多样性已经成为生态学理论与实践中的一个很重要的概念，很多多样性指数被引进或设计出来，并被广泛地应用于生态系统管理以及环境监测与评价之中。然而，很多学者对其也提出了疑议，因为当用不同的多样性指数对一组群落进行比较时会得出不同的顺序。Patil 和Taillie 等人提出用含有一个参数的多样性指数族可以潜在地解决这个问题。本文对这个类型的14种方法做了评述，并将其分为4组。证明了组内各方法间是等价的，而不同组的各方法间是不等价的。并认为在进行多样性排序时，Patil 和Taillie 的“右尾和”方法应属首选，因为只需计算有限个数值，并且该方法判断了群落内多样性的高低。其次，Hulbert-Smith-Grassle的方法也值得推荐，因为该方法有直观而明确的意义，它是一个随机样本中期望包含的物种数目。作为实例，还将这些方法应用于北京东灵山地区的3个森林群落多样性的比较。
Abstract Diversity has become an important concept in the theory and practice of ecology. Many diversity indices have been introduced from other disciplines or devised purposely by ecologists and widely used in conservation management and environmental monitoring. However, many researchers have criticized their use because different diversity indices may rank sets of communities in different ways. The use of parametric families of diversity indices instead of a diversity index with a numerical value has been suggested by Patil, Taillie and others as a potential solution to this problem. Fourteen methods were reviewed and compared in this paper. They were divided into four groups. It was proved that within-group methods are equivalent to each other and among-group methods are not. It was suggested that Patil and Taillie’s right-tail-sum diversity be the first choice and Hurlbert-Smith-Grassle’s expected diversity be the second in diversity ordering. As an example, these method were applied to three forest communities in Dongling Mountain, Beijing, China.