Assignment:
Part 1: Fish
Watch the following video:
Measuring Fish With Sonar
Answer the following questions:
1. What kind of sonar does the DIDSON use?
2. Why is the DIDSON so adaptable to different marine environments?
3. What kind of information can the DIDSON method find out relative to biodiversity?
4. Do you think that a wildlife camera is the terrestrial equivalent to the DIDSON, why or why not?
5. The video mentioned using the DIDSON instead of gill nets for biodiversity surveys, why did it state that DIDSON was the better choice?
Activity: Marine Biodiversity Assessments
Answer the following questions:
1. How many different types of sea plants/algae do you see? (Make your best approximate estimation)
2. If you were to estimate the percent of the quadrat that the sea grass (green grass like plant) takes up, what would be your estimate? (Make your best approximate estimation)
3. Why do you think that estimating the percent of sea grass makes more sense than trying to count number of individuals?
4. Do you think this kind of quadrat would work well with trying to estimate biodiversity of coral in a reef, why or why not?
5. The size of a quadrat needs to be catered to the size of the organisms. This is a 1mx1m quadrat. What do you think that means about the size of the sea grass and algae in the photo?