BIODIVERSITY TEAM

As member of the biodiversity team, you will determine the degree of diversity of life on your study site. Then, working with students on other teams, you will try to relate this aspect of your study site to the latitude, light intensity and temperature also being measured.

IN PREPARATION: Read Why is Biodiversity Important? before beginning.

IN THE FIELD:

Locate a 4 by 4 Sampling Plot within the 10 by 10 inventory plot.

1. Count the number of different species of trees

Then count the number of individuals of each species

2. Count the number of different species of bushes

Then count the number of individuals of each species

3. Count the number of different species of ground cover

Then count the number of individuals of each species

NOTE: For the ground cover/grasses, you will need to use one to three quadrats in order to take samples

OR you can simply collect or draw a leaf from each different kind and put it in a cup. .

Trees Bushes Ground cover

Number Species # # # Total

/

Number Individuals # # # Total

ON THE DATA DAY:

Calculate the BIODIVERSITY INDEX NUMBER

Add the Species and divide by the individuals. = GL BIODIVERSITY NUMBER

[BOX:

the number of species in the area (numerator)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

the total number of individuals in the area (denominator )

= biodiversity index

For example, a 4 X 4 meter square area in a carrot patch has 300 carrot plants, all the same species. It has a very low biodiversity index of 1/300, or 0.003.

A 4 X 4 meter square area in the forest has 1 pine tree, 1 fern, 1 conifer tree, 1 moss, and 1 lichen, for a total of 5 different species and 5 individuals. The biodiversity index here is high, 5/5 = 1.

Then investigate the way it relates to light latitude, intensity, temperature. Is it high when they are high or low? - American Museum of Natural History]

ADVANCED:

The Biodiversity Formula

The diversity formula is a mathematical formula that allows you to estimate the diversity in an entire sample—in this case, the quadrat. We make the assumption that the diversity found within the quadrat is representative of your study site as a whole.

Materials

calculator that includes a

log function

grid paper

Biodiversity Index = –2.303 x sum of p

i log(pi)

Species Number pi log(pi) pi log(pi)

or Kinds Observed

A 6 0.150 -0.824 -0.124

B 4 0.100 -1.000 -0.100

C 7 0.175 -0.757 -0.132

D 2 0.050 -1.301 -0.065

E 3 0.075 -1.125 -0.084

F 10 0.250 -0.602 -0.151

G 1 0.025 -1.602 -0.040

H 7 0.175 -0.757 -0.132

Sum 40 1 -0.829

Diversity 1.908

Procedure

1 In the formula, p i is the number of a particular kind of plant divided by the total number of plants observed. For instance, if you look at species B in the chart above, you will see that 4 were observed, and since there were a total of 40 different individual plants in the sample, then 4/40 represents B’s fraction of the total observed. You will see in the third column, under p i, the result of 4/40 which is .1.

]

2 Complete the formula by multiplying the values in the third and fourth columns. In the case of species B,.1 x -1 = -0.100.

3 Using the calculator, find the log of p i. For example, the log of .1 is –1, which is recorded in the fourth column.

4 Finally, to get a diversity value for the whole set of data, sum all the values in the fifth column and multiply this times the “magic number” –2.303. For our sample set, the sum of values in the fifth column is –0.829, multiplied by the magic number –2.303 equals 1.908. This is the biodiversity index value for this sample set.

The higher the biodiversity index value, the more diverse the sample.

5 Enter the biodiversity index value for your sampling plot onto the Inventory Database worksheet.

Eventually you will submit all these data to the Global Lab Inventory Database on the Web.