Question

Please read the summary below and answer the questions that follow in detail.

What do you think of when you hear the term “biodiversity?” Do you only picture rainforests or coral reefs? Maintaining a wide variety and number of species is important everywhere, even in your own backyard! When a forest or prairie was cut and grass planted for a lawn, the diversity of plant species was greatly reduced. That affected the ability of the area to recycle nutrients and water, provide natural resources, and especially support other living organisms in the community, including you!
The following question is addressed in this experiment: “Is there a relationship between the diversity of plant species and the diversity of arthropod species in different habitats, especially those altered by people?” Arthropods include insects, spiders, centipedes, and millipedes. We will visit several different habitats, measure the diversity of plants and arthropods, and analyze the data to answer our question.

1)   Describe in detail an experiment you would conduct to answer the question in the experiment.

2)   Do you think it is worthwhile for society to spend money and effort to conserve living things like plants and arthropods? Why or why not?
3)   Why is biodiversity important?
4)   What is “species?”

5)   In a community of living organisms, how might arthropods and plants interact with each other?

6) Describe the relationship between the terms “arthropod” and “insect.”
7)   What is an “exotic” species?
8)   What effects do exotic species have on an ecosystem?

9) Can you think of any exotic species where you live?

10)   Why were wheat and oat fields sampled instead of corn and soybeans?

11)   Why do farmers use pesticides?

12)   Do you have a hypothesis about why the relationship between plants and arthropods exists?

13) What questions still need to be answered about the relationship between plant and arthropod species?
14)   What are the ecological consequences of losing arthropod or plant biodiversity to exotic species or habitat destruction?

15)   Do you have any suggestions for balancing our need for growing crops and preserving biodiversity?

Answer 1

1)   Describe in detail an experiment you would conduct to answer the question in the experiment.

The experiment will be a field study. To deduce the relatioship between plant diversity and arthropod diversity, we need to take 3 different study sites : one in an undisturbed natural forest , one  in a disturbed land site with moderate human disturbance (rural area close to forest), one study site in a heavily disturbed land site (uban land).

We will identify different plants and arthropods present in these 3 different sites and group them into resptive orders.

On analyzing the data and putting it to a statistical test, we can know if plant diversity has a relationship with arthropod diversity.

2)   Do you think it is worthwhile for society to spend money and effort to conserve living things like plants and arthropods? Why or why not?

Yes. It is worthwhile for society to spend money and effort to conserve living things like plants and arthropods. Plants are producers and form the lowest trophic structure of an ecosystem. Thus plants are responsible for providing food and energy to all the organisms of an ecosystem directly or indirectly. Thus all organisms are heavily dependent on plants . As for us humans, we need plant for food, shelter, medicine and many other products that we consume daily. Arthropods act as essential food resource for various small animals and plants. Arthropods also act as scavengers decomposing dead organic matter and converting into nurtients. Arthropods also act as a major driver of pollination of plants which aid in plant reproduction and survival. Thus without arthropods , we humans may not be able to grow food due to the absence of pollination.

3)   Why is biodiversity important?

Biodiversity is important since it is an integral part of the equilibrium in nature. A high diversity ensures that all organisms are able to survive based on their dependence on resources. Biodiversity provides oxygen and food to the organisms in a food chain which are interdependent on each other. It provides raw materials for human consumption. Biodiversity is important from a recreational perspective such as hiking, camping, bird-watching,etc. It is also an important arena of scientific research and discoveries that help us in understanding nature.

4)   What is “species?”

Species is a group of similar individuals which can interbreed with each other to produce offspring. It is a basic unit of classification.

5)   In a community of living organisms, how might arthropods and plants interact with each other?

Arthropods may directly depend on plant sources such as flower, leaves,stem ,etc. for food. Plants may depend on arthropods for pollination. Bees and mosquitoes are a major medium of pollination. When they feed on the nectar of flowers, the pollens stick to their bodies . These pollens are in turn transferred to another flower when the bees or mosquitoes feed on them resulting in successful pollination.

PS - It was not possible to answer all the questions due to shortage of time.