Biodiversity Lab
‘Candy Land’ is a wonderful world full of many ‘species’ of candy. The goal of this exercise is to
describe and compare island ecosystems in Candy Land. These serve as models for ecosystems and
a method for observing biodiversity.
Approach: each team is responsible for characterizing their island ecosystem. Later, we will
compare the two island ecosystems. Remember to use SI units!
Directions:
(1) Measure the area (m2) of your island.
(2) Using the quadrants provided, measure the abundance (number) of species within a quadrant
for a random sampling area of your island. Repeat this 3 times.
(3) Using this subsample estimate the true species richness using the Jackknife statistical approach
n 1
Sˆ  s  (
)k
n
Ŝ = Estimated species richness in entire ecosystem
s = observed total number of species present in n quadrants
n = total number of quadrants sampled
k = number of "unique" species (e.g. only one organism was found in sample population)
(4) Now measure the total abundance (number) and biomass (g) of each species and the number of
species on the whole island. How does your estimate in (3) compare to what you just measured?
(5) For each of the major functional groups in ‘Candy Land’ (e.g. chocolate, gummy or whatever
categories your team agrees to) calculate the abundance and biomass (g). Calculate the areal
biomass (g m-2) and areal abundance (# m-2) for each of the major functional groups for your
ecosystem.
(6) Using your estimated factors, calculate the number of candy species that could be present in an
average “Walmart ecosystem” (~2 × 105 m2).
Analysis Questions:
(1) Comparing data from the two islands, answer the following questions:
a. Which island in the class has a highest biodiversity? Why?
b. Which island is most productive? Why?
(2) What additional information might be useful in characterizing these ecosystems?
(3) How did the species richness from the sample compare with the species richness of the entire
island?
(4) What basis did you group use to characterize the major “functional groups”? Did some
characteristics of the species make them hard to classify? How so?
This activity was modified from lab created by Zackary Johnson at Duke University Marine Lab