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This exercise, intended as homework or an in-class exercise, provides a guided inquiry approach to understanding continental scale patterns of species richness and patterns of relative abundance within community species assemblages. Students are introduced to the concept of latitudinal gradients in species richness. They are also introduced to the concept of evenness of relative abundances within a community assemblage, and how empirically it is often true that species rich communities have more even relative abundances of the constituent species. The students are then assigned a homework exercise to examine whether the patterns of relative abundances show the same latitudinal biogeographic pattern as species richness. The exercise uses the Science Pipes platform (www.sciencepipes.org) that extracts data from the US Forest Service Forest Inventory & Analysis (FIA) Program. Students are tasked to do four latitudinal transects, each consisting of a total of one county from each of four different states along the same longitude. The students generate rank abundance curves and associated data tables for each of the counties included in their transects. The students examine the patterns of the sixteen rank abundance curves among the four transects. From these data, the students evaluate whether (1) species richness varies inversely with latitude and (2) whether evenness of relative abundances parallels the latitudinal pattern of species richness. They also evaluate whether (3) coastal locations have higher species richness and evenness than continent interior locations. The exercise is designed as a homework assignment, but can also be done in class.
Associated files
Temporal and geographic description United States
Format
Resource Group Science Pipes Learning Activities
Special Collection
Primary or BEN resource type
Secondary resource type
General Biology Competencies
Life science discipline (subject)
Keywords species richness, species diversity, rank-abundance curves, community ecology, ecological gradients, trees; science pipes
Key taxa Trees
Audience
Intended End User Role
Language
Educational Language
Pedagogical Use Category
Pedagogical Use Description Guided inquiry exercise - homework or in class.
Aggregation Level
Structure
Url http://info.sciencepipes.org/help/2013/01/digital-resource-discovery-a...
Full Name of Primary Author Tom A. Langen
Primary Author Controlled Name
Primary Author Affiliation Depts. of Biology, Psychology
Clarkson University
Primary Author email tlangen@clarkson.edu
Added By Id
  • tlangen
Rights None
License
Publisher
Review type
Drought and Water Ecosystem Services Collection Off
Conservation Targets Under Global Change Collection Off
Big Data Collection On
Editors Choice No
Resource Status
Date Of Record Submission 2013-06-03
I Agree to EcoEdDL's Copyright Policy & Terms of Use No
Date Of Record Release 2013-11-17 19:49:18
Last Modified By Id
  • tmourad
Date Last Modified 2013-11-27 10:30:20
Release Flag Published

Resource Comments

Subject: Comment On: Geographic Gradients in Community Patterns of Forest Trees
Posted By: zimbler
Date Posted: 2017-01-11 09:19:00
Science Pipes website not available anymore