Download Measuring Biodiversity - Milton

Learning Targets
“I Can…”
• Measure biodiversity in a simulated grassland
habitat
• Take random samples to “count” species
within a habitat
• Create and interpret a species accumulation
graph to illustrate the species richness of a
habitat.
Measuring Biodiversity
Ecosystem Diversity
• Different types of plants and animals live in
different habitats
• To measure the biodiversity of an ecosystem,
we will use the concept of species richness,
which is the number of species in a given area
Species Richness
• When measuring species diversity, the first
few samples taken will have a lot of common
and abundant species
• As more samples are collected, there be fewer
and fewer new species found, until eventually,
all species have been counted
Species Richness Curve
Species Richness
It will take a lot of effort
to find more species.
We can still find more
species pretty easily!
Measuring Species Diversity
• Although not completely accurate, most of an
ecosystem’s biodiversity can be measured by
taking a only a few random samples
Results
SAMPLE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
TRIAL 1
TRIAL 2
TRIAL 3
ACCUMULATION OF
HOW MANY NEW
SPECIES YOU FOUND
Results
Species Accumulation Curve of Simulated Grassland
12
10
8
Number of Species
6
Found
4
2
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Number of Random Samples
8
9
10
References
• http://www.denniskalma.com/river/biodiversi
tymeasurement.html
• http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/species/reptilespecies-richness/