2.

02 Island Biogeography Lab

Name:

Christopher Thomas

Instructions: In this lab activity, you will use components of the

island biogeography model to predict species richness on islands
and provide reasoning to support island habitat conservation decisions. To make your
model, you will need:

Materials-

● Paper
● Colored pencils, crayons, markers or pens in a few different colors (suggested
colors: black, red, green, yellow and blue)
● 100 small items to act as your migrating species (examples: beans, bead, rice
grains, small candy, small balls of scrap paper)

⭐ Having trouble? Use this Teacher Walkthrough Presentation for step-by-step

instructions to this lab.

Step 1- Pre-Activity Questions:

Use information from the lesson to answer these questions. Answer in complete
sentences.

1. Describe how biodiversity would be different between a faraway small island and a nearby
large island.

Smaller islands biodiversity would be lower than larger islands due to space. Smaller areas
would limit species and resources.

2. Explain why it is claimed that species on islands may have a lower ecological tolerance
compared to those on the mainland.Islands have lower ecological tolerance due to smaller
space. Animals would be fighting each other for the resources. Also islands have to deal
with extreme weather conditions.

Step 2- Complete the Lab:

Note: If you do not have colored pens, pencils, or markers, label your circles A, B, C, and
D instead. (See example image below)

1. Draw a brown circle (6 inches in diameter) on your paper and cut it out. Place it in the
center of your table.

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 2. Draw a red circle (3 inches in diameter) on your paper and cut it out. Place it 3 inches
above the edge of the brown circle in the center of your table.

3. Draw a green circle (4 inches in diameter) on your paper and cut it out. Place it 3 inches
to the left of the edge of the brown circle.

4. Draw a yellow circle (4 inches in diameter) on your paper and cut it out. Place it 6 inches
below the edge of the brown circle.

5. Draw a blue circle (3 inches in diameter) on your paper

and cut it out. Place it 6 inches to the right of the edge of
the brown circle.

6. Drop 100 beans from a height of 12 inches directly above

the center of the brown circle. Each bean represents one
species that attempts to immigrate to the island.

7. Record the number of beans on each island (not the

brown mainland) in the data table. Each bean that lands
on an island represents a successful colonization by a
single species.

8. Collect the beans and drop them for four more trials. Record your results.

Lab DAta:
Directions: For each trial you complete, following the directions above, add the number
of beans (or other object you used instead) that fell on each island in the chart below.

Trial Blue Island Red Island Green Island Yellow Island

1 5 6 1 0

2 4 2 8 4

3 8 4 5 3

4 2 1 3 4

5 3 5 2 1

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Calculations:
Directions: Calculate the average value for each island and record it in the data table. To
calculate the average, add all the values of the trials and divide the value by the number
of trials, which is five. Please show your work.
Example:
Trial One: 3 beans
Trial Two: 4 beans
Trial Three: 5 beans
Trial Four: 7 beans
Trial Five: 2 beans
Average = 3 + 4 + 5 + 7 + 2 = 21/5 = 4.2

Blue Island Red Island Green Island Yellow Island

Average
5+4+8+2+3=22 6+2+4+1+5=18 1+8+5+3+2=19 0+4+3+4+1=12

22/5=4.4 18/5=3.6 19/5=3.8 12/5=2.4

Lesson Connections: Use your lesson and the results of your activity to answer the
questions. Answer questions in complete sentences.
***Do not copy and paste from any source! Your answers should be in your own words.

1. Which island has the highest average migrations? Explain why.

The blue island has the highest average migration due more species migrating to that
island.

2. Which islands would you select as a wildlife sanctuary? Explain your reasoning.

I would select the blue and red islands for wildlife sanctuaries due to the species
migrating to these islands are higher than the other island. Which possibly mean
different types of species are migrating to these islands.

3. Did the lab activity follow the island biogeography model? Why or why not?

This lab sorta followed the island biogeography model because normally the larger
and closer islands will have more migrating species. But in this lab Blue island was

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Virtual School.
 further away and had more species. Red island was smaller and higher average
species.

4. The biogeography model includes the "rescue effect." How does this impact the
two closest islands in your activity?

The rescue effect would impact the 2 closest islands by increasing the population.
Increasing the population could help the species survive.

5. Pretend that the blue island (or island D) is the oldest. How could that impact the
number of different species on the blue island, compared to the other younger
islands around it?

Most of the time the older the island the more migration of different species.

*Submit this document on your 2.02 assessment.* One easy way to do this with a
Google Doc is to go to “File” in the upper left corner, scroll down to “Download”,
and choose “PDF Document” from the arrow menu. You can then drag/choose
the PDF into the student file box on the assignment.

Unless Otherwise Noted All Content © 2023 Florida Virtual School. FlexPoint Education Cloud™ is a trademark of Florida
Virtual School.