This paper puts forth the view that diversity is an average property of a community and identifies that property as species rarity. An intrinsic diversity ordering of communities is defined and is shown to be equivalent to stochastic ordering. Also, the sensitivity of an index to rare species is developed, culminating in a crossing-point theorem and a response theory to perturbations. Diversity decompositions, analogous to the analysis of variance, are discussed for two-way classifications and mixtures. The paper concludes with a brief survey of genetic diversity, linguistic diversity, industrial concentration, and income inequality.
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© 1982 American Statistical Association
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