在一般抽樣中，會隨著觀察的個體數或區塊數的增加而看到越多的物種數；若將〝累積物種數〞對〝區塊數〞作圖，即可得到所謂的「物種累積曲線」﹔當看到所有的物種時，累積物種數就不會再隨著樣本數的增加而增加。利用這個性質來做估計，於是我們對這樣的曲線去找出可能的模型。在文獻上有許多函數用來配適物種累積曲線，其中一種則是利用由Michaelis and Menten所提出在生化實驗上的M-M曲線，它可以對應到生態上的指數-卜瓦松模式，在本文中將會簡單的介紹。
在文獻回顧中介紹幾種估計物種數的方法，包括M-M曲線的線性轉換估計量和非線性的方法、利用生態模式下的廣義估計方程估計量，以及其他常用的估計量。本文將推廣指數-卜瓦松模式為伽瑪-卜瓦松模式及雙參數指數-卜瓦松模式，利用較多的參數來配適物種累積曲線，以得到母體物種數之估計；並模擬伽瑪-卜瓦松模式及雙參數指數-卜瓦松模式的假設下，各估計量的表現；最後以原生動物的例子來做探討。

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