Urban Biodiversity Game –
Absent Version
Background Information
1. What can increase
biodiversity?
More food resources,
people leave homes due
to a disaster, makes more
habitat, low pollution, less
competition, stable
climate, isolation
(evolution), more
ecotones, stratification,
more niches, more rain.
2. What can decrease
biodiversity?
Competition, less
resources, people moving
in, overpopulation, natural
disaster, more pollution,
change in temperature,
inbreeding, invasive
species, hunting,
extinction,
Pre Lab Definitions
• Species Richness: A count of the number of
different species in a given area.
• Species Abundance: The total number of
individuals in an area.
• Species Evenness: How even the distribution
of each species in a particular area is.
• Shannon-Weiner Index: Higher the index the
more biodiverse. Ranges from 1.5 to 3 in real
world environments. Accounts abundance,
evenness, and richness of the species present.
Procedure –
1. Answer Round #1 Initial Community question.
2. Determine the Species Richness and the Species
Abundance of your community of birds and plants.
3. The Shannon Index of the initial community is
Birds = 1.33, Plants = 1.53
4. Event cards follow this slide. Read each event.
5. Write what happened in the box under the event
on the data table.
6. Record the changes for each species on your data
table.
Event #1 – Parking Lot
Loss of Habitat
• A new grocery store needs parking
spaces, so a parking lot is built over an
area of grasses and shrubs.
• Consequences:
– Half of the Clethra, Winterberry, and
Chokeberry are cut down.
– Half of the Juncos, Robins, and Song
Sparrows leave because of the loss of
habitat.
Event #2 – Planting Trees
Adding food and habitat
• A local elementary school celebrates
Earth Day by planting 3 green ash
trees in their schoolyard.
• Consequence: There are 3 new
green ash trees in your community,
which attract 4 new robins to nest
there and eat the seeds of the trees.
Event #3 – Emerald Ash Borer
Invasive Species
• The Emerald Ash Borer, a beetle whose
larvae eat the inner bark of green ash
trees, migrates to your neighborhood
from the midwest.
• Consequence: Half of the green ash
trees are injured and cut down before
they can fall and cause damage. Four of
the community’s robins, which were
nesting in those ash trees, leave your
community.
Event #4 Build a Birdbox
Add Habitat
• As a school science project,
one of your classmates builds
a bird box for the schoolyard.
• Consequence: A pair of blackcapped chickadees move in to
nest in the box.
Event #5 Runoff
A Change in Chemical Composition
• One icy winter, the city puts salt on the
road to make it safer to drive. The salt
dissolves the icy water and washes into the
soil.
• Consequences: Two of the summersweet
clethra and two of the winterberry bushes
in your community cannot tolerate the
change in the soil quality and die. Half of
the juncos, that have been living near the
base of those shrubs, leave to find a new
habitat.
Event #6 Cats
Introduced Species
• A family moves out of the neighborhood
and into an apartment where animals
are not allowed. Since they cannot take
their two cats with them, they release
them into the streets to live.
• Consequence: The cats must now hunt
for food, and two sparrows, 1 junco, and
half of the chickadees are killed.
Event #7 Global Warming
Change in Temperature
• As the temperature rises from global
warming, organisms that usually live in
warmer climates are able to move
north. Because of this, the bark beetle
moves into your community.
• Consequence: The bark beetles kill two
of the pine trees in your community,
causing half of the crows to leave for
new nesting grounds.
After all 7 events
• Determine the Species Richness and
abundance for plants and birds at the
end.
• The Shannon Index for the final
community is Birds = 1.31 , Plants = 1.42
• Answer questions 1,2,3.
• Put in your lab book as lab #9 when
complete.