This chapter provides some metrics for measuring functional diversity,
another important diversity component in ecological studies. The metrics for functional
diversity covered only some common used ones in this book, like functional richness,
functional evenness, Rao’s quadratic entropy index, functional divergence, functional
regularity and functional attribute diversity. The computation for functional diversity of
traits presented in categorical variables is also discussed.
Keywords: Categorical variable versus continuous variable, ecological indicators,
ecosystem functioning, extinction risk, functional diversity, functional
redundancy, functional richness and evenness, functional traits, molecular
information, phenotype, statistical ecology.
