Habitat Size Impacts Arthropod Species

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study that explored the relationship between species number and habitat size for arthropods living on desert shrubs. 

The arthropod species in this figure are specialist herbivores that feed and live only on the shrubs. The figure shows the number of these species on shrubs of different sizes, both before and after fumigation. The results can be used to demonstrate the species-area relationship, a major pattern in island biogeography, and the fact that this relationship returns even after a major disturbance.

The “Educator Materials” document includes a captioned figure, background information, graph interpretation, and discussion questions. The “Student Handout” includes a captioned figure and background information. 

The “Resource Google Folder” link directs to a Google Drive folder of resource documents in the Google Docs format. Not all downloadable documents for the resource may be available in this format. The Google Drive folder is set as “View Only”; to save a copy of a document in this folder to your Google Drive, open that document, then select File → “Make a copy.” These documents can be copied, modified, and distributed online following the Terms of Use listed in the “Details” section below, including crediting BioInteractive.