Research methods- quantitive and numerical measures

Question 1

What is local abundance?

Answer 1

relative representation of a species in a particular ecosystem

Question 2

How is relative abundance calculated?

Answer 2

dividing the number of species from one group by the total number of species from all groups

Question 3

What can be used to study an area quickly?

Answer 3

DAFOR scale

Question 4

Limitation of the DAFOR scale?

Answer 4

not accurate as based on opinions
results not usually suitable for quantative analysis as not numerical

Question 5

What does DAFOR stand for?

Answer 5

Dominant
Abundant
Frequent
Occasional
Rare

Question 6

What can be used to get more accurate results for plants?

Answer 6

Quadrat study

Question 7

What estimate method can be used for animal numbers?

Answer 7

Capture/ Recapture

Question 8

What is species richness?

Answer 8

number of species within a community or area

Question 9

what is the limitation of species richness?

Answer 9

does not take into account the distribution of species within the area or what is referred to as species evenness

Question 10

What is an example of species richness?

Answer 10

2 areas A and B
A 10 species
B 20 species
B has higher species richness

Question 11

why is species richness more useful then DAFOR?

Answer 11

can be standardised

Question 12

How do you standardise species richness?

Answer 12

simply decide on a specific area in size to compare two locations
focus on a specific aspect or taxon ( not everything)

Question 13

What are somethings you may focus on for species richness?

Answer 13

trees
birds
insects
amphibians

Question 14

What is frequency?

Answer 14

number of times a plant species occurs in a given number of quadrats
usually a %

Question 15

How do quadrats show distribution?

Answer 15

Proportion of plots that contain a specific plant can indicate the extent of distribution across the landscape

Question 16

What is an example of quadrats being used to measure extent?

Answer 16

450 quadrats in shrubland
found desert marigold in 54
frequency = 12% (450/54)

Question 17

what is species density?

Answer 17

simply the number of species in a specific area

Question 18

what is the unit for species density?

Answer 18

species/m*2

Question 19

what is Cover?

Answer 19

the area of the ground surface covered by vegetation or other coverage like litter or moss

Question 20

how is Cover expressed?

Answer 20

as a %

Question 21

How do you calculate the Lincoln index?

Answer 21

population size=(number of species in first capture x number of species in second capture)/ number of marked species in second capture

Question 22

what is the practicality of the Lincoln index?

Answer 22

way to measure population sizes of individual animal species.

Question 23

What does the Simpsons biodiversity index take into account?

Answer 23

number of species present as well as abundance of each species

Question 24

what is the formula for the Simpsons biodiversity index?

Answer 24

D= sum of n(n-1)/ N(N-1)