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

ACCUMULATION OF HOW MANY NEW SPECIES YOU FOUND Results SAMPLE TRIAL 1 TRIAL 2 TRIAL 3 ACCUMULATION OF HOW MANY NEW SPECIES YOU FOUND 1   2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Results

References http://www.denniskalma.com/river/biodiversitymeasurement.html http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/species/reptile-species-richness/