Please help with the following assignment:
Go to two locations near your location. Urban/suburban locations are encouraged- vacant lots, public marinas, logs in your backyard, a roundabout in your neighborhood, etc. Try to find two broadly similar sites. At each, find a one-meter radius area (including up and down). Take a picture of the area as a whole. Then, take pictures of every type of organism you see in that area, flipping over logs, looking in hollow trees, on the underside of structures, etc.
After you’ve done this, go back through your pictures and notes and try to identify everything you see using the Seek app (https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app) and/or the included guides: (https://ag.santaclaracounty.gov/pest-id/identify-i… ) (https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/region/califor…) Not all of them will be identifiable to species level, and that’s okay. Do your best!
Then, answer the following questions for each:
1. How many kingdoms of organisms to you see? Phyla? Class? Order?
2. What is the biggest organism you see? The most numerous?
3. Look at both your locations. What organisms are in both? What percentage of taxa do they have in common?
4. What differences are there between the communities you observe at the sites? Think about how these sites are similar and different: how much sun they get, any temperature differences, the amount of water, etc. Write down two testable hypotheses about how these factors may impact the community composition at each site.
