Ecology Research Proposal

Exploring Community Ecology and Biodiversity using iNaturalist

When you finish this project you should be able to generate hypotheses concerning biodiversity in natural communities, identify communities in the field (or on a satellite photo), design and carry out a sampling scheme and collect data on the species composition in the communities you identified and then analyze that data to generate conclusions about diversity and ecological structure of communities.

To begin with you will write a research proposal so I can give you some advice and feedback to be sure your ideas and methods are doable and meet the objectives of this project. The proposal will have the 4 parts described below so be sure to all all 5 parts in some detail so I can give you the best possible advice. There will be several assignments that come out of this project and you will use all the wok below in one or more of those assignments as well so your effort will not be wasted. For example, your hypothesis statement in Step 3 will eventually become the introduction for your scientific poster.

Step1. Choose a theme and a gradient.

Read the paper ​Global Patterns in Biodiversity by Kevin Gaston​ to get an idea about themes in biodiversity gradients. You are going to choose a gradient to sample in an online setting via iNaturalist, so if you have already you need to get an iNaturalist account set up.

Choosing a theme and making predictions (hypotheses). You are essentially choosing a phenomenon that occurs along a gradient and then making a prediction as to how that gradient effects species diversity. Here are a few common gradients to start you thinking:

● Elevation from low to high​, often starting at the base of mountains and going to the top as you move through different ecological zones.

● Latitude from the equator to the poles​, the tropics have the highest biodiversity and many researchers have validated that diversity generally decreases as you head towards the poles but not necessarily in a uniform manner. It is also though that biodiversity patterns are reflected in the northern and southern hemisphere so you could sample some California locations and some from Chile (same latitude in the southern hemisphere) to see if that is true

● Rain shadow effect (Precipitation)​, as you move from the ocean facing side of a mountain range to the inland side you would expect a rainfall gradient that might influence diversity – you would have to sample the same

elevations on both sides of the mountain to eliminate the elevation effects to do this one.

● Slope Aspect (temperature and evapotranspiration)​ , in the northern hemisphere the south facing slopes get more solar radiation than north facing slopes and east facing get morning sun while west facing get afternoon sun and this difference in solar radiation may influence biodiversity.

● Fire effects (disturbance and succession)​, it is thought that an intermediate level of disturbance and stage of succession influence biodiversity so by using a fire history map you could sample areas with different fire regimes and see how that influences biodiversity

● Island Biogeography​, it is thought that the ​larger the island the greater the species diversity​ so you could sample islands of various sizes. Keep in mind “island” could be interpreted as an isolated community of any kind even on land where mountain tops, urban parks, lakes, desert oases, would be considered islands.

Step 2. Choose your study sites / sampling areas

This part of the submission will vary with the gradient you testing but here are a few things to consider. First, you should have between 3 and 5 types of locations ( for example, low, mid and high elevation) and at least one set of replication which are the same type of location in more than one place to be sure the pattern find holds true. So the minimum samples would be between 6 and 10. Keep in mind this activity is replacing a significant amount of field work so there if it seems like a lot of work it really should be.

What do I submit for this part? Cut and paste the url for each of your locations from the iNaturalist website. So you will send a set if urls for the sites will use for sampling. This way I can check to see if the locations work for your gradient and if there is sufficient data for your hypothesis from these sites. I will recommend other locations if necessary in the same way so you can just click on them and go to the site.

Step 3. Make an Hypothesis.

Once you have chosen your gradient it is time to make an hypothesis so as a good scientist you will first do a review of the literature to see what others have found. You can do a Google scholar search or a PLOS to get at least peer reviewed sources that have explored your gradient in one way or another. Summarize their findings in a paragraph and be sure to cite your sources. This section ends with your hypothesis, kind of like this;

“Based upon the findings of Ramirez (2015), Zhang (2017) and Asghar (2019) I expect that there will be a negative correlation between elevation and diversity, with the tops of mountains being less diverse than the lowlands.”

Step 4. Designing your sampling scheme or the “methods”.

This is a description of how you will get your data and do a basic analysis. In this case there are some preset expectations that you can adjust to your particular case. Here are some of the rules everyone must follow:

You must have an onscreen sampling protocol to do some reasonably ​random samples

with in area. In classic ecological samples there are 2 strategies often employed; transects and quadrats and

you can check out this video for some ideas about how to use them

. I use a sheet of mylar (clear plastic) and some transects or quadrats (could be circles) preset to randomly select my areas to count on my computer screen in this case.

You must collect at least 100 observations in one area to call that a biodiversity sample – in areas of high diversity this may be even a bit small. An observation is a single count so there may be only 20 species in a sample with many of each species. In addition, you’ll want to be sure you have sampled across the higher taxa and ecological roles as well. This might mean you would have to do more than your preset transects or circles.

You must find the location on a Google map and save a photo or screen cap and the the same exact area in iNaturalist (which uses a Google map base map) which you will also screen cap or save a photo.

You must keep your data in the following format with the column headings in the example as a minimum but feel free to add any field necessary for your study, for example, you could elevation or direction of slope face:

iNaturalist Biodiversity Sampling Data Sheet

Species Numbe r

Locatio n

Sampl e

Phylum Class/ Family

Trophic role/level

Quercus agrifolia

3 Millard 1 Magnoliophyta Fagaceae Producer

Puma concolor 1 Millard 2 Chordata Mammalia teriary consumer

Danaus plexippus

2 Millard 2 Arthropoda Insecta primary consumer

There is an excel spreadsheet of this format in the module in Canvas.

You can keep your data in analog from but you will find that you can use Excel (or Sheets, or any other spreadsheet) to do much of the analysis later if you start in that format.

Step 5: How will you use the data to test your hypothesis?

For your methods section you’ll also need to sketch out or describe the graphs you will eventually use to test your hypothesis. For example, maybe a column graph of elevation and biodiversity:

Or maybe a scatter plot for the same data;

Obviously, you do not have to have data in these graphs for the proposal these are just to let me know that you have thought about and understand how to use your data to test your hypothesis. I can give you some suggestions once I see where you are going with this section.

The steps above are the sections you will turn in for this proposal. I will read through all parts and give you feedback within the week so you can get started on the study ASAP.