NCEP Exercise- Ecological Consequences of Extinctions: Ecological Decay in Isolated Forest Fragments

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In order to examine the effects of extinction on an ecosystem, this exercise simulates a real life example in Venezuela. Students imagine they are working for a Non-Governmental Organization advising the Venezuelan government on the potential for ecotourism and/or biological station at an old dam site. Students are given data on species presence/absence in forest fragments of varying size. With this information students determine the integrity of the different fragments, the possibility of altered trophic structure in the community and the probability of recruitment for a canopy tree of interest (Hymenaea courbaril). Finally students will make a recommendation to the Venezuelan government using this data. Additional teaching materials on topics relating to biodiversity conservation and ecology can be obtained free of charge by registering at the Network for Conservation Educators and Practitioners’ website (http://ncep.amnh.org).

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Primary or BEN resource type	Laboratory exercise
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Format	doc
Ecological Core Concept	Human impacts -- Biodiversity loss Human impacts Ecosystems -- Food webs and trophic cascades Ecosystems Applied ecology -- Conservation Applied ecology
Drought & Water-Ecosystem Services Collection	Off
Conservation Targets Under Global Change Collection	Off
Big Data Collection	Off
Editor's Choice	No
Audience	Undergraduate upper division 15-16 Undergraduate lower division 13-14
Pedagogical Use Description	The objectives of this exercise are to familiarize students with 1) the relationship between area and species richness, 2) the importance of species interactions and 3) how to analyze and support an argument based on scientific data.
Keywords	NCEP, conservation, trophic cascade, species interaction, extinction, species area relationship
Life science discipline (subject)	Ecology
Primary Author Controlled Name	M. Rao
Primary Author Affiliation	Wildlife Conservation Society
Primary Author email	biodiversity@amnh.org
Rights	Reproduction of this material is authorized by the recipient institution for non-profit/non-commercial educational use and distribution to students enrolled in course work at the institution. Copyright 2007, by the authors of the material, with license for use granted to the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation of the American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.
Resource Editor	Unknown
Reviewer A	Unknown
Reviewer B	Unknown
Date Of Record Submission	2009-03-23

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