Table of Contents

• How big is my population?
• 1: Counting big populations
• 2: Sampling on a grid
• 3: Scaling it up
• 4: Keeping it random
• 5: When size matters
• 6: Bare bones sampling: P/A
• 7: Collecting P/A data
• 8: Impervious Surface
• 9: Getting fancy: transect sampling
• 10: Try a transect
• How do my populations interact?
• 11: Making connections
• 12: Pond pollution paradox
• 13: Proving pond pollution
• 14: Pond pollution the elegant way
• 15: Killer housecats
• 16: Housecats exposed
• 17: Honeybee preferences
• 18: Interpreting honeybees
• 19: Review

 

Making connections

So now you know 2 ways to sample stuff (by "stuff" I mean not only organisms, but also environmental conditions, habitats, pollution and other, well, stuff). And there is certainly plenty of stuff out there to sample.

But just being able to answer "how many" is not always very satisfying. Often what we really want to know is "how do they (or stuff) interact?"

 

Can I show that honeybees like dandelions?

that housecats are bad for songbirds?

that pollution is bad for everyone?

In this section we'll talk about three ways that scientists investigate how populations interact with each other or their environment. We'll also look at another, very popular way to sample anything from coral to rainforest.