Ecology - Dr. D.

Lab 1: Introduction to Studying Ecology:

Click here for the handout for this lab

Instructions for using Microsoft Excel

Statistics – A Survival Manual

Click here to download light and temperature data (down loads as an Excel file). Data for all three lab periods are in this file (click on the tabs at the bottom to view Monday, Wednesday, or Friday data). You need only to analysis data from a single day. It was raining Monday. On Wednesday, it was cloudy but clearing. Friday was sunny and the east side of the forest, rather than the west side as done on Monday and Wednesday, was sampled.

Lab 2: Abiotic Factors Influencing Soil Invertebrates

Click here for the handout for this lab

data not yet available

Lab 3: Sampling Mobile Organisms: Mark and recapture

This lab is group work so I will bring handouts for each group.

Lab 4: Demography

Part 1:

This lab is group work so I will bring handouts for each group. If you would like to view the handout before hand, click here.

Part 2:

Turn in a full lab report including Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion (see the handout).
To construct a survivorship curve:

First, download the data by clicking here (data not yet available)
Convert circumference (cm) to age (years) using the equation from the regression line in the handout.
Use the "sort" command under the "Data" pull down menu to sort the ages from youngest to oldest.
The age data should be divided into eight or more equal age class and the frequency (number of trees in each age class) recorded for each age class.
Construct crude survivorship curve based on the age of dead pines based on the method used for "dead" envelopes in the handout. Plot the survivorship on a natural log scale.

Lab 5: Sampling Sessile Organisms

This lab is group work so I will bring handouts for each group. If you would like to view the handout before hand, click here.

Lab 6: The Distribution and Abundance of Loblolly Pines

For the week of 10-Mar-08, read before coming to lab the paper that you have been assigned. To find your assigned paper and a link to your paper, click on this link (not yet available). The assignment requires you to read and summarize a scientific paper related to the germination and growth of pine seedlings. Instructions on how you should prepare your summary can also be found at this link.

This lab is due at lab time on 22 April at the beginning of lecture.

Map of study site (include in your report)
Data (data not yet available) (note that there are four data sheets in this file accessed by clicking tabs along the bottom)
Guidelines (not yet available) (note that you should not write a formal lab report for this lab)

Other Resources for Lab:

Guidelines for writing a lab report in science

Random Number table

On-line literature searches:

JSTOR : This will provide you with the full article though the journals available are limited

access off-campus* through http://130.218.75.39/cf/dbslistfrm.htm
access on-campus through http://www.jstor.org

Web of Science: This will provide you with abstracts only but searches many journals and provides you with a way of searching forward and backward in the literature. It is also limited only to abstracts published since 2001.

access off-campus* through http://130.218.75.39/cf/dbslistfrm.htm
access on-campus through http://isi02.isiknowledge.com/portal.cgi/wos

*To access JSTOR and Web of Science off-campus you must establish a NetID account (assuming you have not already done so).

To request an interlibrary loan of an article not on-line or not in the KSU library, go to http://www.kennesaw.edu/library/services/ILL.htm but be sure to first check the library periodical holding (http://130.218.75.39/cf/jrnlsfrm.htm)