Terrestrial Plant Community Assessment
Objective: In this lab, students are going to learn how to observe and examine a small terrestrial community. Students will visit a local plant ecosystem to observe physical factors and species interactions, and then using line intercept method to quantify the abundance and distribution of different plant species that make up the plant community.
Hypothesis: There will be a species has highest density than other species, because there will be a dominant species in ecosystem.
Table 1:
L=total Length of transect=4m
i=total number of intervals=4
Species i
ni=Total Number of Individuals Encountered for Entire Transect
DENSITY
fi=Number of Intervals in Which Species i Occurs
FREQUENCY
ci=Total Length of Transect Intercepted for All Intervals
COVERAGE
Individual
Group
Individual
Group
2
2
1
0.03m
4
5
9
2
0.2m
0.4m
8
25
97
4
0.4m
1.28m
10
5
25
3
0.12m
0.16m
13
5
12
3
0.28m
0.51m
Total=40
Ntotal=Total of all individuals=145
Ftotal=Total of all frequencies=13
Total=1m
Ctotal=Total length of transect intercepted=2.38m
N total=2+9+97+25+12=145
F total=1+2+4+3+3=13
C total=0.03+0.4+1.28+0.16+0.51=2.38m
Table 2
Species
Density
Relative Density
Frequency
Relative Frequency
Coverage
Relative Coverage
Importance Value
2
0.50
0.01
0.25
0.08
0.01
0.01
0.10
4
2.25
0.06
0.50
0.15
0.10
0.17
0.38
8
24.25
0.67
1.00
0.31
0.32
0.54
1.51
10
6.25
0.17
0.75
0.23
0.04
0.07
0.47
13
3.00
0.08
0.75
0.23
0.13
0.21
0.53
Ex: Specie 2
Questions:
Q1. L=11m
W=7m
A=W×L=7m×11m=77m2
Sq.meter
Sq.feet
Acres
Hectares
77
831.6
0.019
0.0077
1m2=10.8ft2
1m2=0.000247acres
1m2=0.0001hectares
Q2. The site we observed would fall into grassland stage (second stage) of ecological community, because there are grass and small flowers, but do not have large plants.
Q3. The topography is sloped. The vertical height of the given area is 16...