TERRESTRIAL HABITAT ANALYSIS
FIRST REAL ECOLOGY LABORATORY
Where: Garvin Heights Park (we will take the van from the field equipment room)
When: during your lab on Tuesday or Thursday-meet at the field equipment room
Your goal: Assess general habitat characteristics of grasslands vs. woodlands.
Your Null Hypothesis: Habitat diversity, light intensity, surface and soil temperature,
slope, and soil depth do not differ between grasslands and woodlands.
What do you do(?):
1) Start with a general description of the area. We go to the grassland first and then to the
woodland. Look at page 30 in your lab manual and record the aspect and slope (take multiple
measurements in each habitat). Now look at pages 36 and 37 and record the stratification of
plants (How many layers are there?). Take multiple height measurements for plants within each
stratum.
2) Measure light intensity and air temperature at the surface (take multiple
readings) of both habitats.
3) Describe the soil in terms of structure, color, consistency, and particle size.
4) Measure the soil temperature (take multiple readings, p. 48).
5) Examination of soil profiles using soil corer and measurement of soil depth
(take multiple measurements, p. 46-47)
How do you analyze your data?
1) Calculate means and standard deviations for each parameter (measurement).
2) Calculate vertical habitat diversity (p. 37-38) for grassland and woodland
habitats (use mean vegetation layer heights for calculations)
3) Make statistical comparisons of parameter means (light intensity, surface
temperature, soil temperature, slope, and soil depth) between grassland and
woodland habitats (t-tests and/or Mann-Whitney tests)
What equipment do we need?
Meter tapes
Soil thermometer
Meter sticks
Light meters
Compasses
Soil corer
Bulb thermometers