Category Archives: Uncategorized

A blog post by Derik Verkest and Bo Nash Introduction/Background Species diversity and biodiversity as a whole not only is aesthetically pleasing when you look at an environment, it is also very important in the ecological balance of an ecosystem. Biodiversity is the number of species in a given area and species diversity combines twoContinue reading “Backyard Species Diversity Lab”

Results For the following data, two backyards had pictures taken of them and the species of vegetation within each picture was identified and counted to the best of our ability. The species diversity and evenness were then analyzed using this gathered information, evenness being how proportional the number of individuals of each species are inContinue reading “Backyard Species Diversity”

A blog post by Derik Verkest and Bo Nash Background/Introduction As stated in the title of this blog; the contents of the blog are both a visual and written summary of data analysis of the home range of house cats. A home range itself is considered the actual physical area covered in the course ofContinue reading “House Cat Home Range”

Results Data was collected using the Movebank website, GoogleEarth, and Earth Point. Movebank is a website that collects tracking data for various animals all over the world. First, we searched Felis catus to narrow down our search to the common house cat. Thirty cats were picked at random from the USA, New Zealand and Australia,Continue reading “House Cat Home Ranges”

A blog post by Derik Verkest and Bo Nash Background The urban environment is becoming increasingly a part of human life. It is estimated that around half of the the population lives in a city environment or a surrounding urban area. These environments themselves are an ecosystem on their own. An ecosystem dominated by aContinue reading “Urban Ecology”

Methods The procedure for sampling every year involved groups of four. Each group selected four total locations around campus, two locations that were green and two locations that were paved. Each group had a sampling kit containing a box of ziplock bags, five mason jars containing liquid food baits (water, sugar, oil, salt, and aminoContinue reading “Urban Ecology”

A blog post by Derik Verkest and Bo Nash Introduction Adaptations and variation of individuals in species is an important part in their evolutionary growth. These adaptations help them function at their optimal level throughout their life. In this experiment we analyzed the adaptation of a single species of oak leaves. You may be asking:Continue reading “Adaptation of Oak Leaves”

A blog post by Derik Verkest and Bo Nash Background Evolution is the mechanism through which the organisms that are around today came to be. Evolution occurs when an organisms genes and alleles are changed over a period of time. In short, genes are an organism’s characteristics, while alleles are their traits. This evolution andContinue reading “Evolutionary Ecology”

ResultsThe relative fitness of the dark-colored Peppered Moths in the experiment, whether that be the homozygous dominant (MM) or heterozygous (Mm) genotypes, experienced an increase or no change with the increase in pollution over time, however the relative fitness of the light-colored homozygous recessive (mm) genotype experienced a decrease in relative fitness over time. GoingContinue reading “Evolutionary Ecology of the Peppered Moth in Industrialized England”

A blog post by Derik Verkest and Bo Nash Introduction for Part 1The regulation of internal body temperature is important to the survival of organisms. Every animal does this differently, but the common goal at the end of it all is to have the internal temperature required to catalyze reactions and biochemical processes inside theContinue reading “Temperature Relations”