Field Techniques For Biologists Flashcards
Hazards in fieldwork?
- Adverse weather conditions
- Difficult terrain
- Problems associated with isolation
- Contact with harmful organisms
Risk?
The likelihood of harm arising from exposure to a hazard.
What is a risk assessment?
Involves identifying control measures to minimise risk
Control measures include?
Appropriate…
- Equipment
- Clothing
- Footwear
- Means of communication
Sampling should be carried out in a manner that…
Minimises impact on wild species and habitats
Consideration must be given to…
Rare and vulnerable species and habitats that are protected by legislation.
What is a point count?
It involves the observer recording individuals seen from a fixed point count location. This can be compared to other point count locations or with data from the same location gathered at other times.
What are quadrats or transects used for?
Plants and other sessile or slow moving organisms
What capture techniques are used for mobile species?
Traps and nets
How can elusive species be sampled?
Directly using camera traps or an indirect method such as scat sampling.
Random sampling?
Members of the population have an equal chance of being selected.
Stratified sampling?
The population is divided into categories that are sampled proportionally
Systematic sampling?
Members of the population are selected at regular intervals.
Identification of an organism can be made using?
Classification guides, biological keys, or analysis of DNA or protein
Organisms can be classified by both…
Taxonomy and phylogenetics
What is taxonomy?
Involves the identification and naming of organisms and their classification into groups based on shared characteristics.
What is phylogenetics?
The study of the evolutionary history and relationships among individuals or groups of organisms.
What does phylogenetics use?
Heritable traits such as morphology, DNA sequences, and protein structure to make inferences about an organism’s evolutionary history and create a phylogeny (or phylogenetic tree)
What is a phylogenetic tree?
Diagrammatic hypothesis of its relationships to other organisms.
What can genetic evidence reveal?
Relatedness obscured by divergent or convergent evolution.
What does familiarity with taxonomic groupings allow?
Predictions and inferences to be made about the biology of an organism’s evolutionary history from better known (model) organisms
Examples of taxonomic groupings?
Nematodes, arthropods and chordates
What are model organisms?
Those that are easily studied or have been well studied.
Which model organisms have been important in the advancement of modern biology?
Bacterium - ecoli
Flowering plant - Arabidopsis thaliana
Nematode - C elegans
Arthropod - Drosophilia melanogaster (fruit fly)
Chordates - Mice, rats and zebrafish.
What can information obtained from model organisms be used for?
It can be applied to other species that are more difficult to study directly.
What does presence, abscence or abundance of indicator species give information of?
Environmental qualities - such as presence of a pollutant.
Susceptible and favoured species can be used to?
Monitor an ecosystem.
What does abscence or reduced population indicate?
The species is susceptible to some factor in the environment.
What does abundance or increased population indicate?
The species is favoured by the conditions
Describe the procedure of mark and recapture?
1) A sample of the population is captured and marked (M) and released.
2) After an interval of time, a second sample is captured (C)
3) if some of the individuals in this second sample are recaptured (R), then the total population N=MC/R
What does this method of mark and recapture assume?
- All individuals have an equal chance of capture
- There is no immigration or emigration
- individuals that are marked and released can mix fully and randomly with the total population.
Name some methods of marking animals?
- Banding
- Tagging
- Surgical implantation
- Painting
- Hair clipping
What must the method of marking and subsequent observation do?
Minimise the impact on the study species.
What is ethology?
The study of animal behaviour
What are the measurements used to quantify animal behaviour?
Latency, frequency and duration.
What is latency?
Time between stimulus occurring and response behaviour
What is frequency?
Number of times a behaviour occurs within the observation period.
What is duration?
The length of time each behaviour occurs during the observation period.
What does an ethogram allow?
Construction of time budgets.
What is an ethogram?
Lists species specific behaviours to be observed and recorded in the study.
What can be calculated in the time budget?
Recording the duration of each behaviours in the ethogram, together with the total time of observation, allows the proportion of time spent on each behaviour to be calculated.
What is anthropomorphism?
When animals are credited with human emotions and qualities.
Why is it important to avoid anthropomorphism when analysing animal behaviour?
It can lead to invalid conclusions.
