EXERCISE
Effect of fragmentation on orthopteran communities
Two main pressures:1. Habitat loss2. Abandonment (within-patch forest encroachment)
How to design a conservation study
2. Selection of the sites and environmental data
3. Insect sampling
4. Collect the data
5. Analyse the data and answer the questions
1. Define the questions
6. Derive implications for conservation
How to design a conservation study
1. Define the questions-...-...-...
Question: What do you want to conserve?
Question: Which are the threats?-...-...-...
Single species, communities...
Start writing a model to answer your research questions
Y= aX1 + bX2...
Y= response (biodiversity measure)
X= explanatory variables
collinearity is the evil!!!
2. Define the study area
2. Selection of the sites
3. Insect sampling
Box quadratSweep netting
Transect count
Community data
Site 1 Site 2 Site 3 … Species A 1 0 0Species B 2 0 0Species C 7 0 0Species D 9 71 0Species E 23 49 143Species F 7 0 0Species G 15 0 0Species H 76 74 7… 1 1 42
Presence/absence orabundance
How to measure diversity from this data?
4. Collect the data
Environmental data
Site 1 Site 2 Site 3 … Area
Isolation
Habitat diversity
…
4. Collect the data
Characterize the sites
f(Environmental data)
5. Analyse the data
Community data=
f(Environmental data)
5. Analyse the data
Community data=
What do we need to do to protect orthopteran diversity ?
Implications for management
6. Derive implications for conservation
