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Essay about Understanding Ecosystems in Today's Society

Decent Essays

Introduction:
An ecosystem is all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact; one or more communities and the physical environment around them (Campbell, 2012, G-11). Our aim is to observe how these factors interact with each other and give a record of our observations in our particular ecosystem. By observing these interactions we gain an appreciation of the diversity and complex nature of ecosystems. Through observing our environment we can make predictions of the feeding relationships that shape the ecosystem. By observing the plant life in an ecosystem we can predict the following heterotroph factors, as autotrophs are the providers of all energy. Through understanding ecosystems we see that …show more content…

• Laptop to record number of plant species.

Place chopsticks, or whatever stick objects you have, in the group in a 1x1m2 quadrat with string wrapped around the sticks.

Count the number of plant species in the quadrat sectioning them off into five different groups, trees, shrubs, herbs, grass and moss.

Trees being one singular wood growth while shrubs have multiple stems coming from the ground. Grass is blade like leaves. Herbs are usually soft grass like plants with more leaves then blades. Add these species into your table 1.

Once you’ve completed this extend your quadrat to 1x2m2. Add any additional species, making sure not to count species you’ve already counted in the first quadrat, into your table 1.

Repeat this for sizes 2x2m2, 2x4m2, 4x4m2 and 8x4 meters2. Being sure to only record the new species of plants in the table.

Repeat this process for another area close to your first ecosystem.

Results:

Area 1 Quadrat sizes (m)
Species 1x1 2x1 2x2 2x4 4x4 4x8
Herb 1 X
Herb 2 X
Grass 1 X
Shrub 1 X
Herb 3 X
Moss 1 X
Herb 4 X
Tree 1 X
Shrub 2 X
Tree 2 X
Herb 5 X
Tree 3 X
Cumulative number of species 6 1 3 1 1 0
Area 2 Quadrat sizes (m)
Species 1x1 1x2 2x2 2x4 4x4 4x8
Grass 1 X
Grass 2 X
Herb 1 X
Herb 2 X
Tree 1 X

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