Corinna Jones, Alexandra Palmes

Noah Pounds, Prathik Gowda

Mr. Lee
AP Environmental
Forest Ecology

Introduction
A forest ecosystem is inhabited by living things, which coexist with physical factors of

the environment; temperature, sunlight, and oxygen, and depends on the availability of major

resources to thrive. One important factor of the forest is the canopy. It serves as the interface

between the atmosphere and the land and is the upper habitat for other biological organisms in a

forest ecosystem. The canopy contains the highest amount of biodiversity, partially because the

canopy is directly exposed to sunlight and rainwater. Another factor of this ecosystem is the

forest floor. Composed of stems, twigs, fallen leaves and branches, it contains living organisms,

such as fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms. The floor is very rich in nutrients and mineral

contents. The majority of these nutrients come from the decomposition or organic substances,

which is found in the soil. However, the soil is affected by the changes in climate, geology,

amount of rainfall, and vegetation. The make-up of the soil varies on the type of forest but many

of the same nutrients can be found within.

Merwin Trail
This week we are heading to the Merwin Trail, outside Lexington, Illinois. The

Parklands Foundation created this trail to protect and restore the lands, but primarily for the

preservation of the biological diversity of the native wildlife. While also dedicating the lands for

the public and environmental education.

Precipitation & Temperature
This graph depicts
the average
precipitation and
monthly
temperatures
throughout the year
in Central Illinois/
Bloomington-
Normal Area.

A Healthy Forest
A healthy

forest shows lots of

biodiversity, has

nutrient rich soil,

and can provide for

life within it, adding to the biodiversity. A forest that can provide food and shelter for a wide

range of animals and insects will have healthier tendencies than a forest that is barren. A healthy

forest will show these signs of life and will be overgrown with greenery.

Conducting Our Study

When we arrive at the forest, we will identify trees, shrubs, and animals within our

designated area and then analyze the biodiversity. Two members of the group with catch,

identify, and record the animals in our section while two members will identify and measure the

trees and shrubs in the same section. We will record that data and analyze it along with the rest

of our class’s data to answer our research questions.

Method

• What data will we collect?

We will divide our group in order to have more efficient results. Noah and Prathik will be

measuring the trees, such as counting them. Meanwhile, Corinna and Ale will be catching

insects, photographing them and counting as many as they can. We are going to be able to see

how biodiversity is working in our quadrant by observing what kind of insects there are.

• How we will collect it?

With the help of a tape measure and a meter stick, Noah and Prathik will measure the trees.

We will be writing the data down in our Forest Journals. As we said before, Corinna and Ale

will be looking for insects. They will put an umbrella under the plants and shake them until

leaves and insects fall there. If needed, they will use the capture jar in order to see the insects

better.

Data

Group Data

The Forest field trip demonstrates low sample size, unreliable species diversity, varied

tree diameter/height, and a lack thereof diversity in animal/insect count. Further, the height chart

(measured in meters) resembles a bell curve- an apex amid 10.1-30 and falls at 30.1-60+.

Although the population size is 7, it is very evident that there are no rooftop trees in the given
quadrant and that the ecosystem isn’t

leaning towards the support rooftop

trees need. Whereas the understory is

fruitful and relatively diverse with

species.

The following graph

represents the

number/count of

animals and insects

in our quadrants.

Because of the

immense time we

spent searching our

area for insects we are able to collect extensive results. However, much to our surprise, there was

absolutely no sight of multiple species. Most of our count culminating towards spiders and flies!

This can be explained in part to the moist and wet region our quadrant fell under- flies being

attracted to the atmosphere possibly and spiders remaining under decaying logs (which there

were multiple of). Further, this graph displays the immediate ratios of insects and animals in a

very small area- the much smaller ratios being unnoticed as the sample size is too small.

Class Data
 Above is the class data organized by how many trees of a defined species a group

found in their quadrant. The white column on the right combines all the groups data to find

the total amount of trees the class found in total. Further, the spreadsheet identifies the most

abundant trees overall... in this case it is the ash tree- even though it is located in only two

quadrants. Through this data, we were able to confirm that due to the small sample size,

high density populations will dominate the most abundant

 Above is the class data, similarly color coded to groups as the prior sheet, that

reviews the diameter of the trees in each designated quadrant. The density is the

population of the specific species found within a 100-meter squared quadrant. The

dominance is the percent that species makes up of all the trees overall. When viewed on

a graph, the number of trees by diameter represents a bell curve with an inclination

towards the tail end; the apex of the graph being (10.1-20 to 20.1-30) and the following

spike at >60.

Conclusion

Plant Biodiversity: The class data (including our own data) points towards low plant

species diversity with high rates of dominance, albeit the conclusions we can draw are
limited due to the low sample size. Roughly half of the tree species that were possible were

not found at all. Many of the species of trees that were found were only found with 1 to 3

overall of its species. The most dominant species were the Ash (8 found), White Oak (6

found), Hickory (5 found), and Shingle Oak (5 found). They have dominance rates of 17%,

13%, 10%, and 10% respectively which makes up roughly half of the total trees found and

recorded. This means that only 4 species of trees made up roughly half of all the trees we

found, meaning that the tree biodiversity (based on our data) at Merwin Trail was relatively

low. We must be cautious however, to make broad generalizations about the entirety of the

area, because we only recorded 48 trees in total which is a fairly small sample size to make

large scale conclusions about the whole preserve.

Animal and Insect Biodiversity: Our animal and insect biodiversity was also poor. Out of

the 100 plants and animals the majority (54) were ants/flies. This means that ants/flies were

extremely dominant (54%). The next most common animal or insect was the spider which

made up 18 or 18% of the data set. This means that there was literally three times as much

ants/flies as the next most common species. The other species were found in even lower

rates. The four species that were not found at all were Aphids, Katydids, Amphibians, and

Reptiles. The incredible skew towards and dominance of ants/flies and the relatively few

animal/insect species found suggests that Merwin Trail has very low animal and insect

biodiversity.
Forest Ecosystem Management: An Environmental Necessity, but Is It a Practical Reality

or Simply an Ecotopian Ideal?, www.fao.org/docrep/ARTICLE/WFC/XII/MS18-E.HTM.

Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, www.nature.com/subjects/forest-ecology.

Editorial office - forestknowledge.net - WSL. “Insects in the Forest Ecosystem.”

Waldwissen,

www.waldwissen.net/wald/tiere/insekten_wirbellose/wsl_insekten_oekosystem_wald/ind

ex_EN.

Bohn, Friedrich J., and Andreas Huth. Royal Society Open Science, The Royal Society

Publishing, Jan. 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5319316/.