Species diversity, or the total biological diversity of a community, is important for the functioning of ecosystems, and this lab aimed to measure the biodiversity of the Confederate Cemetery. Ecologists often use biodiversity as an indicator of ecosystem health, with high measurements showing that the community and the ecosystem is balanced and in good health. They can measure biodiversity of a specific community with two factors: species richness and species evenness. Species richness refers to the total number of species within the community, and species evenness refers to the number of individuals within each species in that community. Ecologists can also compare biodiversity of two communities by using Shannon’s Diversity Index. Last week’s lab sampled Signal Point Park. This week, the lab samples the Confederate Cemetery to measure its biodiversity and test a hypothesis. The Confederate Cemetery will have low biodiversity due to human interference and human maintenance. At a later date, the data from the two will be compared.

              The Confederate Cemetery is nestled north of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus. It is fenced in, and much of the community is shaded by trees. There are no pathways, paved or otherwise. It is unclear how often people visit to pay respects to those buried, but a small number of students may walk through the cemetery from a parking lot to get to class. For this lab, we followed the same procedure as the prior week. We began in the same group with a quadrat. We generated a number randomly and walked forward that number of steps. With a second random number, we walked right that number of steps. We then placed the quadrat where we stopped. We wrote a brief description of the species we saw in the quadrat and counted the number of individuals within each species. Once finished, we picked up the quadrat and repeated the process. We sampled a total of ten quadrats, recording our data. This method of sampling eliminated bias. After recording all of our data, we walked back to the lab to condense our data by calculating the total number of individuals within each species found.

              In total, we counted 903 individuals within thirteen species. Plants were the most abundant, beginning with heart-shaped leaf grass, which we counted 281 individuals. Thin grass had 197 individuals, and bladed grass had 105 individuals. Black ants were the most abundant of the animals found, with eighty-eight individuals counted. We found eighty-two clovers, sixty-nine saw-toothed grasses, thirty-nine woody grasses, twenty-four lobed grasses, and ten stemmed grasses. Additionally, we found five snails. The remaining animals—spiders, fruit flies, and pill bugs—had one individual each. These results are listed in Table 1.

Table 1. The number of individuals within each species found in the Confederate Cemetery

Species Description	Number of Individuals
Heart-shaped Leaf Grass	281
Thin Grass	197
Bladed Grass	105
Black Ant	88
Clover	82
Saw-toothed Grass	69
Woody Grass	39
Lobed Grass	24
Stemmed Grass	10
Snail	5
Spider	1
Fruit Fly	1
Pill bug	1

              Given the data, the Confederate Cemetery contains moderate-to-low biodiversity. The grass with heart-shaped leaves dominated the landscape, but most other plants are fairly evenly distributed. Black ants dominated in the community in respects to animals, with other animal species not having even distribution. The total species richness, thirteen, is not high. The species evenness offsets this slightly, raising the total biodiversity. Human disturbance is a factor that lowers biodiversity, but unlike Signal Point Park, this community has more human impact from upkeep of the land. Being a cemetery, keepers most likely come by to make sure the area is clean, which benefits the species living there. Compared to Signal Point Park, the Confederate Cemetery has a higher biodiversity. I suspect this is due to human traffic being much more common in the park than the cemetery.

Species diversity is a primary concept of ecology. By measuring species richness, species evenness, and relative abundance, we can draw inferences about the health of the ecosystem. In this lab, we aim to measure the biodiversity within a community in Signal Point Park. With this, we will discuss the possible effects of human disturbances on the area. If I sample the area, I will find moderate biodiversity. I believe that human disturbances have lowered the biodiversity of the area but not to the point of desolation.

Signal Point Park is a park nestled on Signal Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Our sample area was a field of grass and trees, and it had a path that led from the parking lot to the mountain lookout. In a group of five, we practiced the quadrant method. We used a random number generator to get a number. We walked that many steps forward, generated another number, and walked that many steps to the right. We then placed down a 1m² quadrat on the spot. We recorded the total number of species in our plot, species richness, and the total number of individuals within each species, species evenness in Table 1. We repeated this process a total of ten times to sample ten quadrats.

In our results, we found a total of 394 individuals. We mostly found 145 individuals of long, bladed grass. Close behind it is long, skinny grass with ninety-two individuals counted. We also found forty-seven bumpy, round-leaf grass individuals. Most other species had thirty or fewer individuals. In total, we counted fourteen species. These results are summarized in Table 1. 

Table 1. Signal Point Park Sampling Data

Species Description	Total Abundance (Number of Individuals)
tall, bladed grass	145
long, skinny grass	92
lobed grass	8
small, woody plant	18
bumpy, round-leaf grass	47
black ants	11
whole leaf clusters	3
stemmed grass	10
heart-shaped leaf plant	6
toothed-leaf plant	30
moss	1
rain-drop leaf plant	1
clovers	21
serrated shrub	1

We saw that long, bladed grass dominated the community. Tall, skinny grass and grass with bumpy round-leaves followed behind. Most other species, though, had low numbers of individuals. Several species, such as the lobed grass and moss, had fewer than ten individuals in our samples. Therefore, we can see that the community does not have high species evenness. We only counted fourteen species total, so the community does not have a very high species richness. Thus, the total biodiversity is not high. I consider it to be moderate to low, which corresponds with my hypothesis. The area is highly trafficked by humans. As we performed our sampling, kids and adults walked up and down the field. This could disturb the local species and kill some individuals, lowering species diversity. I also think it’s important to note that we did not see any species that may have been living under the soil.