4.2 Flashcards
What is biodiversity
A measure of all different plants, animal, fungi and other microorganisms species worldwide, the gene they contain and ecosystems there a part of
What is biodiversity about
Structural and functional variety in living world
What is a habitat
A place where individuals in a species live
What is habitat biodiversity
Range of different habitats which different species like in
What habitats may we find in the UK
Sand dunes, woodlands, meadows and streams -> all occupied by a different range of species
What is a species
Consists of individual organisms that are similar in appearance, anatomy, physiology and genetics resulting in individuals in species being able to freely interbreed to produce fertile offspring
What contributes to species biodiversity
Range of organisms in a habitat
Give an example of why counting number of different species doesn’t always be accurate
2habitats may have equal number of species but not equally diverse. There may be 25 species in a meadow and 25 species in a garden, but in the garden over half those species are just grass. So the meadow is more diverse
What is species richness and evenness
Number of species-richness Degree to which they’re represented-evenness
What is genetic biodiversity
Variation between individuals of same species ensuring we’re not all identical
What can genetic variation create in species
Breeds- like different dog breeds
What do you need to do to measure biodiversity of an area and what is the problem with this
Need to observe all species present, identify them and count how many individuals of each species there are for all plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms in that habitat (but this is impractical as can’t count all single celled organisms)
How can some microorganisms be cultured
On nutrient medium in lab to gain estimate of numbers, but it won’t grow like this, instead you can sample a habitat
What does sampling a habitat mean
You select a small proportion and study that area, then you multiply up number of each species found to estimate number in whole habitat
What are the 2 broad categories of sampling techniques
Random and non-random
How are random samples carried out
Sample sites inside habitat randomly selected by deciding where to place samples before studying an area in detail and can be done by using random number generator to generate numbers as coordinates for your sample or selecting coordinates from a map
What are advantages of random sampling
Ensures data isn’t bias by selective sampling
Disadvantages of random sampling
May not cover areas of habitat equally, species with low presence may be missed lead to underestimate of biodiversity
What 3 types of non-random sampling are there
Opportunistic, stratified, systematic
What is opportunistic sampling
When researcher makes sampling decisions based on prior knowledge or during process of collecting data, researcher may deliberately sample an area they know has a specific species
Advantages of opportunistic sampling
Easier and quicker than random sampling
Disadvantage of opportunistic sampling
Data may be bias as presence of large or colourful species may cause researcher to sample it and leads to overestimate of biodiversity
What is stratified sampling
Diving habitat into areas which appear different and sampling each area separately, eg. Patches of braken in heathlands sampled separately from heather in heathland
What is advantages of stratified sampling
Ensures all different areas of habitat are sampled and species not under represented due to random sampling missing areas
What is disadvantage of stratified sampling
May over represent some areas in sample, as disproportionate number of samples taken in small areas that look different
What is systematic sampling
When samples taken at fixed intervals across habitat, line transect and belt transects are systematic techniques
What is advantages of systematic sampling
Useful when habitat shows clear gradient in some environmental factors liek getting dryer away from pond
What is disadvantage of systematic sampling
Only species on line or on belt recorded and other species may be missed causing underestimate of biodiversity
It’s important to be properly prepared for fieldwork, what should planning include
Suitable clothes depending on habitat and weather conditions, suitable footwear, apparatus needed (clipboard and paper), appropriate keys to identify plants, camera to record specimens and grid location
What should you know before beginning fieldwork for sampling
Number of samples you will collect and pre prepared results table
What range of techniques may you use when visiting a site to measure biodiversity
Random sampling maybe useful but might need to modify if habitat isn’t homogenous (even), moving sampling sites would become opportunistic sampling as making decisions during sampling process and stratified as treating parts of habitat differently
What is important to consider when at a sampling site of a habitat
Effect your presence had on habitat, any sampling should cause little disturbance
How should you sample plants
Large plants like trees can be counted individually but small and numerous plants is best to calculate percentage ground cover of each species
What is a quadrat
A square frame used to define size of each sample area
What size is quadrat
Can be any size but usually 50x50cm or 1mx1m
What must you identify within quadrat
Must identify plants found and then calculate percentage cover S measure of their abundance
It’s hard to accurately measure percentage cover but what do some quadrants have to help them
Have strings in a grid that divide quadrat to smaller squares making estimates more accurate
What is a point frame
Device to help measure percentage cover in quadrat, lower frame into quadrat and record any plant touching needles
What is issues with point frames
1 needle may touch several plants so possible to have 300-400% cover in some habitats, also its easy to bias your readings as may place it non randomly in point frame,l
What is a transect
A line taken across the habitat
How do you work a transect
Stretch a long string or tape measure across habitat and take samples along this line, in large habitats line transect used where only record samples touching this line at set intervals
What is an interrupted belt transect and what data is produced
Placing quadrat on line transect at set intervals and will provide quantitate data at intervals within habitat
What is continuous belt transect
Place quadrat beside transect line and move it along line so you can study band in detail
What data does studying quadrants provide
Quantitive
Why are animals hard to sample
Hard to spot and difficult to count, larger animals detect are presence and hide and small ones are too quick to count so quantative data hard to collect
How can you note presence of larger animals
Careful observation of footprints, droppings, burrows and deer damage bark in specific ways
How do ecologists estimate population size
Rely on signs left behind by animals like droppings and footprints and recent advances allow DNA sequencing to distinguish droppings to provide more accurate population size estimate
What techniques used to catch invertebrates
Sweep bet, pooter, tree beating, pitfall trap, tullgren funnel, light trap
What is sweep net
Technique for sweep netting involves walking through habitat with net and sweeping it through vegetation and small animals caught in this net, then empty content onto white sheet and identify them before they fly away
What is a pooter
Use pooter to collect animals before they fly away
What is kick sampling
Like sweep netting but done in water, always disturb ground upstream from net
What is tree beating
Put white sheeting under branch and knock brand with wooden stick, vibrations dislodge animal which drop into sheet and must quickly identify them before they crawl or fly away
What is a pitfall trap
Trap set in soil to catch small animals consisting of small o stained buried in soul so rim is just below surface, any animals moving through plants will fall into container, trap should have little water or scrunched paper to stop animals escaping and in rain trap should be shelters so doesn’t fill with water
What is a tullgren funnel
Collects smaller animals form leaf litter, place litter in funnel and light above drives animals downwards as litter drys out and warms up, they fall through mesh screen to be collected in jar underneath funnel
What is a light trap
Used to collect flying insects at night, it has UV that attracts insects and under light is vessel to collect animals, moths and other insects attracted to light eventually fall into trap
What does techniques to collect animals depend on
On habitat and what animal your catching
Can anyone catch animals
Need a licence as care must be taken with animal
What trap often used to catch smaller animals
Longworth trap- it enables population size to be estimated using mark and recapture but they must be regularly monitored to release trapped animals
How does longworth trap work
First need to capture sample of animals, mark each individual in same way without causing harm, number captured will be c1, release trapped animals and leave trap for another time period, second capture is c2 and number already captured on second occasion is C3, then to calculate total population- (c1xc2)/C3
How can longworth trap be effected
By animals that learn trap is harmless and contains food or by animals that doesn’t like trap so stays away from it after 1st capture
How can birds be sampled
Ringing techniques
How can larger animals be sampled
Tagged
What do we consider when measuring biodiversity
Species richness and evenness
What is species richness
Number of species present, more present grater the richness
What is species evenness
Measure of relative numbers of abundance of individuals in each species
Where do you find the most diverse areas
Places with even species evenness
How can species richness be measured
Counting species present in a habitat by doing a quantitative survey to calculate biodiversity
How would you survey frequency of plants
First sample plants and record percentage cover for each species or with large plants count number of them per unit area, technique can be used in aquatic and terrestrial sampling