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 lakes to obtain the estimated regression equation where species richness,

,

, and . The coefficient of multiple determination was reported as

. Carry out a test of model utility.