Community ecology of dragonflies

 

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2009, Volume 30

Fred Singer

Abstract

Many dragonfly communities will have about five common species, enough for there to be significant differences among species in habitat use and behavior, but not too much to frustrate students with identification challenges. The actual variables that students measure in the field will depend on the particular field conditions. For example, if the body of water is an open pond with emergent vegetation rimming the shore, it might be logical to include distance from shore, and vegetation density as important ecological factors that could differ among species. In my class, we did interspecific comparisons of how high the dragonflies flew, time in flight versus perching and territory size. These three variables were relatively easy to measure, and were likely to be important factors in the relatively ecologically homogeneous Radford University Wetland.

Keywords:  community ecology, wetlands, habitat choice

University of Toronto, Mississauga (2008)