Practical Field Ecology A Project Guide

by Wheater, C. Philip; Bell, James R.; Cook, Penny A.

• ISBN13: 9780470694282
• ISBN10: 0470694289
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-06-20
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

This book introduces experimental design and data analysis / interpretation as well as field monitoring skills for both plants and animals. Clearly structured throughout and written in a student-friendly manner, the main emphasis of the book concentrates on the techniques required to design a field based ecological survey and shows how to execute an appropriate sampling regime. The book evaluates appropriate methods, including the problems associated with various techniques and their inherent flaws (e.g. low sample sizes, large amount of field or laboratory work, high cost etc). This provides a resource base outlining details from the planning stage, into the field, guiding through sampling and finally through organism identification in the laboratory and computer based data analysis and interpretation. The text is divided into twelve distinct chapters. The first chapter covers planning, including health and safety together with information on a variety of statistical techniques for examining and analysing data. Following a chapter dealing with site characterisation and general aspects of species identification, subsequent chapters describe the techniques used to survey and census particular groups of organisms. The final chapter covers interpreting and presenting data and writing up the research. The emphasis here is on appropriate wording of interpretation and structure and content of the report.

Author Biography

C. Philip Wheater
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

James R. Bell
Rothamsted Research, Hertfordshire, UK

Penny A. Cook
Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

Table of Contents

Tables

Figures

Boxes

Case Studies

Preface

Acknowledgements

Preparation

Choosing a topic for study

Ecological research questions

Creating aims, objectives and hypotheses

Reviewing the literature

Practical considerations

Project design and data management

Choosing sampling methods

Summary

Monitoring site characteristics

Site selection

Site characterisation

Sampling static organisms

Sampling techniques for static organisms

Sampling mobile organisms

General issues

Invertebrates

Capturing aquatic invertebrates

Capturing soil-living invertebrates

Capturing ground-active invertebrates

Capturing invertebrates from plants

Capturing airborne invertebrates

Fish

Amphibians

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

Analysing and interpreting information

Keys to tests

Exploring and describing data

Testing hypotheses using basic statistical tests and simple general linear model

More advanced general linear models for predictive analysis

Generalized linear models

Statistical methods to examine pattern and structure in communities: classification, indicator species and ordination

Presenting the information

Structure

Writing style

Computer files

Summary

References

Glossary of statistical terms

Tables

Example time-scales for a short research project

Random numbers

Common statistical tests

Common factors influencing living organisms

Major taxonomic groups

Major divisions of the Raunkiaer plant life-form system

DAFOR, Braun-Blanquet and Domin scales for vegetation cover

Abundance (ESACFORN) scales for littoral species

Recommended quadrat sizes for various organisms

Some considerations in the choice of radio-tracking equipment

Summary of killing and preservation techniques for commonly studied invertebrates

Factors to consider when using pitfall traps

Examples of baits and target insect groups

Factors to consider when choosing light traps to collect moths

Summary of different types of net

Example of timed species counts

Comparison of bat detector systems

Abundance of invertebrates in ponds

Summary of commonly used methods of population estimation based on mark-release-recapture techniques

Common diversity and evenness indices

Commonly used similarity measures

Statistics that should be recorded for difference tests

Statistics that should be recorded for relationship tests

Statistics that should be recorded for tests used to examine associations between two frequency distributions

Using dummy variables

A spider indicator species analysis

Types of stress measure for computing MDS solutions

Mean number of individuals a of invertebrate orders found in polluted and clean ponds

Uses of different types of graphs

Examples of words used unnecessarily when qualifying terms

SI units of measurement

Conventions for the use of abbreviations

Examples of Latin and foreign words and their emphasis

Figures

Flowchart of the planning considerations for research projects

Example time-scales for a medium-term research project

Example of a data recording sheet for an investigation into the distribution of woodland birds

Examples of sampling designs

Latin square design for five different treatments

Data set approximating to a normal distribution

Phase 1 habitat map

Portable weather station

Maximum/minimum thermometer

Soil thermometers

Whirling hygrometer

Anemometers

Environmental multimeter

Penetrometer

Soil gouge auger, mallet and core removing tool

Bulb planters

Aquatic multimeters

Secchi disc

Dynamometer to measure wave action

Light meter

Using ranging poles to measure the inclination of a slope

Using a cross-staff to survey a shoreline

Using a global positioning system (GPS) receiver

Lichen zone scale for mean winter sulphur dioxide estimation on trees with moderately acidic bark in England and Wales

Estimating canopy cover

Quadrats

Recording positions on a subdivided quadrat

JNCC guideline usage of SACFOR scales

Two nested quadrat designs

Using random numbers to identify a position in a sampling grid

Comparison of the perimeter to area ratios of circular, square and oblong quadrats

Pin-frame

Comparison of transect sampling techniques

Kite diagram to indicate the abundance of different species along a transect from the high-water line

Using a clinometer

Use of ink or paint spots to identify individual invertebrates

'W? shaped transect walk

Parabolic reflector concentrating sound onto the central microphone

Flat-bottomed pond nets suitable for catching surface, pelagic and bottom active invertebrates

Belleville mosquito larvae sampler

Using a kick net and sorting the sample

Kick screen

Surber sampler

Hess sampler

Drift net

Plankton net

Suction sampler for animals in burrows

Naturalist?s dredge

Grabs for collecting benthic animals

The Baermann funnel

Bidlingmayer sand extractor

Hester-Dendy multiplate samplers

Mesh bags containing leaf litter used to collect aquatic invertebrates

Crayfish traps

Soil sieves

Tullgren funnels

Kempson bowl extractor

Winkler sampler

Simple inclined tray light separator

Setting pitfall traps

Barriers used with pitfall traps

Birds-eye view of an H trap

Suction samplers

Emergence trap

Owen emergence trap

Pooter used to suck up small invertebrates

Sweep net and sweep netting invertebrates from a bush

Beating trays (black and white versions and in use beating invertebrates from a tree)

Fogging in rainforest

Nets for catching airborne insects

Rothamsted suction traps

Positioning of sticky traps

Bottle trap for flies and other flying insects

Attractant-based traps

Assembly trap

Trap-nests for bees and wasps

Window trap

Malaise trap

Simple light traps for insects

Examples of moth traps

Different types of light used for moth traps

Rotary trap

Water traps

Slurp gun

Using snorkel gear to observe fish

Sport fishing techniques

Examples of nets and traps

Bottle trap for newts

Drift fence with side-flap bucket trap

Funnel traps for amphibians

Examples of layouts for drift nets

Artificial cover trap for amphibians

Concrete housing for a camera trap

Equipment for catching reptiles at a distance

Pipe trap

Measuring captured birds

Permanent bird hide

Bird observation tower

Transect layout for Breeding Bird Survey

Goose droppings surveyed using a quadrat

Mist netting

Propelled nets

Marking birds

Use of colour rings

Deer becoming aware of the observer?s presence

Animals caught using camera traps in tropical forest

Small mammal tracking tunnel

Badger dung pit with bait marked dung

Sampling mammal hair

Bat detector (heterodyne system)

Triangle bat walks with frequency settings appropriate for UK bats

Small mammal traps

Longworth trap for small to medium sized mammals

Poison bait dispenser

Mole traps

Harp trap

Cage trap

Badger trap

Transformations for skewed distributions

Truncation of percentage data

Bimodal distribution

Pie diagram of the numbers of invertebrates of common orders found in clean ponds

Stacked bar graph of the number of invertebrates of common orders found in clean ponds

Clustered bar graph of the number of invertebrates of common orders found in clean ponds

The mean and standard deviation plotted on a data set that approximates to a normal distribution

Comparison of different ways of displaying the variation around the mean using point charts

Box and whisker plots indicating different ways of displaying median and quartile data

Using capture removal to estimate population sizes

Comparison of the central tendency of two samples

Summary of stages in using inferential statistics

Example of a scatterplot

Trends of invertebrate numbers with organic pollution

Regression line between the number of aphids found at different levels of pirimicarb (pesticide) application

Examples of common non-linear graph types in ecology

A canonical variates analysis (CVA) of spiders across three management treatments

Types of cluster analysis

Dendrogram following cluster analysis of different habitat types

TWINSPAN of quarry sites on the basis of their component plant species

Ordination of a number of quarry sites on the basis of their component plant species

Two formats for research report presentation

Pollution in the Forth and Clyde Canal in Glasgow

Presenting graphs

Boxes

Some sources of ecology projects

Suggested minimum equipment required for field work

Keeping a field notebook

Some tips on time management

Differences between interval and ratio data

Terms used in sampling theory

Species accumulation curves for two sites

Checklist for field research planning

Notes on the resources available for the National Vegetation Classification (NVC)

Examples of vegetation classification systems

Measurements of aquatic invertebrates used in habitat quality and pollution monitoring

Examples of identification guides for British insects

Calculating population and density estimates from counts of static organisms

Techniques used to identify and count microbial diversity

Commonly used plotless sampling methods

Describing the distribution of static organisms using quadrat-based methods

Describing the distribution of static organisms using T-square sampling methods

Avoiding problems in behavioural studies

Butterfly census method

Calculating the density of flying insects from census walks

Taking account of missing traps

Common Birds Census for territory mapping

Restrictions on handling birds

A note of caution about the examples used in this chapter

Some commonly used statistical software

Important terms used in the keys

The Peterson (Lincoln Index) method of population estimation

Testing for the significance of multiple tests

Multiple comparison tests

Using a contingency table in frequency analysis

Analysis of covariance

Using classification tables in predictive discriminant function analysis

Generalized linear model: a worked example using a binomial regression

Generalized additive model (GAM)

Distance measurements

Use of ANOSIM

Examples of agglomerative clustering methods

Using principal components analysis for data compression

Using principal components analysis to produce biplots

Example of distance placement using MDS

Techniques for comparing ordinations and matrix data

Example of use of canonical correspondence analysis

Citing works using the Harvard system

Reference lists using the Harvard system

Commonly misused words

Case Studies

The Park Grass Experiment

Studying tree growth and condition

Cracking the chemical code in mandrills

Barnacle larva trap

Tarantula distribution and behaviour

Stream invertebrates

Collecting insects in Costa Rica

Butterfly life cycles

The birds and the bees

Lake fish populations

Breeding behaviour of Neotropical tree frogs

Reptile diet

Counting parrots

Bat conservation ecology

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.