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Scientific Research Paper

You will write a lab report using the scientific format of introduction, methods, results, and discussion to report the findings of this lab. You need to search the literature on edge effects for your introduction and to support or to compare with your conclusions for the discussion section of your paper (citing your literature as shown in the format given to you previously).

Things to think about in your paper:

Why are the potential factors causing differences in species richness and/or abundance between edge and interior habitats? What are some of the things that explain this difference from the literature?

Why was canopy cover presumed to have an effect on the species richness and abundance of arthropods in the forest? What other data that you collected might be useful in analyzing the arthropod species distributions? How would you analyze them?

If you had null results (no significant difference between habitats and/or no strong correlations) for your experiment, what are the potential reasons?

What are the differences, if any, in the types of species and their population sizes that occur in the two different habitats? How would you analyze this? Suggest some possible statistical analyses in the discussion section.

Potential literature sources:

Murcia, C. 1995. Edge effect in fragmented forests: implications for conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 10:58-62.

Hernández-Santin, C., M. Cuautle, M.N. Barranco-león, J. García-Guzmán, E.L. Badano, F. Luna-Castellanos. 2019. Eucalyptus edge effect on Quercus-herbivore interactions in a Neotropical temperate forest. Neotropical Entomology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-019-00694-5

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Research Paper in Ecology

Forest edge effect on species richness and abundance of arthropods at BOLOS

Scoring Rubric

Introduction (20 pts)

 Is the topic clearly and concisely introduced?  Is there a sufficient literary review of the topic of edge effect?  Does the information forecast the remainder of the paper?

Methods and Results (25 pts)

 Methods are logically organized with adequate description of materials and methods used to gather data.

 Results contain tables and/or graphs used to depict species numbers in different habitats.  Results contain the use of statistical methods to illustrate whether there is significant difference in

arthropod distribution between forest interior and edge habitats.  Linear regression equation is computed and used to draw best fit line between the plots.

Discussion and Conclusions (35 pts)

 Primary literary sources (peer reviewed) are used to support or refute the edge effect on arthropod community patterns.

 Discusses the impact of related research on the concept of edge effect.  Summarizes the evidence with respect to thesis statement (that arthropod species richness and

abundance are or are not affected by edge effect).

Grammar and Mechanics (10 pts)

 Grammatical errors or spelling does not detract from the paper. Literature Cited (10 pts)

 Literature is listed alphabetically and in the format required.  At least 5 sources cited and listed from this section are primary literary sources

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