Question

If I observe a bed of mussels on the coast of California in which five species live where the abundances of each species are 60 for species #1, 451 for species #2, 587 for species #3, 13 for species #4, and 1,356 for species #5, what is the probability that I would randomly pick the third species?

Answer 1

`p = (587)/(2467)=0.238`

See explanation below.

Explanation:

For this case we have the following frequency distribution given associated to the aboundances of each species.

Species Freq.

1 60

2 451

3 587

4 13

5 1356

And for this case we want to find the probability that we would select a randomly pick from the species # 3.

For this case we can use the definition of empirical probability given by:

`p = (Possible)/(Total)`

First we can find the total cases adding the frequencies for the species and we got : 60+451+587+13+1356=2467.

And for the possible cases we have 587 species from the type 3 so then the empirical probability would be:

`p = (587)/(2467)=0.238`