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Isabel Gray
BIOL 1120L
Introduction
within systems that include terrestrial, marine, and aquatic types and also the diversity found
within species, between species, and in ecosystems (United Nations Environment Programme
1992). Biodiversity encompasses three types of diversity, species, genetic, and ecosystem, to
properly measure the amount of diversity in the area of study. Since species diversity is the
easiest to evaluate, that is what we focused on. Species diversity is composed of species richness,
how many species are in the community, and species evenness, the ratio of individuals in the
For this experiment we are looking at plankton communities in river wetland and river
hypothesized that the river channel would have more biodiversity due to the movement of water
which allows for species to migrate, unlike the stagnant river wetland.
included acquiring four samples of the river wetland water and four of the river channel water.
We split the eight samples into two of the wetland and two of the channel for each of us. Each
sample was treated with Protoslo so assessing the slides would be uncomplicated. The slides we
used were ruled, so when put under the microscope we were able to focus on four squares of our
choosing. In those squares, we determined what species of plankton were present and proceeded
to count the number of individuals of each species. After completing this on one slide, we moved
to the next one to repeat the procedure. When the counting on both slides had been completed,
we moved from the wetland samples onto the channel samples. In the same manner we evaluated
Finishing this, I retrieved the lab data that my partner collected and added her findings to
mine. Totaling up number of individuals in each sample gave us the N variable we needed to
begin working through inserting our data into the Shannon Diversity Index to calculate the
relative value of species richness and evenness of each ecosystem. Following the equation, we
tabulated the H value of both ecosystems which allows us to properly compare both of them on
an even scale.
Results
The compiled data of the individuals within the species was inserted into the Shannon
Diversity Index to achieve the respective H-values found in Table 1. From the table, the river
wetland is shown to have a lesser H-value than the value found for the river channel.
Table 1. The H-values found for each sample of the plankton community.
Discussion
This experiment started off with the question of whether river wetlands or river channels
housed more biodiversity. Our hypothesis stated that we believed the sample of river channel
water would have a greater amount of plankton biodiversity than the river wetland sample. We
believed this would be possible because the motion of the river channel water allow for the
introduction of more species than would be introduced into the stagnant water of the river
wetland. The H-values we tabulated from each sample supported our hypothesis as the river
channel water had the higher H-value. The data we recovered from the experiment is further
supported by evidence that claims in experimental communities, it was found that higher levels
of species density and richness was present when the water flow was enhanced (Palardy and
Witman 2010). This scenario is comparable to the stagnant water of river wetlands versus the
For future replications of this experiment, there are many factors that could be altered to
gain more precise data. In the experiment it was difficult to keep count of motile plankton which
could turn into a large error in data collection. It may not be ideal, but perhaps having dead
plankton may make the process less obstructed for students. This is only one of the several
Bell, Rebekah, Jennifer Boyd, Linda Collins, Hope Klug, Meredith Montgomery and Charles
Nelson. 2015. Investigations in Biology Laboratory Manual, 3rd ed. Plymouth: Hayden-McNeil
Publishing.
Palardy, James E and Jon D. Witman. 2010. Water flow drives biodiversity by mediating rarity
in marine benthic communities. Ecology Letters 14(2011): 63-68. Accessed April 7, 2017.
United Nations Environment Programme. 1992. Convention on biological diversity, June 1992.
Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme, Environmental Law, and Institutions
Programme Activity Centre. Accessed April 7, 2017.