Lab Report Template-2.doc

1 Biodiversity & Scientific Method Nichole Moore SCI 207: Our Dependence Upon the Environment Clifford Blizzard December 2, 2021

2 Biodiversity & Scientific Method I was given 100 acres of land in Rural Georgia, to implement land management strategies to help with the most significant increase in plants and wildlife. The land use to be a farm land but several decades ago was replanted with pines. I was given several options on how to go about land management. Out of these options, I needed to choose the one that would be most beneficial to the ecosystem. According to the Australian State of the Government (Cresswell, Murphy), biodiversity is vital to scientists because they can gather data that helps them understand the natural world and its origins to get a better understanding of how we can protect the environment. This is important because the ecosystem supplies oxygen, water, and clean air. According to William Harris, biodiversity is essential to humanity and the health of our planet. The purpose of this lab to see which land management strategies have the most significant impact on increasing plant life and wildlife. There are several different ways to manage the land, which further affects plant life and wildlife. Testing the different ways to manage the land will allow me to see if it impacts the ecosystem negatively or positively. This also allows me to see what endangered animals would have the best chance of survival. In activity 1, I hypothesize that replanting longleaf pines, restoring wiregrass, and starting prescribed burns will increase species biodiversity. I thought this was the best course because after reading about prescribed burns, I learned that there are plants that need to be burned so often to clear the understory, which helps enrich the soil and for plants to start to grow again and bring in wildlife.

3 In activity 2, trial 1, I hypothesize that putting woodpeckers' nest boxes and reintroducing gopher tortoises would help increase biodiversity. Woodpeckers and gopher tortoises are absent in that area but could be introduced if the conditions were right. In activity 2, trial 2, I hypothesize that restoring wetlands and reintroducing the gopher tortoise would increase biodiversity. The wetlands will bring in new plant and wildlife. In activity 2, trial 3. I hypothesize that restoring wetlands and putting in artificial woodpecker nest boxes would help increase biodiversity. Woodpeckers and endangered and absent in this area. Bringing the woodpecker back would help repopulate them. In activity 3, I hypothesize that establishing an organic farm would allow revenue to be brought in without affecting the biodiversity. This activity was to help bring in some revenue without destroying biodiversity and help with the debt that I had acquired during the time. Materials and Methods I picked what land management systems I thought was going to help increase biodiversity the greatest. After that a graph would pop up and I was able to see the number of species for that action. I repeated this step several times picking different actions each time to see which one improved biodiversity the greatest.

4 Results Data Tables: How I received my land. Activity 1: My land after Longleaf and Wiregrass restoration.

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