Hey guys! This week in APES we talked a lot about biodiversity in ecosystems.  An ecosystem has a high biodiversity if it has many different species present, whereas an ecosystem with a low biodiversity only has a few different species present.  The greater the biodiversity in an ecosystem, the more stable the ecosystem is.  Species diversity may take a dangerous downfall from environmental disturbances, such as pollution.

We demonstrated this in class with an experiment in which we measured biodiversity in leaf litter.  We took the class outside to gather our litter...

Gathering leaf litter for the experiment

...Then we brought it back inside and set up our Berlese funnels.  To set up the funnel, we took our bottle of leaf litter and put a bright light on top of it, drying the moisture out of the soil and driving the organisms to the bottom of the container where the opening is, which leads to a small container full of alcohol to catch and kill the organisms.  After we had caught enough organisms from our funnels, we studied them under the microscope.

A millipede under the microscope

A spider and an ant under the microscope

After we counted how many of each organism we found and recorded our class data, we used Simpson's Index of Diversity to determine the biodiversity of our ecosystem by the pond.  The equation is as follows (n = abundance):  

This experiment was not only fun and interesting, but it taught us a lot about the biodiversity in the ecosystems around our school!  We got to observe many different critters that you would not normally see just taking a stroll around the pond!