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Assessing Ecosystems

Biology: Edexcel IGCSE, topic 5.1.5

Assessing Ecosystems

Quadrats are square frames of known size and can be used to sample various features of an habitat:

Population sizes

Population sizes

  • The population size of a species in a habitat can be estimated by counting the number of individuals in various quadrat samples of the habitat.
  • This can also give an indication of the distribution of a particular species and whether a species is more abundant in one habitat compared to another.
Biodiversity

Biodiversity

  • Biodiversity can be defined as the variety of different species and the numbers of individuals within those species in a habitat.
  • Quadrats can be used to estimate the biodiversity of a habitat.
  • The higher the number of different species in the quadrat samples, the higher the biodiversity.
  • The more even the number of individuals of the different species, the higher the biodiversity.

Test yourself on Assessing Ecosystems

  • What piece of equipment can be used to sample population size, distribution or biodiversity?

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