Relative Abundance Calculator

Enter the number of individuals for a single species (ni) and the total number of individuals across all species in the community (N) into the calculator to determine relative abundance. This calculator can also solve for ni or N when the other two values are provided.

Relative Abundance Calculator

Enter any 2 values to calculate the missing variable

Individuals of the Species (ni) Total Individuals in the Community (N) Relative Abundance (%) Calculate Reset

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Relative Abundance Formula

The following formula is used to calculate the relative abundance of a particular species within a community.

RA_i = \frac{n_i}{N}\times 100

• Where RAi is the relative abundance of species i (%)
• ni is the number of individuals of species i
• N is the total number of individuals of all species in the community

To calculate relative abundance, divide the number of individuals of the species of interest by the total number of individuals in the community, then multiply by 100.

Relative Abundance Definition

What is relative abundance? Relative abundance is the proportion of individuals (or another consistent measure such as biomass or percent cover) that belong to a particular species compared with the total for the whole community. It describes how common one species is relative to all others in the sampled area.

Relative Abundance Example Problem

How to calculate relative abundance?

1. First, determine the number of individuals of the species of interest.

   For this example, we will assume species A has 10 individuals in the sampled area.

2. Next, determine the total number of individuals across all species.

   For this problem, after adding up all individuals across species, we find there are 100 total individuals (N = 100).

3. Finally, calculate the relative abundance.

   Using the formula above, we can find the relative abundance of species A. RA = (10/100)×100 = 10%.

About Relative Abundance

Is relative abundance a percentage? Relative abundance is often expressed as a percentage, but at its core it is simply a ratio (a proportion) of one number to another. That ratio can be reported as a fraction (0 to 1) or multiplied by 100 to be expressed as a percentage.