4.2 Biodiveristy Flashcards
What preparation should you take before sampling?
- Wear suitable clothing and footwear
- bring suitable sampling apparatus, identification keys, a camera, clipboard and pen and paper.
How can plants be sampled?
Random quadrats and transects
How can random quadrants be used to sample plants?
Generate random coordinates for the quadrat within the habitat. Then place the quadrat at these coordinates and estimate the percentage cover of each species.
What are the two types of transect?
A line transect and an interrupted or continuous belt transect.
How can you sample animals
Observation or catching invertebrates.
How can you sample animals through observation?
You can look for signs of an animal’s presence such as droppings or footprints.
Why can observing large animals be difficult?
They may detect humans and hide.
Why can observing small animals be difficult?
They may hide or move too quickly.
How can invertebrates be caught?
- Sweepnets
- shaking tree branches
- pitfall traps
- tulgren funnel
- light trap.
How can sweep nets be used?
You can sweep the net free vegetation in wide arcs and count how many small animals have been caught in the net.
How can shaking tree branches be used to sample invertebrates
You place a white sheet below the branches, then count how many small animals fall onto the sheet.
How can a pitfall trap be used to sample invertebrates?
A small container can be buried in the ground, so the animals will fall into the trap. And be counted.
How can a tullgren funnel be used to sample invertebrates?
Can connect small animals from leaf litter
How can a light trap be used to sample invertebrates?
The uv light attracts insects if they can be collected and counted.
What technique can be used to allow you to calculate population size?
Mark and recapture.
What is an allele?
a version of a gene
what is a locus?
The position of that gene on the chromosome.
What is a polymorphic gene locus?
a locus that has more than 2 alleles
What is Simpson’s index of biodiversity?
A measure of the diversity of a habitat.
What is species evenness
A measure of how evenly represented the species are.
What is species richness?
A measure of how many different species are present.
How can you measure species richness within habitat?
Count all the species within the habitat.
How can you measure species evenness within habitat?
use a quantitative survey.
How can you measure the density of animals within a habitat?
- count large animals by observation
- count small animals using the mark and recapture technique
how can you survey the frequency of plants?
- take samples
- record the percentage cover for each species
What does a high value on the simpsons index of diversity mean?
diverse habitat