Asma Ayyad

Biology 123L-01
Jill Tsai
Fall 2014
The Difference of Invertebrate Diversity Among Three Habitats That Vary in Water
Availability on the California Polytechnic University, Pomona Campus.
Abstract:
Biodiversity is important in any ecosystem for it improves an ecosystems productivity. The
diversity of soil-dwelling invertebrates is important for they have important roles of keeping a
soil healthy, but they do require moist and shady habitats. To examine the importance of having a
moist habitat, the biodiversity among invertebrates was measured by collecting litter and soil
samples from three different sites that varied in water availability. The samples were collected,
placed in Berlese funnels to collect the majority of invertebrates that were in the sample and the
biodiversity was measured by using the Shannon-Index. It was found that the sites with higher
water availability had a greater value of invertebrate diversity and the lower the water
availability, the lower the diversity value was. From the experiment, we can see that biodiversity
among invertebrates correlates with the amount of water available. Water is important to a great
majority of organisms, and the correlation between diversity and water availability is partly due
to the fact that a greater number of organisms could live a moist environment and organisms are
more likely to survive and reproduce, contributing to a greater population.
Introduction:
There are many abiotic and biotic factors that vary among different habitats, making each habitat
unique and different in their own ways. Some of these factors could include sunlight, soil,
temperature, precipitation, bacteria, invertebrates, plants, and animals. These factors makeup an
ecosystem, and each have an important part. In the soil of many habitats are soil-dwelling
invertebrates. These organisms have a very important role within the soil food web since they
have different ways of obtaining their energy. Invertebrates can be either a predator, herbivore, or
detritivore. Having different means of obtaining energy is important because this indicates what

kind of role the invertebrate has in their ecosystem. Invertebrates can have the role of recycling
nutrients, retaining nutrients, forming soil structure, maintaining decomposition rates, and
population control of other organisms, just to name a few (Blouin, 163). The diversity of soil
invertebrates could affect the properties of the soil and their presence can indicate just how
healthy the soil is (Blouin, 161). Healthy soil is necessary for the growth of plants and other
organisms that grow from the soil.
Since soil-dwelling invertebrates have an important role in the ecosystem of their habitat, their
presence in a habitat can indicate a lot of that specific habitat. There are many factors
invertebrates depend on to survive in a certain environment. Invertebrates need plenty of shade,
soil moisture, and constant temperatures. These abiotic factors are essential to the survival of
many invertebrates, especially since they are ectothermic and depend on their environment. In
this experiment, we will test to see if the variation in water availability affects the biodiversity of
each habitat.
Three sites were visited, each varying with the amount of water available. The first site was a site
that received a constant flow of water daily through a sprinkler system, the second site was a site
that had a natural flowing stream and was not maintained, and the third site was a site in which
there was no water available and depended on precipitation for a source. Soil and leaf litter
samples were collected from each site and biodiversity was measured from the species evenness
and richness each invertebrate found in the sample. The results were used to test our hypothesis
that there is a difference in biodiversity among the three different sites that vary in water
availability. Our null hypothesis is that there is no difference in biodiversity among the three
sites that vary in water availability.
Materials and Methods:
A Berlese funnel was initially created in order to extract small invertebrate animals from the soil
and leaf litter samples that were to be collected. The funnel was made from a plastic 2-Liter

bottle. The empty and clean 2-Liter bottle was cut three centimeters below the top of the label
and the neck was also cut off using a sharp blade. The neck was discarded and the top of the
bottle was inverted to serve as the funnel into the bottom of the bottle (jar). The jar was then
approximately filled one-fourth full with 70% isopropyl alcohol. The funnel was taped onto the
jar and a 30cm x15cm piece of square screening was placed within the funnel, completely lining
the entire inside. A Berlese funnel was created for each habitat and every sample of litter
collected.
Once the Berlese funnel was created, a soil and leaf litter sample was collected from the varying
habitats. The first habitat litter was collected from was the wet habitat which was a location
that received an optimal amount of water on a regular basis. The second habitat litter was
collected from was the moderate habitat, which was a site in which a small stream of water ran
through and there is some water present, but not in abundance as the wet site. And the third
habitat in which litter was collected was the dry habitat that receive a very minimal amount of
water throughout the year. The leaf litter was obtained by carefully collecting soil and litter both
with both hands, causing minimal disruption to the sample. The litter was collected by skimming
the surface of the ground along with collecting some of the soil. The litter was then placed in a
bag and this process was repeated until the bag was 3/4th full.
The Berlese funnel was then filled with the collected litter sample until it was full. Once it was
full, the funnel was placed underneath a heat lamp and was left for a week to extract all of the
invertebrates from the sample into the alcohol.
A week later, the Berlese funnel was disassembled and samples of the isopropyl solution (now
containing invertebrates from the litter sample) was viewed underneath a dissection scope. One
petri dish full at a time, the entire isopropyl solution was seen underneath the microscope. Every
organism seen was classified and picked out using a small paintbrush. Arthropods were classified

by the class. Insects were classified by the order, and any other invertebrate found was classified
by the phyla.
Once every organism found was classified, they were counted and using the data, the ShannonIndex (H) was calculated for each sample across every habitat to measure the biodiversity. The
Shannon-Index is found by the equation, H=- pi (ln(pi)), where pi is the

abundance of an organism
total number of organisms . The H numbers were organized by habitat and were then
inputted into Excel to use one-factor ANOVA. The one-factor ANOVA will indicate the
variability among all samples and tells us whether to accept or reject our null hypothesis based
on the calculated p-value.
Results:

Average Shannon-Index
2
1.5
Shannon Index

1.54
1.19

0.61

0.5
0

High Medium Low

Water Availability

Figure 1. Average Shannon-Index value for each

Anova: Single Factor

SUMMARY
Groups
High
Medium
Low
ANOVA

here was a total of 23 samples

Count
23
24
23

Average
1.543091
1.186821
0.609565

Variance
0.558435
0.196344
0.287282
P-

Source of Variation

Between Groups

value

collected for the high and low

habitats, and a total of 24 samples
collected for the medium habitat.

4.75E-06

Once the Shannon-Index (H)

values were found for each sample, average H of the samples for each habitat was calculated.
This was calculated by adding all of the H of each sample within a single group, then dividing it
by the number of samples in that group. The site with high water availability had the highest
average H value of 1.543. The site with medium water availability had an average H value of
1.187, coming in second. The site with low water availability had an average H value of 0.610,
which was the lowest among the three sample sites.
The data collected was also used to calculate the p-value to see the probability the sample had of
being drawn from a sample where the null hypothesis is accepted. The computer software Excel
was used and provided a table as seen in Table 1. From the table, it states the p-value is
4.75x10-6. We see that the p-value is a very small number. From the table, we can also observe
that there is a greater variance among the site with higher water availability, with a value of

0.558 and the site with low water availability comes second with a value of 0.287. The site with
the lowest water availability had the lowest variance, with a value of 0.196.
Discussion:
By collecting a leaf and soil litter sample and counting the number of each organism found in
each sample, we were able to calculate the Shannon-Index value which measured the
biodiversity in each sample. With samples being collected from three different site, all varying in
water availability we were able to see how water availability affects biodiversity. In our
experiment we found that the more water available, the higher the average biodiversity was. In
addition, using statistics the p-value of the data was calculated and was found to be 4.75x10-6.
Since the p-value is much smaller than 0.05, we can reject our null hypothesis and confirm that
there was a significant difference among the three sample sites. A reason as to why there was
more biodiversity in areas with more water available is because water is almost always essential
to life. Many organisms depend on water, and where there is more water more organisms can live
in that habitat.
The sites that had a greater and more consistent water flow had the highest biodiversity because
the number of each species increase and there are more organisms that live in habitats with
consistent water flow. Where there was no water flow, fewer organisms, if any, were found
because not that many organisms can survive without water. There are some species that can
survive a long time without water, but most species on Earth require water. The results from this
Table 1. Anova Single Factor Results

experiment is important because it shows that fact that if water is scarce, that

many organisms will perish and biodiversity would go down drastically (Anderson and Smith,
550) . It is important that we maintain and conserve our water because life on Earth depends on
it. As water levels begin to decline around the world, it is important to note that this not only
affects our life styles but the survival of many organisms.

The variance was largest among the samples from the site with high water availability. This mean
that from the sample data, the wet site had the greatest ranges of data and that there could have
been factors that easily affect the biodiversity value in a wet area. This is compared to the
medium water availability site which had the smallest variance, meaning in this set of data, the
biodiversity values were more consistent and closer in value.
In our experiment, there were a few factors that could have affected our results. One factor that
could have altered our result was the method used to collect the sample and what was collected.
Some samples were collected by picking a little sample from one area, and then collecting a little
more from a different area and then combing the different samples into one for a general sample.
Another method was some samples were collected in certain areas more prone to having
invertebrates (such as an area with more shade or water), while others went to areas where
invertebrates are less likely to be. Another factor that could have altered our results was the
weather. Since the samples were collected on different days and different times, the presence of
invertebrates could have varied. Going on a cooler day, where it is foggy out, or in the morning,
invertebrates are more likely to be out compared to a sunny afternoon. Having a more consistent
method of collecting date would improve this experiment. Collecting the data all on one day at
the same time, ensuring that samples are collected in the same manner, and that the samples were
collected from one area could improve the results of this experiment and give more accurate
results.
This kind of experiment could be expanded to include organisms from other phylum and even
other organisms from the same phyla. Water is essential for many organisms, and seeing how
they affect animals, plants, protists, fungi, or even microbial species could give a bigger picture
on just how important water is to life. This experiment could be used in multiple forms of
research. One way this experiment could influence another research topic is the effects of global

warming on biodiversity. Since global warming is rising sea levels and decreasing the amount of
available fresh water, biodiversity could be affected. An experiment found that the rising sea
levels could affect the nematode populations and species composition both directly and indirectly
by altering species-specific habitat (Simmons, 2052).

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Giller, Paul S. "The Diversity of Soil Communities, the 'poor Man's Tropical
Rainforest'" Biodiversity and Conservation 5.2 (1996): 135-68. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.
Anderson, James T. and Smith, Loren M. 2000. Invertebrate Response to Moist-soil
Management of Playa Wetlands. Ecological Applications 10:550558.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010[0550:IRTMSM]2.0.CO;2
Sheehan, Emily. "Diverity and Abundance of Subsoil and Leaf Litter Invertebrates across
Different Levels of Disturbance in a Costa Rican Cloud Forest." Cloudbridge Nature
Reserve(2007): n. pag. Dec. 2007. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.cloudbridge.org/wpcontent/uploads/2011/11/diversity-abundance-subsoil-leaf-litter-invertebrates.pdf>.
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