Dr. Mark A. McGinleyTexas Tech University

BIOL 5311Summer 2011

Biodiversity Exercise-Nemo

What is “biodiversity”Biodiversity:

the variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain it

DiversityDiversity is a measure of how much

variation there is.

Coral reefs are some of the most diverse communities in the world.

Biodiversity GameWe are going to study coral reefs around

some tropical islands to learn about biodiversity.

First Example

Hawaii

Tahiti

Tahiti

What do you notice about the reef in Tahiti?How many total fish are there?

How many different types of fish are there?

Draw a frequency distribution histogram

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Graph- frequency distribution

Number of individuals

Species

What does this graph tell us?

There is only one species on the reef and there are 5 individuals of that species living there.

Hawaii

What do you notice about the reef in Hawaii?

• How many total fish are there?

• How many different types of fish are there?

• Draw a frequency distribution histogram

Frequency Distribution

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

Number of individuals

Species

What does this graph tell us?

• There is only one species on the reef and there are 3 individuals of that species living there.

Which reef is more diverse?

TahitiHawaii

Which Reef is More Diverse?

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0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

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1.5

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3

Tahiti Hawaii

Number ofindividuals

Species

Which reef is more diverse?Although there are more fish in Tahiti than

in Hawaii, there is only one kind of fish in each of the reefs

Because there is no variation at all in the types of fish found on the two reefs there is no difference in diversity between Tahiti and Hawaii

Second Example

Hawaii

What do you notice about the reef in Hawaii?

• How many total fish are there?

• How many different types of fish are there?

• Draw a frequency distribution histogram

Draw the frequency distribution

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

Species

Number of individuals

What does this graph tell us?

• There are five species on the reef and there is only one individual of each species living there.

Tahiti

What do you notice about the reef in Tahiti?

• How many total fish are there?

• How many different types of fish are there?

• Draw a frequency distribution histogram

Draw the frequency distribution

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

Species

Number of individuals

What does this graph tell us?

• There are 3 species on the reef and there is only one individual of each species living there.

Which reef is more diverse?

Hawaii Tahiti

Which reef is more diverse?

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

Hawaii Tahiti

Number ofindividuals

Species

Which reef is more diverse?Because there are more types of fish living

in Hawaii than there were in Tahiti we would say that the community on the reef in Hawaii is more diverse.

Third Example

Hawaii

What do you notice about the reef in Hawaii?How many total fish are there?

How many different types of fish are there?

How many fish of each type are there?

Draw the Frequency Distribution

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Number ofindividuals

Species

What does this graph tell us?

• There are 5 species on the reef. The most abundant species has 4 individuals, the second most abundant species has 3 individuals, the third most abundant species has 2 individuals and the two least abundant species each have one individual.

Tahiti

What do you notice about the reef in Tahiti?

• How many total fish are there?

• How many different types of fish are there?

• How many fish of each type are there?

Draw the Frequency Distribution

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Number ofindividuals

Species

What does this graph tell us?

• There are 4 species on the reef. The most abundant species has four individuals, the second most individual species has three individuals, the third most abundant species has 2 individuals and the least abundant species has 1 individual.

Which reef is more diverse?Hawaii Tahiti

Which reef is more diverse?

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Species

Number ofindividuals

Hawaii Tahiti

Which reef is more diverse?Because there are 5 species in Hawaii and 4

species in Tahiti we would say that the reef in Hawaii is more diverse.

Species RichnessSpecies richness measures the number of

species that are found living in a community.

Communities that have higher species richness are more diverse.