Includes bibliographical references (pages 37-43). "July 1974." "EPA-IAG-D4-F461."

An investigation was conducted by written inquiry and a search of relevant literature to determine common criteria for the acceptability and use of biological community parameters, especially indices of species diversity, to enforce pollution regulations in the terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats. The investigation revealed that while most respondents from the queried industrial sector, regulatory agencies, and researchers were of the opinion that biological communities were extremely important, there was little agreement on means of measurement. Attempts at application of specific theoretical distributions describing species diversity have given differing results. It is recommended that environmental criteria based on species diversity not be established at the present time.