- Procedure:
- Background Setup
- 1. Determine the circumference of the Links pond digitally by Google Earth, or by using the distance measurer and walking around the pond.
- 2. Mark the quadrat’s 50 cm point (the middle) on one side of the square. That will be the point that is used later to place the quadrat on.
- 3. Then, use a random number integer generator, with a range from zero all the way to the circumference length in order to find where you will place the quadrat. Do this 10 times.
- Actual Investigation
- 4. Using the numbers obtained, determine placement of the quadrats, the numbers being the distance from the starting point. For example, a value of 27 means that you should place your quadrat 27 metres from the starting point (zero). Use a distance measurer to determine how many metres that you have passed.
- 5. Hence, place the quadrat’s middle point that you marked in step 2 to place the quadrat on the area. The middle point should be the side that is adjacent and right next to the water’s edge.
- 6. Determine the plant species and quantity of each species that exist within the quadrat.
- 7. When complete, use a ruler to take the distance from the middle point mark to 10 feet up ground. The ruler should be perpendicular to the water’s surface.
- 8. The 10 feet mark of the ruler will be where you place your quadrat on. Make sure that the 10 feet mark of the ruler corresponds to the middle point mark on the quadrat.
- 9. Repeat the procedure of finding plant species and quantity in the new location of the quadrat.
- 10. When done, use the next value obtained from the random number generator. Hence, repeat steps 5 through 9 for the remaining values.
- After Investigation
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11. After all raw data is calculated, tabulate it onto a table. For each of the quadrats, do the following steps, which will help plug in values to the variables on the Diversity Index (reproduced below). Take care to differentiate between the two areas; the samples next to the pond (henceforth known as Region A) and samples 10 feet away (henceforth known as Region B).
- a. To find N, which is total number of organisms of all species found, tabulate the total number of each organism that exists within the quadrat. Do that for every quadrat; adding them all up; then averaging them will determine a grand total for the variable “N.”
- b. To find n, which is the number of individuals of a particular species, determine the sum of all individuals of a particular species. Add them all up with other quadrats within the same region, then averaging them to determine the grand total for the variable “n.”
- c. Use the formula for the index to determine the diversity index value.
- 12. Compare and Contrast the different diversity index values, if they are different, between the two regions, A and B.
Part 2: Data Collection and Processing
- Aspect 1
- Recording Raw Data
- Figure 1.1 - Raw Data obtained from counting plant species and quantity in Location 1
- Figure 1.2 - Raw Data obtained from counting plant species and quantity in Location 2
- Figure 1.3 - Raw Data obtained from counting plant species and quantity in Location 3
Figure 1.4 - Raw Data obtained from counting plant species and quantity in Location 4
- Figure 1.5 - Raw Data obtained from counting plant species and quantity in Location 5
- Figure 1.6 - Raw Data obtained from counting plant species and quantity in Location 6
- Figure 1.7 - Raw Data obtained from counting plant species and quantity in Location 7
- Figure 1.8 - Raw Data obtained from counting plant species and quantity in Location 8
- Figure 1.9 - Raw Data obtained from counting plant species and quantity in Location 9
- Figure 2.0 - Raw Data obtained from counting plant species and quantity in Location 10
Aspect 2
- Processing Raw Data
- Figure 3.0 - Raw Data obtained from the sum of all quadrats’ data totaled up together
- Figure 4.0 – Sum of all data divided by 10 (to be equal to “one quadrat”)
- Figure 4.1 – Plugging in numbers for the Simpson’s Diversity Index
Figure 4.2A – Region A’s Simpson’s Diversity Index Formula; plugging in numbers
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- Figure 4.2B – Region B’s Simpson’s Diversity Index Formula; plugging in numbers
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Aspect 3
Presenting Processed Data
- Figure 4.3 – Graph depicting values of biodiversity in Region A and Region B
- Part 3: Discussion, Evaluation, and Conclusion
- Aspect 1
- Discussion & Reviewing
- We discover that Region B, which has an index value of 6.14, is has higher levels of plant biodiversity compared to Region A, which has an index value of 3.59. The range between the two regions is 2.55. Yet, what’s really important to focus on is – what really is diversity? Diversity is measured by the abundance of different species combined with the numbers of individuals within such species, which in turn are plugged in to the formula in order to derive what the value of biodiversity is.
- If we take a closer look at the processed data table of Figure 4.0, we discover that Region A consisted of 7 species, while Region B consisted of only 6 species. Yet, why does Region B’s diversity prevail over Region A? Notice that for Region B, the distribution of individuals within species are within range of each other; the minimum being 2.1 individuals within a specie while the maximum being 7.7 individuals within a specie; without any outliers. On the other hand, notice that Region A’s diversity ranges from 0.3 individuals per specie all the way to 18.7 individuals per specie. While those are certainly outliers, many of the species in between are rather distributed widely, hence making the diversity of Region A lower; since the diversity index favours abundance balanced with a moderate distribution of individuals within species. Hence, we can see why Region B’s plant diversity is higher than Region A.
- Aspect 2
- Evaluating Procedures and suggesting Improvements
- Although this investigation was a solid attempt at determining biodiversity between two distinct regions, it was not without its issues. In an actual experiment, ten samples were grossly insufficient to truly represent the actual diversity of an ecosystem. It is almost certain that some plant species were underrepresented, or even omitted from the sampling. Another problem is that the two different regions are on different gradients, since the land 10 feet away from the water is generally upstream; hence the different occurrence of plants. A possible limitation, that luckily did not occur in this experiment, was estimation of plant abundance, if the given amount of plants were simply too high to count manually. That would greatly limit the accuracy of the findings. Another possible issue was human error; that is, there may have been two distinct plant species or subspecies that was simply counted as the same species. Another weakness was that different samples were taken on different days, possibly skewing the data since data collection would not be uniform.
- The investigation could be greatly enhanced by simply having a greater amount of sampling in order to reduce the rate of error. Another improvement could be also increase the size of the quadrat in order to get greater surface area to evaluate. Finally, taking all data collection on the same day will in turn make the data uniform. Another concept of improvement is to increase regions of collections; perhaps having a 20 feet from the water away region for example will improve the data and allow us to view trends from 0 feet, 10 feet, and finally 20 feet away.
- Aspect 3
- Conclusion
In conclusion, the hypothesis that land nearer the water has greater biodiversity was not supported by the data collected. In reality, land further away had greater biodiversity.
