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