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Bug Vacuums_ Sucking Up Biodiversity

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6/29/2014 Bug Vacuums: Sucking up Biodiversity http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/EnvSci_p045.shtml 1/12 Bug Vacuums: Sucking up Biodiversity Difficulty Time Required Short (25 days) Prerequisites None Material Availability Readily available Cost Very Low (under $20) Safety Adult supervision needed to make bug vacuum. Abstract Have you ever wondered what a wildlife biologist does? Ronnie and Denise from DragonflyTV found out firsthand when they worked with a local wildlife biologist to take a survey of the fish populations in their local lake. They wanted to determine what the biodiversity (number of different species in a habitat) was like so that they could find out how healthy the lake habitat was. In this science fair project you can take on the role of a wildlife biologist by examining the biodiversity of insects in your own backyard using a homemade bug vacuum! Objective Use a homemade bug vacuum to collect insects from your backyard to determine whether it is a biologically diverse habitat. Credits Sandra Slutz, PhD, Science Buddies This science project was inspired by this DragonflyTV Podcast: TPT. (2006). Fish Population by Ronnie and Denise. DragonflyTV, Twin Cities Public Television. Retrieved June 25, 2008 from http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/fishpopulation.html (http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/fishpopulation.html) The concept for the insect vacuum was adapted from: Pollock, M. (2007). Bug Pooter. RAFT: Resource Area for Teaching. Retrieved June 25, 2008 from http://www.raft.net/ideas/Bug 20Pooter.pdf (http://www.raft.net/ideas/Bug%20Pooter.pdf) Last edit date: 20130717 Introduction
Transcript

6/29/2014 Bug Vacuums: Sucking up Biodiversity

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Bug Vacuums: Sucking up Biodiversity

Difficulty

Time Required Short (2-­5 days)

Prerequisites None

Material Availability Readily available

Cost Very Low (under $20)

Safety Adult supervision needed to make bug vacuum.

Abstract

Have you ever wondered what a wildlife biologist does? Ronnie and Denise from DragonflyTV found out firsthand whenthey worked with a local wildlife biologist to take a survey of the fish populations in their local lake. They wanted todetermine what the biodiversity (number of different species in a habitat) was like so that they could find out howhealthy the lake habitat was. In this science fair project you can take on the role of a wildlife biologist by examining thebiodiversity of insects in your own backyard using a homemade bug vacuum!

Objective

Use a homemade bug vacuum to collect insects from your backyard to determine whether it is a biologically diversehabitat.

Credits

Sandra Slutz, PhD, Science Buddies

This science project was inspired by this DragonflyTV Podcast:

TPT. (2006). Fish Population by Ronnie and Denise. DragonflyTV, Twin Cities Public Television. Retrieved June25, 2008 from http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/fishpopulation.html (http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/fishpopulation.html)The concept for the insect vacuum was adapted from: Pollock, M. (2007). Bug Pooter. RAFT: Resource Area forTeaching. Retrieved June 25, 2008 from http://www.raft.net/ideas/Bug 20Pooter.pdf(http://www.raft.net/ideas/Bug%20Pooter.pdf)

Last edit date: 2013-­07-­17

Introduction

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Have you ever heard the phrase "The more the merrier!"? In ecology—which is the study of living things and thehabitats (or places) they live in—the phrase should be "The more species the healthier!". Habitats that have lots ofbiodiversity are considered healthy. Part of biodiversity is having many different types of plants and animals living inthe same habitat. The plants and animals rely on one another for their entire life cycles. For example, let us say berriesfrom a bush are eaten by a field mouse, then the mouse helps transport the seeds inside the berries to differentlocations, allowing more berry bushes to grow. The mice are eaten by birds of prey, like hawks, and then some of thehawk eggs get stolen and eaten by a fox, and on and on the chain goes. This web of relationships is called anecosystem. The greater the biodiversity, the larger the ecosystem, and the healthier the habitat.

Watch this DragonflyTV Fish Population video http://www.pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/fishpopulation.html(http://www.pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/fishpopulation.html)

Wildlife biologists (http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-­fair-­projects/science-­engineering-­careers/Zoo_zoologistsandwildlifebiologists_c001.shtml)

study and monitor the health of habitats and ecosystems. One way they do this is to survey (identify and count)populations of plants and animals to determine how much biodiversity is in a habitat. In this video from DragonflyTV,Ronnie and Denise help a wildlife biologist conduct a population survey of the fish in their local lake. If they find good-­sized populations of several different species of fish, they will know that their lake is a healthy habitat. How do youthink they do it? Watch the video to find out what kind of biodiversity they observe, how they observe it, and what theirfindings mean about the lake!

From the video you can see that surveying populations of fish is hard work that requires a lot of equipment, like boats,nets, and containers to hold the fish. Plus, you have to live near a water habitat! Insects, on the other hand, are easy tofind in many outdoor habitats, and catching them does not require much equipment. In this environmental scienceproject you will do your own biodiversity survey right in your own backyard (or in a nearby park or field) by looking athow many species of insects you can find. To conduct your survey you will build a simple bug vacuum to collect theinsects. Get ready to suck those bugs up!

Terms and Concepts

EcologyHabitatBiodiversityEcosystemWildlife biologistSpecies

Questions

What do wildlife biologists do?How are population surveys conducted?What is biodiversity?What are some different kinds of habitats?What are some examples of different species of insects?

Bibliography

This science fair project was based on these resources:

PBS Kids Go! (2006). Fish Population by Ronnie and Denise. DragonflyTV, Twin Cities Public Television.Retrieved June 25, 2008 from http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/fishpopulation.html

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(http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/fishpopulation.html)

Pollock, M. (2007). Bug Pooter. RAFT: Resource Area for Teaching. Retrieved June 25, 2008 fromhttp://www.raft.net/ideas/Bug%20Pooter.pdf (http://www.raft.net/ideas/Bug%20Pooter.pdf)

To find out more about insects, try this website:

BioKIDS. (2008). Critter Catalog: Insects. Retrieved June 26, 2008 fromhttp://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Insecta/ (http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Insecta/)

These websites are good resources about ecology and biodiversity:

National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). (2004). Kids Do Ecology. Retrieved June 28,2013 from http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/index.html (http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/index.html)American Museum of Natural History. (n.d.). Biodiversity: Everything Counts! Retrieved June 28, 2013 fromhttp://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/biodiversity (http://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/biodiversity)

For help creating graphs, try this website:

National Center for Education Statistics, (n.d.). Create a Graph. Retrieved June 2, 2009, fromhttp://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/ (http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/)

Materials and Equipment

Plastic container with lid (1-­cup or ½-­pint size). Containers from the deli of your local grocery store work well.Single-­hole punch or leather awlFlexible drinking straws (2);; wider ones are better as they will allow larger insects to be caught.TapePen or pencilNylon stockingScissorsPlastic wrap, clearAccess and permission to use an area in your yard, a field, or other outdoor place where you think insects mightlive. Tip: Insects can often be found under rotting wood, stones, and decaying leaves.Tape measureSticks (4)String (17 feet)Optional: Magnifying glassOptional: Adult helperLab notebookGraph paper

Experimental Procedure

Making the Bug Vacuum

1. With an adult's help, use a single-­hole punch or a leather awl to make a hole in the side of the plastic container.a. The hole should be 1 centimeter (cm) below the top rim of the container.b. Make sure that when the lid is on the container, the lid does not block the hole.

2. Using the same technique, punch a second hole opposite the first one, again 1 cm below the top rim of thecontainer.

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3. Insert the mouth end of a flexible straw into one of the holes. See Figure 1 below.a. If the straw does not fit tightly into the hole, wrap tape around the straw to make the straw fatter. Put the

straw back into the hole. Keep adding tape and reinserting the straw in the hole until the two fit togethertightly.

b. If the straw is too large for the hole, gently push a pen or pencil through the hole to widen it until the strawfits. Make sure the connection between the straw and the hole is snug.

4. Cover the mouth end of the second straw with a piece of nylon stocking. See Figure 1 below.a. Cut a piece out of the nylon stocking, large enough to be taped to the end of the straw.b. Use tape to secure the stocking piece to the straw.c. If necessary, overlap two layers of the stocking so that air can pass through but insects will not be able

to.

Figure 1. The two straws are inserted into the plastic container opposite one another. One of the straws is covered bya filter made from a piece of nylon stocking.

5. Using the same method as in step 3, insert the mouth of the covered flex straw from step 4 into the second holein the plastic container. Again, make sure the fit is snug.

6. With an adult's help, use a pair of scissors to cut out the center out of the plastic container's lid. This will be theobservation window of the insect vacuum. See Figure 2 below.

a. Fold the lid in half to easily cut out a circle.b. Leave a 1-­cm border around the rim of the lid.

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Figure 2. Folding the lid in half makes it easier to cut a circle out of the plastic.

7. Stretch a piece of clear plastic wrap over the top of the plastic container. Hold the plastic wrap in place bysnapping the lid of the container back on. See Figure 3 below.

a. If you need to get rid of wrinkles, lift part of the lid and gently tug the plastic wrap to remove them, then

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snap the lid back in place.b. Make sure the plastic wrap is tight enough that the insect vacuum window is easy to see through.c. Make sure there are no holes in the plastic wrap or your insects could escape!

Figure 3. The completed insect vacuum is depicted here. Notice the clear plastic wrap window.

Collecting Insects

1. Mark off a 4-­foot by 4-­foot (or about 120 cm by 120 cm) section of your yard, a field, or other outdoor place whereyou think insects might live. See Figure 4.

a. Use a tape measure to measure a 4-­foot line on the ground.b. Mark the beginning and end of the 4-­foot line by pushing sticks into the ground so that they stand upright.c. Using the tape measure, place two more sticks parallel to the sticks already in the ground, 4 feet away.

The result should be four sticks marking the corners of a 4-­foot by 4-­foot square.d. Tie string between the four sticks, low to the ground, to identify the perimeter of your testing square.

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Figure 4. A tape measure can be used to make a 4-­foot by 4-­foot square, with sticks and string marking theboundaries.

2. Carefully search the 4-­foot by 4-­foot testing square for insects. Use the insect vacuum to suck up all the insectsyou find, as described below. You will need to have a search pattern so that you do not crush insects in thesquare.

a. To begin collecting insects, start at one corner of your test square and walk along one edge of the square,walking on the outside of the string but looking into the square.

b. When you find an insect, gently place the filter-­less straw so that the end is very close to the insect.c. Place the straw with the nylon filter in your mouth and breathe in forcefully. This will create a vacuum,

which sucks in the insect. Repeat this process until the insect has been transferred into the plasticcontainer chamber.

d. After you have walked along the outside of one edge, start walking in a zigzag pattern inside your testsquare. See Figure 5.

i. Do not forget to check for insects under wood, rocks, and leaves. When you do this, get ready forthe insects to quickly scatter!

e. Repeat your paths again until most of the insects in the 4-­foot by 4-­foot testing area have been collected.

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Figure 5. To avoid crushing the insects as you collect them, establish a zigzag search pattern, like the one shownhere, walking on strips of ground where you have already collected bugs.

3. Examine the insects you collected by looking at them through the plastic wrap window of the insect vacuum.a. You may want to use a magnifying glass to get a better look at the insects. How many different types of

insects did you collect?b. In your lab notebook, make a data table (like Table 1 below) describing each type of insect you collected.

Note down how many you collected of each type.c. Optional: Drawing a picture of each type of insect is an additional way in which you can describe the

insects you collect.d. Optional: You can try to identify the different types of insects you collected. To help you do this you may

want to look at the resource in the Bibliography (in the Background tab at the top) by BioKIDS.e. When you are done examining the insects, you should release them outdoors, near where you caught

them from.4. Repeat steps 1-­3 on two additional days.

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Insect Type # Collected

Insect Descriptions: Day 1

Color(s) Number of Wings Antenna (yes/no) Picture

Type A

Type B

Type C

Table 1. In your lab notebook, make a data table like this one to record your results in. You will want to make a newtable for each day you do your testing.

Analyzing the Data

1. Draw three bar graphs to illustrate your data, making one graph for each day's data.a. On the axis going from left to right (the horizontal axis, or x-­axis), make a bar for each type of insect you

collected.b. On the axis going up and down (the vertical axis, or y-­axis), make the height of the bar represent the

number of individuals you collected for each type of insect. For example, if you collected four ants andtwo ladybugs on day 1, the graph for that day would show two bars. The bar representing the ants wouldbe four squares high and the bar representing the ladybugs would be two squares high.

c. You can make the graphs by hand or use a website like Create a Graph (http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createAgraph/) tomake the graphs on the computer and print them.

2. How many types of insects did you collect? Which type was most common? Was your data similar on all threedays? Based on your data, do you think there is a lot of insect biodiversity in the area you chose to test?

Variations

What kinds of insects do you expect to find in your backyard? Research which species of insects live in yourarea. Then do the science fair project above, this time using insect guidebooks and websites to identify theinsects you collect. Did your expectations match your results?Do different locations have different insects? Compare two or more different habitats, like a field and a forest.Which habitat has more insect biodiversity? Why?Does changing the conditions in your test area change the types of insects you collect? For example, whathappens to the biodiversity if you sprinkle the ground with water first?If an area does not have much biodiversity, what do you think can be done to improve it? Would adding thingslike old wood, leaves, or water improve the biodiversity? Devise a way to test this and then try it out! Be sure togive the insects enough time to get used to, and move into, the area after you change it.

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Ask an Expert

The Ask an Expert Forum is intended to be a place where students can go to find answers to science questions thatthey have been unable to find using other resources. If you have specific questions about your science fair project orscience fair, our team of volunteer scientists can help. Our Experts won't do the work for you, but they will makesuggestions, offer guidance, and help you troubleshoot.

Ask an Expert (http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-­fair-­projects/ask_an_expert_intro.shtml)

Related Links

Science Fair Project Guide (http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-­fair-­projects/project_guide_index.shtml)Other Ideas Like This (http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-­fair-­projects/search.shtml?v=solt&pi=EnvSci_p045)Environmental Science Project Ideas (http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-­fair-­projects/recommender_interest_area.php?ia=EnvSci)My Favorites (http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-­fair-­projects/recommender_show_favorites.php)

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erosion alter more than the condition of the soil? How does an oil spill harm fish and aquatic plants? How does apopulation of animals interact with its environment? These are questions that environmental scientists study and try tofind answers to. They conduct research or perform investigations to identify and eliminate the sources of pollution orhazards that damage either the environment or human and animal health. Environmental scientists are the stewards ofour environment and are committed to keeping it safe for future generations. Read more (http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-­engineering-­careers/earth-­physical-­sciences/environmental-­scientist)

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Park Ranger

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Looking for more science fun?

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