Field Study Laboratory Report

Field Study Laboratory Report

The Report should consist of the following materials assembled in the order listed.

1)A formal written laboratory report.

2)A data sheet of your group’s measurements.

3)A spreadsheet and a color-coded double pie graph of the relative dominance and frequency of your class data.

4)A detailed aerial sketch of your forest quadrants with a color-coded key.

5)A data sheet of pond organisms found.

6)A food web of your pond ecosystem. The food web should be color coded by relative population.

7)Sketches of the various pond organisms seen with the microscope. Write down the organism’s pond habitat and the organism’s niche.

8)A labeled pond sketch including the list of pond plants.

Typed written report

Title:

This should include both studies. Give a brief description. Forest and Pond study is not enough.

Introduction/purpose:

Paragraph 1 – This paragraph should give an overview of what was done at the forest study. The purpose of this laboratory is to evaluate the forest community and should include the following. Discuss where the study took place, what types of measurements you made in order to determine relationship between tree species, and how different species grow and reproduce at different rates. Include information about their population size, basal area (area taken up by trunk on ground), and forest layer they primarily occupy. Youalso need to explain terms such as canopy, understory, relative dominance and relative frequency.The following bulletin points are a summary of items to be included in this paragraph.

• study was done in an even-aged mature forest
• took a census of tree by species to determine relative frequency (define)
• measured tree circumference to determine basal area to calculate relative dominance (define)
• determined forest layer by species (define)
• determine the type of relationships that exist among species in regards to dominance and frequency

Paragraph 2 -This is the paragraph where you hypothesize on the type of relationship that exists in the forest. Make sure that your hypothesis is tied into the background information of the first paragraph.State in this paragraph that the class will determine the three most significant species in regards to both dominance and frequency from the data analysis. You will use these three species to check your hypothesis in your conclusion once the data has been analyzed. In this hypothesis paragraph you will choose one relationship for all species.

The two relationships are:

A)Strong – dominance and frequency for a species is within 5 %

B)Opposing - dominance and frequency is at least 5% apart from one another for a species.

Include an explanation of both relationships in this paragraph so the read understands what you are saying when choose one of the relationships.

You must then explain why (most important) you chose that relationship.

Even though forest layer is not directly part of the dominance/frequency relationship, it should be included in your discussion on why you chose that relationship. The amount of water and soil type are fairly constant for all species. What abiotic factor is the biggest variable for the trees? Species may respond to this factor differently. What determines how big a tree gets in size? What determines how many individuals of a species occur?

The following bulletin points are a list of items to be included in this paragraph.

• Explain both relationships
• Explain that the relationship will be based on the three most significant species in the study based on the data analysis that will follow.
• Choose one relationship as your hypothesis.
• Explain why that relationship is chosen.

Paragraph 3

Explain what was done at the pond study in order to create a pond food web and identify organisms and their niche. Discuss the concept of food web biodiversity and keystone species.The following bulletin points are a list of items to be included in this paragraph.

• State that you inventory all the species based on niche in the pond and determine their relative population sizes
• create a food web to determine the biodiversity (define), and stability (define) of the pond, and the presence of a keystone species (define).

Paragraph 4

Make a hypothesis about the health of the pond ecosystem by judging its biodiverstiy based on your visual observations at the pond. This will be based on your estimate of the number of organisms from each feeding niche as well as the presence of any keystone species. You are not quantifying this with numerical values, so it will be your opinion based on your knowledge of food webs and your observations at the pond. The following bulletin points are a list of items to be included in this paragraph.

• State a hypothesis on whether the pond is ecologically stable based on your observation of its biodiversity and relative populations sizes of the organisms.
• Predict whether you think a keystone species is present and explain you think there is one or not. Give the name of the species if your think there is one.

Procedures

Explain the procedures for both studies separately with the forest study first. They should be in the form of a numerical list. Include only relevant information involved in data collection. The determination of relative dominance, relative frequency, and forest layer will be the last step of the forest procedure. The methods on data manipulation are not needed. The creation of a pond food web by niche is the last step of pond procedures.

Data

Write the words (See Attached).

Conclusion

Paragraph 1 – Evaluate your forest hypothesis and determine whether it is right or wrong for each of the threetop species determined as a class from the pie charts. It may be right for some and wrong for others. You will need to examine and analyze your dominance and frequency data table and pie graphs. A positive difference between dominance and frequency means the tree is more dominant than frequent. A negative difference means it is more frequent than dominant. Do not restate all the numbers from your data section, just make the statement. You must then explain your data. By doing this you will be stating why your hypothesis is right or wrong for each of the three top species determined by your class. Discuss each of the three species considering their growth rate, reproduction/germination rate, and light requirement (tolerance – very important).

Paragraph 2 – From the analysis of the pond food web, you will determine whether or not your hypothesis about the ecosystem's health was valid or not. Your conclusion, like your hypothesis, is still an opinion but can now be supported with example from your web. In order to support your statements; discuss the numbers of organisms per niche and the number of possible food sources for consumers in order to justify its stability.Also look at the relative population of each organism. You can now determine if there are any keystone species present.