diversity and species richness are the characteristics of a community.

Complete answer:
To answer this question, we should know about biological community and their characteristics. A biological community is referred to as a group of various species interacting at a particular geographical location. An example of a biological community is a dense forest that is inhabited by various species like microorganisms, flora and fauna which share a common location or habitat that is forest and are in continuous interaction with each other for food, mate etc.
The structure of the community is determined by the number and the type of species present in the particular location. Let us discuss species diversity and species richness in details.

Species Diversity	Species richness
It is the number of species and their abundance at a particular place.	It is the number of different species present in a community.
It is a broader field which considers all the parameters.	It is just the number of species.
Species diversity has two components- species richness and species evenness.	It does not have any components.

Note: Species richness is considered as a criterion for assessing relative conservation of landscape or habitats. Species evenness is another component of species’ diversity which measures the abundance or organisms in each species. It measures how equal is the community in terms of number. If a community has 40 cats and 600 lions, then the community is not even.