One of the first steps ecologists take in studying the natural world is sampling populations and ecological communities. Match each of these basic sampling techniques with the most likely scenario in which it would be used. A mountain ski resort wants to expand their main building into a nearby alpine meadow. Before development is given the ok, they have to conduct biodiversity assessments. You are hired to survey diversity of the small alpine plants and mosses that live in rocky patches that are scattered throughout the meadow. The power company has proposed putting in a new high-voltage line from their hydroelectric power plant to a new residential development. To proceed, they have to evaluate the number and type of forest species that will be harmed by cutting down a mile-long path of mature forest trees. You are hired to survey forest species diversity and population sizes in the designated habitat. A. Mark-recapture B. Quadrats C. Transects The state is proposing to stock mountain lakes with trout and other fish in order to promote the fishing and tourism economies. Fish introduction into lakes tends to have negative impacts on a lake's frog populations. You are hired to survey frog population sizes in one of the mountain lakes that is identified for fishing development.
Added by Jill A.
Close
Step 1
This technique is used to study the diversity of plants and mosses in specific patches. Step 2: For the scenario where a power company is proposing to put in new high-voltage lines through a forest and needs to evaluate the impact on forest species, the best Show more…
Show all steps
Your feedback will help us improve your experience
Farhan Anwar and 58 other Biology educators are ready to help you.
Ask a new question
Labs
Want to see this concept in action?
Explore this concept interactively to see how it behaves as you change inputs.
Key Concepts
Recommended Videos
Ecologists often want to study communities to estimate biodiversity, determine the stability of a community, the health and fitness of a species, as well as population growth rates and numbers of trees present within a population or community. One measure of community stability that ecologists study is called the ecological importance value. It is a number is given on a scale from 0 – 300. The larger the value, the more important that tree species is to the community. Tree Species Importance Value White Oak 100 Red Oak 60 White Birch 220 Black Birch 88 Red Maple 90 Yellow Birch 123 Based on the information provided, develop a hypothesis relating the importance value to the health and fitness of a species. What is the dependent variable of the experiment? What is the independent variable of the experiment? Based on the information provided, which tree is the most important to the environment? Explain your answer. What type of graph would be appropriate for the data set? Explain your answer.
Supreeta N.
Question 1. Amphibians (e.g., frogs, toads, and salamanders) are declining worldwide. Two hypotheses for why this is happening are predators and pesticides. To test these hypotheses, scientists raised several frog species as tadpoles in small ponds (n = 5 per treatment combination). Ponds had either no predators, predatory newts, or predatory beetle larvae; in addition, ponds were exposed to either no pesticide (NP), the insecticide Malathion (M; kills insects) or the herbicide Roundup (R; kills plants), two globally common pesticides. The researchers then monitored subsequent survival of the tadpoles in each pond. Consider the following figure; different letters denote statistically significant differences between groups (Tukey’s HSD; P < 0.05): A. What is/are the independent and dependent variable(s) in this study? B. How many treatment combinations are there in this experimental design and which one is the control group? C. What is the experimental unit in this study and how many replicates are there for each treatment combination? D. Not considering pesticides, what effect did predators have on tadpole survival? Explain. E. Not considering predators, what effect did pesticides have on tadpole survival? Explain. F. Given the overall results of this experiment, what management recommendation would you make if your goal was to maximize amphibian survival (e.g., ban Malathion, Roundup, or both)? Explain.
Sri K.
The population of a certain species of deer has been reduced drastically because of indiscriminate hunting. How will you determine its impact on the local ecosystem? a. To determine the effect of indiscriminate hunting on local ecosystem, environmental conditions should be determined. If a drastic change in environmental conditions is observed then, indiscriminate hunting of deer should be discouraged. b. The number of predators, their effect on plants they feed on, availability of nutrients in soil, and number of pests should be determined. If there is a drastic change in numbers, then indiscriminate hunting of deer should be discouraged. c. Determining the number of predators alone is sufficient to determine the impact of indiscriminate hunting on local ecosystem. If there is a drastic change in numbers, then indiscriminate hunting of deer should be discouraged. d. Determination of the availability of nutrients in soil helps in determining the impact of indiscriminate hunting on local ecosystem. If there is a drastic change in the availability, then indiscriminate hunting of deer should be discouraged.
Recommended Textbooks
Biology for AP Courses
Objective Biology for NEET
Introduction to General, Organic and Biochemistry
Transcript
Watch the video solution with this free unlock.
EMAIL
PASSWORD