Specie and Ecosystem Biodiversity Exercise

Student Name: ________________________________

Introduction: In this exercise, you are going to examine organisms found in two
different ecosystems.

(1) An area around your home (e.g. your backyard) and

(2) An area on your campus.

The purpose of this exercise is to examine the different types of organisms found
within that ecosystem.
The diversity of species present in an ecosystem can be used as one gauge of the
health of an ecosystem. Species richness is a measure of the number of different
species present in an ecosystem, while species evenness measures the relative
abundance of the various populations present in an ecosystem

Results (Data)

Location (1) Description:

Location (2) Description:

Table 1. Abundance of organisms/species(Record the numbers found in the chart)

Organism Type Location 1 Location 2

("Species")
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1. Which ecosystem had the greatest abundance of species/organism?

2. Write a plausible explanation to explain why these are the most abundant species in that
ecosystem.
3. Why is diversity important to an ecosystem?

4. List five primary causes of biodiversity loss, and give one specific example of each.