Conclusions
(1) The change in the state of the restored plant community with time
was an irreversible process characterized by spontaneous increase in its
total biomass quantity C T and total number of
plant species N associated with increase in its enthalpyH , Gibbs free energy G and entropy S . Species
enrichment was the cause for the decease in mass ratiox i and biomass growth potentialμ i. The changes in the thermodynamic factorsf /C T ands /C T due to decrease inx i with increasing N followed the basic
laws of thermodynamics. The criterion △N > 0 can be
generally applied as an index for determining the direction of
spontaneous changes in an open thermodynamic system with continuous
input of matter and energy.
(2) The conducted analysis did not fully prove the use of the
Shannon-Wiener index as a biodiversity index for the investigated plant
communities. The biodiversity of a plant community cannot be determined
by the number of individuals if there are significant differences in
individuals among species of the plant community. In contrast, the
entropy factor s was proven to be a suitable diversity index. As
a state function related to system composition, s can be applied
as a diversity index for all types of systems.