ON THE VALUE OF A COLLECTION OF SPECIES

One justification for species conservation is the possibility that species will be found to be beneficial. Existing models of the value of a collection of potentially beneficial species typically assume that the probability that each species is beneficial does not depend on the outcome for other species. It is also typically assumed that beneficial species are perfect substitutes. This paper describes a model under which both these assumptions are relaxed. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.