Biodiversity

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Biodiversity

• Urban-Suburban-Rural
• In Baltimore City/County

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Biodiversity

• More than 25 recognized definitions
• Convention on Biological Diversity
• the variability among living organisms from all
  sources including, inter alia, terrestrial,
  marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the
  ecological complexes of which they are part this
  includes diversity within species, between
  species and of ecosystems.

http//www.biodiv.be/glossary_keywords/B/biologica
l_diversity
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Biodiversity

• Multiple scales of biodiversity
• Genetic
• Species
• Ecosystem
• Measure should be defined by the application of
  the data

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Benefits of Biodiversity

• Soil, air, water quality
• Climate stability
• Pest control
• Detoxification and decomposition of waste
• Crop production (pollinators)
• Buffer against natural disasters
• Food security
• Medicine
• Aesthetic value
• Economic value

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Question

• How does biodiversity differ between managed and
  unmanaged areas in urban, suburban and rural
  school yards?

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Approach

• 5m transects
• 3 samplings per type at each site
• 3 samples x 2 types x 3 sites 18 total
• Sample insects by sweeping parallel to transect
  line
• Sample herbaceous vegetation by collecting
  samples along transect line
• Differentiate and count Organizational Taxonomic
  Units (OTUs)

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Sites

• Urban Digital Harbor High School
• Suburban Owings Mills High School
• Rural Hereford High School

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Assumptions

• Similar management regimens between the sites
• Each site is representative of its type
• Urban, rural, suburban

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Rural
Suburban
Urban
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Limitations

• Digital Harbor finding enough edge
• Unmanaged areas not completely unmanaged
• High number of birds eating our sample insects(in
  the field)
• Time entailed in classifying the species(we did
  the insects within our group)
• Each group tried to determine what we thought of
  as edge.
• Weather conditions

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Hypothesis I

• Managed areas will have lower biodiversity than
  unmanaged areas
• If urban,suburban and rural areas are managed,
  then we expect the areas to be more similar to
  each other with respect to the herbaceous plant
  and insect species, so we will see more common
  species among managed fields than the unmanaged
  edge areas from similar sites

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Comparison of Biodiversity in Managed and
Unmanaged Sites Along Urban-Rural Gradient
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Managed vs Unmanaged Areas

• Unmanaged areas contain more OTUs than managed
  areas
• Unmanaged 32 OTUs
• Managed 20 OTUs
• Suburban areas have the greatest overlap of
  species between managed and unmanaged areas
  (36.3), followed by urban areas (19.2), with
  the least overlap in rural areas (4.8).

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Hypothesis II

• Biodiversity will occur along a gradient, with
  rural areas having greatest biodiversity.
• If biodiversity occurs across a continuous
  urban-rural gradient with the greatest
  biodiversity in rural areas, then we expect the
  rural school yard to contain the greatest number
  of OTUs and the urban school yard to contain the
  lowest number of OTUs.

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Urban-Rural Gradient

• The greatest number of OTUs was found at the
  urban site, followed by the rural site, with the
  least number of OTUs found at the suburban site
• The greatest overlap in species was found between
  the urban and rural sites

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Current literature

• Moritz von der Lippe and Ingo Kowarik (2007)
  Institute of Ecology, Technical University of
  Berlin, Rothenburgstr.12, D-12165 Berlin, Germany
• Do cities export biodiversity?
• Traffic as dispersal vector across urbanrural
  gradients

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Future Investigations

• Is this study representative?
• ie, test additional sites
• Are the similarities different?
• Alternative definitions of biodiversity, to
  include biomass studies (dominant populations)
• What factors are influencing the pattern (ie,
  lack of gradient)?
• Investigate type of area residences, traffic
  patterns, watersheds, development, weather
  patterns,etc

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Making lab
work in classroom

• We would have a dichotomous key for the species
  of plants and have them label species as species
  1,2,3 and then for an extension for some students
  have them work to find out what is the species
  name.

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Classroom applications

• This would be an intense lab to do with students
  in a 45 minute class period but it could be
  completed in 3 days in a 90 minute class.
• This could be started midweek and completed the
  next week for students on a 45 minute schedule.
  Leading the students and having them design the
  lab will have them buying into the work better
  than presenting the lab to them.

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Making lab work in classroom

• Pre-lab having the students understand what they
  will be doing have each student practice the
  correct techniques for the net sampling method
• Have student understand collection of plant
  species.

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Making lab work in classroom

• On lab day have students collect materials and go
  outside and collect the samples
• Bring samples inside and freeze insects
• Separate and press plant samples for
  identification the next day.

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Making the lab work in the classroom

• Day 3 identify the plants in each group and enter
  data in excel
• If time allows show pictures of the kinds of
  insects

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Making lab work in classroom

• Have students look at samples of insects under
  dissecting microscopes
• Have them determine the differences between
  flying insects, beetles, sucking insects,
  grasshoppers, crickets, ants and spiders. Have
  them tell why spiders are not classified as
  insects.

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Making lab work in classroom

• Data analysis graphing data using excel
• Comparison of number of species of plants and
  number of species of animals for edge and field
• Explanation of what they would expect with the
  number of species of herbivores and number of
  primary producers.