Indicators of rangeland health generally do not include a measure of biodiversity. Increasing
attention to maintaining biodiversity in rangelands suggests that this omission should be
reconsidered, and plant species richness and diversity are two metrics that may be useful
and appropriate. Ideally, their response to a variety of anthropogenic and natural drivers in
the ecosystem of interest would be clearly understood, thereby providing a means to
diagnose the cause of decline in an ecosystem. Conceptual ecological models based on …