Practical Methods in Ecology

by Henderson, Peter A.

• ISBN13: 9781405102445
• ISBN10: 1405102446
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-02-04
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

There are few books available that provide a good introduction to the methods and techniques for ecological research. This book will be invaluable to lecturers teaching field courses and students undertaking project work in ecology.Each chapter will focus on an ecological technique. It will have an introductory section that describes the ecological principles and theory. This will then be followed by example applications. These will focus on three most common habitats where teachers take students for fieldwork; the seashore, ponds and lakes, fields and woodland. Gives specific worked examples from the main ecosystems used for undergraduate study - seashore, lakes/ponds, field and woodland. Only introductory text specifically focused on field techniques. Great 'how-to' guide that will show student exactly how to carry out each method. Only text to emphasise the principles behind the techniques - taking a methods based approach rather than a taxonomic approach (eg chapters split into population measures, biodiversity measures, species richness measures rather than methods for invertebrates, methods for mammals, methods for birds etc). Greater emphasis on the equipment involved - how to make it, where to buy it. Good references to further reading and advanced techniques.

Author Biography

Peter Henderson is an ecologist with more than 25 years’ experience working on population dynamics of fish and invertebrates in Europe, North America, and Amazonia. His wide-ranging interests include community dynamics, evolutionary theory, and the taxonomy of ostracods. He is a director of the ecological consultancy Pisces Conservation Ltd and lectures at the University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

Preface	viii
Planning and preliminary considerations	1	(14)
The need for sampling	1	(1)
The scale of the study	2	(1)
Safety	2	(1)
Care for the environment	2	(1)
Taxonomy	3	(1)
Recording, labeling and note taking	3	(1)
Data security and processing	4	(1)
Effect of the time of year on sampling	5	(1)
Effect of the time of day on sampling	5	(1)
Types of population estimate	6	(1)
Defining the habitat unit	7	(1)
Quadrat sampling	7	(1)
subdividing the habitat unit	8	(1)
Statistical considerations	9	(6)
Estimating the reliability of estimates and testing for significance	15	(8)
Descriptive statistics for a site	16	(2)
Comparing two sites	18	(2)
Comparing the medians of a number of samples -- the Kruskal--Wallis test	20	(1)
Measuring the correlation between variables -- Spearman's rank correlation	20	(3)
Sampling a unit of habitat -- estimating absolute population number	23	(25)
Sampling discrete habitat units	23	(1)
Frame quadrats	24	(1)
Point quadrats	25	(1)
Using corers and high-sided quadrats	26	(9)
Grab sampling in lakes or the sea	35	(5)
Sampling invertebrates and small fish in ponds and streams	40	(4)
Example application	42	(2)
Sampling a known volume of water	44	(3)
Using a suction sampler for grassland invertebrates	47	(1)
Mark-recapture methods for population size estimation	48	(12)
Important assumptions	49	(1)
The Petersen-Lincoln estimator	49	(1)
A simple method for open populations -- Bailey's triple-catch method	50	(1)
A more complex method for open populations -- the Jolly--Seber model	51	(4)
Methods for marking animals	55	(5)
Example applications	57	(3)
Distance sampling methods for population estimation	60	(16)
Census methods	60	(1)
Point and line survey methods	61	(5)
Plotless density estimators	66	(2)
Example applications	68	(1)
Estimating population size by removal sampling	68	(8)
Example applications	74	(2)
Comparing the magnitude of populations -- trapping and other relative abundance methods	76	(19)
Factors affecting the size of the catch	76	(19)
Example applications	80	(15)
Using signs and products as population indices	95	(5)
Leaf damage on trees or shrubs	95	(1)
Frass as a measure of tree-living insects	96	(1)
Discarded pupal cases around ponds and exuviae from trees	97	(1)
Assessing density by counting webs in grassland or heath	97	(1)
Using casts to estimate the activity of worms on land or on intertidal flats	97	(1)
The marks and signs made by fish	97	(1)
Terrestrial vertebrate signs	98	(2)
Estimating age and growth	100	(8)
Using size--frequency histograms	100	(2)
Using growth checks for age determination	102	(2)
Using biochemical methods for age determination	104	(1)
Marking bony parts for growth studies	104	(1)
Describing growth mathematically	105	(3)
Life-tables and population budgets	108	(7)
The construction of a budget	109	(1)
The description of budgets and life-tables	110	(5)
Alpha diversity, species richness, and quality scores	115	(14)
Different types of diversity	116	(1)
Estimating species richness	116	(5)
Comparing species evenness or equitability	121	(1)
Alpha diversity indices	122	(4)
Habitat quality scores	126	(3)
Species along environmental gradients -- beta diversity	129	(7)
Example calculations	130	(3)
Alternative approaches for beta diversity	133	(3)
Example applications	133	(3)
Comparing and classifying communities	136	(16)
Organizing the data for analysis	136	(1)
Searching for similarity	137	(1)
Multivariate analysis	138	(7)
Identifying influential environmental variables	145	(3)
Measurement of interspecific association	148	(4)
References	152	(9)
Index	161