The ability of ecologists to identify regions of greatest species richness could have an impact on the preservation of genetic diversity, a major objective of the World Conservation Strategy. The article “Prediction of Rarities from Habitat Variables: Coastal Plain Plants on Nova Scotian Lakeshores”

(Ecology, 1992: 1852–1859) used a sample of n
37 lakes to obtain the estimated regression equation y
3.89 .033x1 .024x2 .023x3

 .0080x4  .13x5  .72x6 where y
species richness, x1
watershed area, x2

shore width, x3
poor drainage (%), x4
water color (total color units), x5
sand (%), and x6
alkalinity. The coefficient of multiple determination was reported as R2
.83.

Carry out a test of model utility.