BIOL 4240L Field Ecology Lab -- Getting Going with GIS part 2 -- 2012 Name:
The purpose of this lab is to help you become comfortable importing data into Arcview, formatting data to be displayed properly, appending data to an existing spreadsheet and conducting analyses of the data.
Use the data provided (Campus Critters 2 & 3, 2012) to perform the following tasks and/or answer the following questions
Getting your data ready…
· Open the data sheet. Make sure that all the values are correct and complete.
· Part of the data are in a different data format.
o What format are the odd data in?
· Use an online service to convert those data to the appropriate format
· Make sure your columns/headings agree with your data sheet for Campus Critter 1
· Add data for Critters 2 & 3 to the original data sheet
· Make a new event theme in order to display the complete data set
Data analyses (crunching the numbers)…
· Use the Animal Movement Module to determine the home range for each of the 3 critters in the following models… (report your values in m2):
o MCP 100
o MCP 95
o Fixed Kernel 95
o Fixed Kernel 50
o Harmonic
o Jenrich-Turner 95
· Use the Bootstrap function to determine the minimum sample size necessary to estimate a 95 MCP home range for these critters at 80% home range size.
o How many data points are necessary?
· Conduct a random walk to see if these critters exhibit home ranges or not
o Do they appear to have true home ranges?
Data analyses (interpreting the results)…
· Generate home range sizes for these critters based on nocturnal locations… (report your values in m2):
o MCP 95
o Fixed Kernel 95
o Fixed Kernel 50
o Do these critters use the same habitat during both night and day?
o What type of behavior might they exhibit at night… how/why might this explain their nocturnal locations?
o How might the genders differ between Critters 1&2 and Critter 3?
o Are there equal amounts of overlap?
o How much overlap (m2) is there between Critters 1 & 2?
o How much overlap (m2) is there between Critter 3 and 1&2?
o Based on these data would you characterize the diurnal habitat use of this species as that of open (0-5% canopy cover), partial (5-90% canopy cover) or closed (90-100% canopy cover)?
o What is the total percent of each home range that is open vs. closed?
o What is the total area (m2) of open habitat in each animal’s home range?
o What management practices would you advise the Grounds Maintenance Office for maximizing habitat for this species?