A biology teacher investigated the different species of insects found in a grassy meadow and in a nearby farmed field.
The insects were collected using traps at randomly chosen sites both in the grassy meadow and in the farmed field.
The table below shows the data that was collected.
Insect species |
Number of individuals of each species |
|
Farmed field | Grassy meadow | |
Black aphid | 230 | 0 |
Green aphid | 0 | 569 |
Dingy Skipper butterfly | 0 | 21 |
Green lacewing | 7 | 9 |
Brown lacewing | 0 | 37 |
Total number of organisms of all species | 237 | 636 |
Use the formula below to calculate the index of diversity for the insects caught in the farmed field.
d = index of diversity
N = total number of organisms of all species
n = total number of organisms of each species
Show your calculations.
Without doing any further calculations, predict whether the index of diversity for the grassy meadow will be higher or lower than the index of diversity for the farmed field.
Explain your answer.
A student stated that the experiment suggested farming caused a reduction in species diversity.
Evaluate this statement.
Farmers were offered money by an environmental agency to grow more than one plant species in their fields.
Very few farmers agreed to this.
Comment on why this was the case.
Did this page help you?