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Research Design Aim 1

Submitted by semans on Fri, 10/25/2019 - 10:22

Identifying the number of plant species

    Our aim is to count the number of different plant species found around a series of local small aquatic ecosystems. 

    We intend to limit the radius within which we count the number of plant species to 2 metres into and 2 metres out of the pond or waterbed edge. Starting at an arbitrary point and marking it, the radius will be subdivided into 2 metre wide plots circling the entirety of the pond. This will be done in order to ensure accuracy of counting and to prevent backtracking. Within each of these plots, the number of plant species visible to the naked eye and the number of individuals of that species will be counted. Then, the counts for each species from each of the plots will be aggregated into a series of totals.

    The data will be analysed by generating a Simpson biodiversity index for each area of study. This is a statistical tool described by the following equation:

D = 1-[(n(n-1))/(N(N-1))]

Where n is the number of individuals of each species and N is the total number of individuals of all species, and D represents the biodiversity index. The higher D is, the higher the biodiversity of a particular area. 

    We expect the results to show the level of biodiversity around local small aquatic ecosystems in order to inform us about one aspect of the ecosystems’ integrities. As there is no data on the biodiversity of these ecosystems, we will have no point of comparison for our data.

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