Ecology Pre Lab

A. (3 pts) Name three factors besides disturbance that can affect diversity, and give examples of each.
a. Climate
i. Climate can affect the diversity of species because climatedetermines to a certain extent not only many important abiotic factors but also the availability of nutrients, etc. For example, an extremely dry climate like the one found in deserts has very limitedamounts of water available, so diversity in these conditions is lower than in other more exuberant climates (for example, the climate of tropical forests).
b. Latitude
ii. Latitudealso affects diversity because higher latitudes (closer to the poles) generally mean colder temperatures. As temperatures become extreme at very high latitudes, like for example, the poles, the number ofspecies that have special adaptations to cope with extremely cold temperatures decreases. If compared to areas in lower latitudes, like those around the equator, since the temperatures are milderthere is a much higher number of species (and thus, higher diversity) due to milder conditions.
c. Altitude
iii. Altitude works just like latitude in the sense that higher altitudes arecorrelated with lower temperatures, but they are also characterized by lower oxygen content in the air and lower pressure. So organisms that live in higher altitudes need to have adaptations for allof these conditions. Less organisms will have these adaptations and consequently diversity will be lower at higher altitudes.
B. (2 pt ea) Formulate a combined null hypothesis (H0) and twoalternative hypotheses (HD & HS) about which plot would be the most diverse, based on the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, and which two plots would be most similar in species composition. Providethorough biological and/or ecological justification for each alternative hypothesis.
d. H0: All plots will show similar levels of diversity, and no two plots will be most similar.
e....