draft

Ponds are freshwater bodies of water found all over the world. These ponds host all types of organisms ranging from unicellular organisms all the way to multicellular organisms such as fish and frogs. In ponds, groups of living things depend on the water environment and each other for their own supplements and survival (Rejesh, 2017). If a pond has more "evenness" when it comes to diversity, it's system is going to be stronger, and better equipped for survival. By evaluating pond water samples from The UMass Campus and the Sylvan Pond, we should see which pond is more diverse and therefore better equipped for survival. To test what pond has a higher Shannon Diversity Index, we gathered pond water samples from two locations. We counted the organisms, identified and classified the species, charted the numbers, and then calculated which pond had higher diversity.