Ant Diversity Lab Report

Seokhyun Jeon

Lab Partners: Lauren Vidal, Trinity Millian, Marian Famularcano, Sofia Cruz

Date: 13 September 16
Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to see if increasing amount of human impact

decreases ant biodiversity over a given area. Biodiversity is the variety of life in a ecosystem. A

healthy ecosystem tend to have biodiversity. The reason a healthy ecosystem usually have

biodiversity is because it boosts ecosystem productivity as it provides more resources for life.

One of the formulas used to measure diversity is known as the Simpson index. The index takes

into account the richness as well as the evenness of a specie to calculate the biodiversity.

Simpsons index is Diversity=the number of individuals for each species(the number of

individuals for each species - 1)/total number of organisms in the survey(total number of

organisms in the survey-1). The maximum diversity will be reached if the answer of the equation

is zero and minimum diversity will be reached if the answer is one. To make this experiment

work ants were trapped in three different areas. A place with low human impact, meaning 9

meters from any concrete, sustainable water source, no bug exterminator, and grassy areas.

Another in a place with medium human impact area which will be like a basic front/backyard,

basic roads, access to some kind of water supply, and no bug exterminator. The last trap was

placed in high human impact areas meaning, buildings, a lot of concrete, high traffic area, and 3

meters away from plants. The bait used were oil from a tuna can and syrup. The data shows that

most of the traps did not have any result. Just through this, it is safe to conclude that most places

has been affected by humans in a negative way in all kinds of ecosystems. Even the traps that
had ants did not go below the diversity of .5. Which further suggests that humans have had

negative impact on the diversity of ants.

Materials:

Syrup diluted 1:1 with water

Erlenmeyer flasks, 250ml

Disposable dropper type pipettes

Tuna in oil

Petri Dishes

Markers

Forceps

Dissecting needles

Hand lenses

Masking tape

Wire cutters

Zip Lock bags

Test tubes with lids

Freezer

Procedure: The trap was made by making a hole in the center of the side of a petri dish with

wire cutters, while making the rectangular opening about 1 cm wide and 1 cm tall. Then the lid

was put on and taped along the sides while leaving the cut hole open. These steps were repeated

1 more times to create 2 traps. The bait was placed in a test tube with lids. One having a half

water, half syrup combination. The other drained tuna oil from the tuna cans. Each person then

took their 2 traps and test tubes home to put their traps in a low, medium, or high impact areas.
 Using the disposable droppers, 1.5 ml of syrup was poured into one trap, while 1.5 ml of tuna oil

was poured into the other trap. The trap was then placed in a low, medium, or high impact area

and was placed there for 4 to 5 hours in the afternoon. After labeling the petri dish with the bait

used and the plastic bag with the location and the bait, place the trap into the plastic bag and

freeze them overnight in a freezer. The frozen ants were then brought to class. There petri dishes

were opened and ants were counted by moving them over onto a strip of masking tape with

forceps. Ants that looked the same were placed in groups on the masking tape. Each individual

person used the Simpsons Index (ni(ni-1)/N(n-1) where N - Total number of organisms in

survey, Ni - Total number of each species, D - Diversity) to calculate the ant diversity of their

area and recorded the result in the data chart below.

Data:

Human Impact

Name Level N Ni D

222 sweet loving

Alyssa R. Medium 223 1 oil loving 0.99

20 sweet loving 0.55

Alexis Low 29 9 oil loving

Peggy High 0 0 0
Seokhyun Medium 0 0 Undefined
77 oil loving

Sofia Cruz Low 232 155 sweet loving 0.55

Aliza Aquino Medium 0 0 undefined

70 sweet loving

Marian F. Medium 431 361 oil loving 0.728

Marie Medium 0 0 undefined
Ben Gorham Low 0 0 undefined
234 sweet loving

170 oil loving

Tyler Gulley Medium 404 (S+O=Tiny Ant) 0.511

Lauren Vidal Low 0 0 Undefined
550 sweet loving

Anna Valcarcel Medium 635 85 oil loving .77

Trinity Medium 0 0 Undefined
89 Oil Loving

0 Sweet Loving 1

Alyssa Souza High 89 0 Tiny Ants

Mikayla Canales High 0 0 0
Alex Mello Medium 0 0 0
Riley T. High 0 0 0
Rita Zughbaba Medium 0 0 0
Nicole Khoury Medium 0 0 0
115 sweet loving

3 oil loving

1 huge momma

Kiera Cullen Medium 119 ant 0.934

Inayah Morris Low 0 0 0
Joey Hammond medium 0 0 0

Juliana Galvan low 0 0 0

Calculations: ni(ni-1)/N(n-1) = undefined

Ni = 0

N=0
Discussion: The objective of this experiment was to find out if increasing amount of human

impact decreases ant biodiversity over a given area. 5 people who placed their traps in an area

with medium human impact had a diversity that was closer to 1 than zero (around .77), the other

8 people that placed in medium human impact area did not have any result. 2 people placed their

traps in a location with low human impact had a diversity of .55 while the other 4 people who did

the same produced no results. 1 person placed traps in a location with high human impact had a

biodiversity of 1 while the other 3 people who placed their traps in high impact areas produced

no results. The results we got was predictable however the results we didnt get was surprising.

Majority of the people who did this lab was unable to produce any results, most likely due to bug

sprays without the persons knowledge. This shows that humans have had a negative impact on

the diversity of ants by just killing all of them. On the other hand people who got the results,

which was 8/23 people had the results we expected. In places with medium human impact the

diversity was quite low as expected. In places with high human impact the diversity was non-

existent. On the other hand, places with low human impact had the largest biodiversity compared

to the other places, as expected.

Conclusion: From this experiment it is safe to conclude that human beings have had a negative

impact on the diversity of ants in general. It is also possible to conclude that increasing the

human impact in an area decreases the diversity of ants.