Identifying Organisms
Evaluate Sampling Strategies - used to measure abiotic and biotic factors and their change in space, along an environmental gradient, over time, through succession, or before and after a human impact (for example, as part of an EIA). Remenber that measurements should be repeated to increase reliability of data. The number of repetitions required depends on the factor being measured.
- Construct simple identification keys for up to 8 species
Evaluate Sampling Strategies - used to measure abiotic and biotic factors and their change in space, along an environmental gradient, over time, through succession, or before and after a human impact (for example, as part of an EIA). Remenber that measurements should be repeated to increase reliability of data. The number of repetitions required depends on the factor being measured.
- Estimating Biomass and energy of trophic levels
- Describe and evaluate the measurement of dry mass and extrapolation from samples
- How can this data be used to construct ecological pyramids?
- Estimating abundance of non-motile organisms
- Describe and evaluate measuring population density, percentage cover, and percentage frequency
- Estimating abundance of motile organisms
- Describe and evaluate the use of capture-mark-recapture
- Know how to use the Lincoln index
- Estimating species diversity
- Distinguish between species richness and species eveness
- Apply and evaluate the result of the Simpson Diversity Index
- How can the data be interpreted?
- What does a lower value of D indicate?
- When is this method useful?
- Be familiar with the measurement of at least 3 abiotic factors from the list below. Outline and evalute the methods for measuring those factors.
- marine - salinity, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, wave action
- freshwater - turbidity, flow velocity, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen
- terrestrial - temperature, light intensity, wind speed, particle size, slope, soil moisture, drainage, mineral content
Practice Problems
1. Let's say you have 2 plots with the following species of salamanders. Which plot is more diverse?
2. After random sampling, 500 piranha are captured, tagged and released from a pool. A month later, before a big swim meet, 10 piranha, of which 2 are tagged are captured. Estimate the total number of piranhas in the pool.
3. Construct a classification key to identify these animals by entering appropriate contrasting features and the names of the organisms to complete the table below.
3. Construct a classification key to identify these animals by entering appropriate contrasting features and the names of the organisms to complete the table below.