Assessing Biodiversity:

Bird Island

The Simulator

Stage 1
You will be assigned ONE ecoregion
of the six total ecoregions
You are to graph the amount of each
species present in your ecoregion
We will be compiling our data as a class

Stage 1 Discussion
What similarities and differences do
you see among all of the different
ecoregions?
Which ecoregion had the greatest
number of individuals?

Stage 1 Discussion
Which ecoregion had the most
species richness?
Another way I could ask that is Which
one had the greatest amount of different
species?

Which ecoregion had the most

species evenness?
Another way I could ask that is Which
ecoregion had the most even
distribution of each species?

Stage 1 Discussion
Why might one region have more
species than others?

Stage 2
Now you will be assigned one bird
species.
You are to count the number of
individuals of that particular species
that is present within each of the six
ecoregions
Again, we will be compiling data as a
class

Stage 2 Discussion
What similarities and differences do
you see across the distribution of
different species in the different
ecoregions?
Is there a bird that is ONLY found in a
certain region?
This is known as an endemic species

Stage 2 Discussion
Why might Woodstock wilsoni only
be found in Ecoregion D?

Analysis
Which ecoregion do you feel has the most
biodiverstiy?
Which has more biodiversity: the largest
ecoregion or the island itself?
If you had to choose which ecoregion you
should make a natural reserve, which
would you choose?
Why might it be important for scientists
and lawmakers to measure the biodiversity
in different regions?

Extension
There are many different factors that
affect the type of species that live in
each ecoregion and the number of
individuals that can be supported by
the environment (we will talk more
about this later)

What if.
What if there was a disease that
threatened the bird species
represented by the purple triangles?
How significant would this disease be on
the total population on the scale of the
island? Each ecoregion?
How significant would this disease be on
the biodiversity on the island scale?
Each ecoregion?

What if.?
What if there was an oil spill that occurred
off the coast of Ecoregion A. This resulted
in damage to the habitat that was no longer
inhabitable by the red circle species which
prefers to nest in trees near the beach.
This loss of habitat would most affect the red
circle population in which ecoregion?
However, given the size and distribution of the
red circle birds, would this be a significant
disturbance on the island scale?