WRL reference | M02 D02 | |
Module | M02 Survey Techniques | |
Data Set | D02 Assessing bird point counts from a Honduran cloud forest | |
Research questions | 1. How does species richness change with increasing altitude?
2. How does the proportion of endemic species change with increasing altitude? 3. Do you think high altitude or low altitude forest is more important for the conservation of Mesoamerican birds? |
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Keywords | Endemism; biodiversity hotspots; indicators; isolation; conservation; human impact; niche; rainforest; sampling; species richness; survey techniques | |
Potential Curriculum links | AP Biology | 2.D.1, 4.A.6, 4.C.4 |
AP Env.Sci | III Population A | |
IB Biology | C.1, C.5 | |
IB Ess | 2.3.2 | |
AQA | 3.4.6, 3.4.7, 3.7.4, MS, AT, PS | |
edexcel | A – 4.2, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, B – 10.1, 10.3 Maths A | |
OCR | A – 4.2.1, 6.3.1, 6.3.2 – M, PAG, HSW | |
SQA | FH2J 3 (b) (c) (i) (ii) (iii) (iv), HOAL 1(b) (c) (d) (e) | |
CCEA | 4.4.3 | |
WJEC | C1-5, C2 -1, App B, Pract.req. | |
Summary | The forests of Mesoamerica are a biodiversity ‘hotspot’ and this study describes how the populations of birds are assessed. The field site is in the cloud forests of Honduras and involve data collected using a ‘point count’ method. The study looks at species richness, proportion of endemic species and how altitude affects the populations of birds in Mesoamerica. The exercise involves constructing scatter plots with trend lines. Difficulty: 6/10 (overall) |