B2.4 Sampling

Question 1

What is a habitat?

Answer 1

The place where an organism lives e.g a field.

Question 2

What is distribution?

Answer 2

The place where an organism is found e.g in a part of the playing field.

Question 3

Which factors affect where an organism is found?

Answer 3

Temperature, water availability, oxygen availability, carbon dioxide availability, nutrient availability and the amount of light.

Question 4

How do you calculate the population size of an organism in one sample area?

Answer 4

Mean number of organisms x total area of the habitat.

Question 5

How do we collect data randomly?

Answer 5

Throw a marker, turn around with eyes closed or plot coordinates.

Question 6

How do we use quadrats?

Answer 6

We place a quadrat randomly, count all of the organisms found within it and work out the mean number of organisms per quadrat. We repeat this step and compare the two means.

Question 7

What are transects used for?

Answer 7

To measure the distribution of organisms in a line.

Question 8

Give two ways you can study the distribution of organisms.

Answer 8

1. Measure how common an organism is in two sample areas (e.g using quadrats) and compare them.
2. Study how the distribution changes across an area e.g by placing quadrats along a transect.

Question 9

Do you include anomalies when calculating the mean?

Answer 9

No