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Title
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Field Trip to an Island
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Type
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Primary: Laboratory
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Operation
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Resilient Planet
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Mission:
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Mission 4: Paradise Found
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Print Page
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81
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Subjects
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Science | Science and technology | Environmental technology | Information and communications technology
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Grades
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5 | 6 | 7 | 8
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Keywords
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island, atoll, Hawaiian Island Archipelago, habitat, Enric Sala, species, animal, plant, travel, niche, endemic, organism, Google Earth, fragment, anthropogenic, human-made, barrier, location, ground-truthing, research, corridor
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Duration
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01:00:00 (HH:MM:SS)
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Audience
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Teachers | Elementary Grades | Junior High
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Created On
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4/20/2008
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From: Resilient Planet Mission 4: Paradise Found (pp: 81) |
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Field Trip to an Island This lab has students identifying a local habitat island using satellite imagery. They will plan a field trip to the island to compose a species list of endemic organisms. |
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The islands and atolls of the Hawaiian Island Archipelago are distinct, separate, and isolated habitats. Yet, as Enric Sala has seen, many of these outcrops support identical land species. This is because these animals and plants have successfully traveled by sea or air and found a niche within the new habitat. Ecologists refer to habitats isolated from each other by land barriers as habitat “islands.”
In this activity, you will identify a local habitat island using satellite imagery. You will plan a field trip to the island to compose a species list of endemic organisms.
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| Materials |
- Lab 3 Data Sheet
- computer with Internet access and Google Earth™ Installed
- field guides
| - field glasses and hand lens
- digital camera
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| Lab Prep |
- Launch Google Earth™ to explore the geography of your local surroundings. Identify any areas that appear to support similar vegetation, but are separated by barriers.
- Make a list of the features that can fragment an environment. Identify the barriers as either natural or anthropogenic (human-made). Can you observe any evidence that animals can cross the barriers? Explain. What clues suggest that habitat islands are populated by the same species? Explain.
- Choose the habitat islands you want to visit. Make a map of those locations. Identify the barriers, geographical features, and resources in the islands.
- Research and create a list of the animals and plants you expect to be common in the locations you have identified.
- With your instructor, plan a field trip to your selected island habitats for the purpose of ground-truthing your research. Assemble the field equipment you will need to verify and support your list of organisms.
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| Make Observations |
- At the site, update your map with features that are different from the satellite images.
- Record and take pictures of the resources, animals, plants, and geographical features—including the barriers—at the site.
- Back in the classroom, compare and contrast the species list that you compiled from the research with the data collected in the field. How well do they match? Did you find any species in the island habitat not common to your local surroundings? Were there organisms you expected to see missing from the island habitat? Explain.
- Did the field experience in ground-truthing support the predictions you made in the Lab Prep? Explain.
- If you looked at more than one island habitat, were the species in the islands similar or different? Were there possible corridors that connected the island habitats? Support your answers with evidence.
- Compare and contrast the habitat island with the barrier that separated it. Which species were most likely to cross the barrier? Why? Did evidence support this? Explain. Did any species prefer to live in the barrier habitat? Explain.
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Journal Question
Some companies, mindful of Best Management Practices (BMP) in wildlife conservation, work with local ecologists to provide natural corridors to connect habitats fragmented by construction. Take on the role of that ecologist. What types of corridors would you recommend to a land developer who wants to build a new housing estate that will separate and isolate a forest known to contain a rare arboreal herbivore? Support your recommendations.
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