Answer the following questions before moving on:
What did you use to make your quadrat? Don’t forget to take a photo.
What rule did you adopt for plants that were partially inside the
quadrat?
How did you decide where to conduct your first quadrat?
Before you collect your data, what do you think you’ll see? Will there
be a higher species diversity on the edge of the habitat or the
center? Will the species change as you move, or will they be
consistent thought the habitat?
As ecologists, we need to be keen observers of the habitat we are
studying. Practice paying attention by listing four biotic
factors and four abiotic factors in this ecological community.
Now we’re ready to collect some data! Put down your
1m2 quadrat at the first point intercept. Remember to
orient yourself so that your data collected are applicable to your
research question. Record the types plants and number of individuals of
each species in the quadrat. Yes, you do need to accurately identify
your plant species to at least to genus level , and don’t forget
to cite your sources. Common names of plants are not specific enough for
this assignment. If you don’t immediately recognize the plant, you can
take a picture or a sample and identify it later. Your final report
should include pictures (or diagrams) of each plant you find and each
quadrat you set up.
After you have completely counted all individuals and species, move 3
meters along the transect line toward the interior of the research area
and repeat the procedure. Do this four times so that you
have data for five quadrat samples total .
Determine the density of each plant species within each quadrat and
create a data table showing your results.
Density = number of individuals of species
total individuals in quadrant
The percentage frequency is often used as a measure of abundance,
especially in vegetation studies. Determine the percentage frequency for
each species you observed and create a data table showing your results.
Percentage frequency = total number of quadrats
containing species x 100
total number of quadrats
Conclusion
Answer the following questions then submit your assignment to our class
Blackboard page. Don’t forget to include the five questions you answered
above as well!
- What were your major results?
- What is your answer to the research question?
- Which plant species had the highest percentage frequency? Which had
the lowest?
- Which plant species had the highest density? Which had the lowest?
- Is percentage frequency generally correlated with density? If no, why
not? If yes, is the correlation perfect?
- Why are changes in diversity important to determine?
- What additional information would you like to get a more statistically
accurate picture of this study population?
- How would the diversity of this habitat be impacted if we removed a
quarter of an acre of vegetation from the interior, as opposed the
edge? For example, if we were to build a house in this area, would it
affect the habitat more to build it on the edge or in the interior?
- Were any of the plant species you found invasive species? Which ones?
If you didn’t find an invasive species, look up a common one in your
area for the next question.
- How were the invasive species you found introduced to the area? What
impact might they have on plant diversity and that of other taxa like
arthropods, birds, and mammals? You are going to need to research
this, so don’t forget to cite your sources.
- Insert your data tables. If another student redid this lab assignment
in the same location in a week, do you think their data tables would
look the same or different? If another student redid the assignment in
three months from now, would the data tables look the same? Why or why
not?
- Insert your quadrat photos. Which quadrat sample had the most plant
diversity based on number of species? Which quadrat had the highest
density of plant based on number of individuals?
Data Accessibility Statement : The authors confirm that the data
supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.
Competing Interests : None.
Author Contributions : Catherine Creech is the primary author
and Walter Shriner is the supporting author.
Funding information : This paper is unfunded and the authors
will be applying for a publication charge waiver and an open access fee
waiver. We see our lack of funding as an important equity issue
highlighting the differences in funding between community colleges and
four-year universities. Almost half of all undergraduate students in the
United States attend community college, but majority of publications
about biology education research come from four-year universities
(Schinske et al., 2017). These four-year universities tend to be large,
predominantly white, PhD and master’s degree granting institutions with
more funding available for faculty publications. The voices of community
college students and faculty should play a role in the conversation
about how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the transition to online
teaching.
Acknowledgments : We would like to thank the wonderful faculty,
staff, and students of Mt. Hood Community College.
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