BIOL 4233 Field Biology
BIOL 5533 Ecological Methods
Experiment 2: Comparative Species Diversity
Brower et al. (1998): Units 5b and 5c
I.
Introduction
A.
Species richness
B.
Species diversity
C.
Evenness
II.
Measurement of species diversity
A.
Species diversity indices (Table 5B.1, p. 178)
B.
Species richness (s)
C.
Heterogeneity of species
D.
Shannon-Wiener diversity function
E.
Evenness
F.
Simpson’s index
III.
Measurement of community similarity
A.
Community similarity indices (Table 5C.1, p. 189)
B.
Jaccard’s coefficient of community similarity
C.
Horn’s index of community overlap
IV.
Comparative species diversity and community similarity of three salt
marsh ecosystems in the Galveston Bay system
A.
Objectives
B.
Variables to be tested
C.
Assumptions
D.
Experimental protocol
1.
site map, meeting place and time
(1) Christmas Bay
(2) Hance Bayou
(3) Virginia Point
2.
sampling equipment
a.
25 foot ¼ inch mesh seine and poles
b.
buckets, data sheets, field guides, rulers, fish nets
c.
S-T-TDS meter, pH meter, anemometer, compass, GPS
3.
field sampling
a.
complete habitat assessment at each site
b.
record environmental parameters
c.
pull seine from ~50 m out back to marsh shoreline
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4.
5.
V.
data to be recorded
a.
identify all species caught in seine (fish and invertebrates)
b.
count all individuals (fish and invertebrates)
d.
measure fish (only) to nearest 10mm (1cm) size class
e.
record all data on data sheets by group
release organisms unharmed
Calculations
A.
Each group must bring to class data from collections at each of the
three sites
B.
Class will pool all data from three groups
C.
BIOL 4233
a.
Shannon-Wiener diversity functions for each site and
comparisons among sites
b.
Pielou evenness for each site, comparisons among sites
c.
Jaccard’s coefficient of community similarity among sites
D.
BIOL 5533
a.
Shannon-Wiener diversity functions for each site and
comparisons among sites
b.
Simpson’s dominance for each site and comparisons among
sites
c.
comparison of the two measures of diversity
d.
Pielou evenness for each site and comparisons among sites
e.
Jaccard’s coefficient of community similarity among sites
f.
Horn’s index of community overlap among sites
g.
comparison of the two measures of community similarity
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