Community Assembly in a Leaf-Litter Invertebrate Community

 

Christopher W. Beck

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2011, Volume 32

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Abstract

In this exercise, students design and carry out an experiment to test among competing hypotheses for community assembly, using a leaf-litter invertebrate community. By constructing mesh bags with leaf litter from which the invertebrates have been extracted, students can begin the experiment with an open community. By sampling a subset of leaf-litter bags at different time points over a 4-6 week time period, the degree to which community development is deterministic or random can be evaluated. This experiment could be used in introductory courses for majors or upper-level capstone courses, depending on the sophistication of statistical analysis.

Keywords:  succession, leaf litter, community development, microinvertebrate

Dalhousie University (2010)

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