Bioabundance is a quantity that describes the number of individuals of a species in an area of interest, either directly or through other measurements such as biomass or percentage of cover. It is the underlying quantity of interest in a number of ecological investigations, such as monitoring population sizes and studying the spatial or space–time pattern of a single plant or animal species in a region or plot. It is also the key ingredient for analyzing biodiversity, the relative abundance of several or all species in an ecological community.