SEE-U 2000: Black Rock Forest - Module 8:Exercise 8

General Methadology for Instructors and TAs
## Exercise 8: Recycler Communities and Internal Forest Fragmentation Module 8: Decomposers: The End and The Beginning Printer format Instructor gives the biological background during the lecture on recyclers of the community of animals, bacteria, and fungi that assist in the degradation of carcasses in the field. This lecture will also deal with vegetative decomposition and the biotic component of soil cycling, but the lecture will conclude with and emphasize animal decomposition Recycler communities will be discussed in the order in which they arrive at the food resource Brief mention of Forensic Entomology - the applied value of recyclers and decomposers Lecture with also touch on and review the top-down vs. bottom-up control of ecosystems that will be discussed during the previous lecture Students will be given the handouts discussing the sampling methodology and will be encouraged when they print them off (they are also available online) to begin thinking of questions that they would be interested in testing. Independent Variables that they could use in their experimental design. Unique effects of roads of different traffic intensities Unique effects of different habitat types Edge effects Plant species diversity Age of plot Dependent Variables that they could use in their experimental design. General species diversity Higher taxonomic level (families, subfamilies, etc.) diversity Feeding guild diversity Abundance After lecture, before the start of field time, the students will be asked to confer with their labmates and will be required to draw up a plan outlining the experimental design of their group. Questions to answer Hypotheses to test Methods of analysis - including how to treat the data, what data they are to use, and what type of statistical test they are to use