Part 1. (answer seperate)
The concepts of natural selection and evolution are central to how most biologists understand and interpret the world. Why is Darwin’s explanation so useful in biology? Does this explanation necessarily challenge traditional religious views? In what ways?
What is the difference between saying that a duck has webbed feet because it needs them to swim and saying that a duck is able to swim because it has webbed feet?
Book used: Cunningham, W., and M.A. Cunningham. 2017 (8th Ed.). Principles of Environmental Science: Inquiry and Application. McGraw-Hill Education, New York, NY.
Principles of Environmental Science, Ch. 3 (p. 50-75)
Principles of Environmental Science, Ch. 4 (p. 76-95)
cite sources using APA format, and use good grammar and writing mechanics.
Part 2:
Biodiversity: Ecologists use the terms species richness and species evenness to describe the diversity in an area. Biodiversity is important for a number of reasons. First, the more species in an ecosystem, the greater the chance one of those species can provide something of value to humans, such as food, medicine, or materials. Second, the more species means the ecosystem can recover from disturbances. Third, biodiversity delivers certain ecological services, such as clean air, clean water, flood control, and disease control. Finally, there is intrinsic value in biodiversity – a diverse ecosystem is simply more interesting and humans derive more personal enjoyment.
Richness refers simply to the number of species per sample. The more species present in a sample, the richer that particular species is. Evenness is a measure of the relative abundance of the different species of an area, community or habitat (i.e., the abundance of one species compared to another species or all species).
Instructions:
You will locate one natural area and one “disturbed” area where you can conduct field sampling.
You will randomly select a sampling area within the natural area to measure.
You will mark off a roughly 1 meter by 1 meter quadrat, or sampling area. (If you are interested in larger plants, you may expand the size of your quadrat, but please take note of the size)
Within your quadrat, you will count all the different species and categorize them – you do not have to identify the species but you do have to create different categories of plant types based on your observations. Fill in the table on the following pages.
Repeat steps 2-4 for the disturbed area.
Using the template provided in the companion document, you will analyze your data and calculate the diversity of the areas you worked in.
Answer the questions on the companion document ( I have attatched a document) please fill
