Purpose: To practice sampling techniques on a mock landscape and to determine if the populations were reandomly distributed or if there were trends in their distribution.

Null Hypothesis: All of the species found in the study site were randomly distributed.

Altenative Hypothesis: Species found within the study site prefer certain enviroments and are not randomly distributed.

Methods: Two sites were sampled for population data.  Several sampling methods were used to determine the distribution of the different species present.   Two sites were studied: a left side site and a right side site (in relation to the Lasry Biology Building).  First a 20 meter transect tape was placed through the study sites. Quadrat studies were the easiest and most random sampling technique.  Using this method a square quadrat with an area of 0.286 square meters was placed on the right side of the measuring tape transect every meter.  The organisms within the quadrat and those that touched the quadrat edge were counted in the population census.  The number of individuals in each quadrat were recorded for both study sites.  Another method was used which was called the band transect method.  This involved walking down the transect line using a meter long pole to mimic the edges of our eyesight so that only the organisms we could see would be counted.  Individuals were surveyed in one meter increments.  The final method used was the point intercept method which simply counted the number of individuals touching the transect every 0.5 meters.  This method was the least useful due to the wide distribution of the poker chips and was not used in the data analysis.

Results and Data Analysis can be found here