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Instructor’s Guide to the Terrestrial Invertebrates website

Introduction to the Research National Parks across the United States have a dual mission, to protect the cultural and natural resources within their boundaries while providing access to people for enjoyment of these resources. This balancing act, of providing access to millions of visitors while simultaneously protecting the integrity of the resources, is very challenging. An added difficulty is that many of the living species within a park may not be known to the Park Rangers who are charged with protecting them. Imagine you are watching a package for a friend but you aren’t told exactly what is in it. In order to store it properly, you would have to open the box to see what is inside. Park managers face the same challenge and the way they open the box is to search within a park for all of the species they can find, this is called an inventory. The way biologists check on the status of the park is to perform inventories at periodic intervals, this is called monitoring. In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a huge effort is underway to try and identify all forms of life within the Park. This large inventory is called the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI). Since 1998, hundreds of scientists from all over the world have been coming to the Smokies to assist with this project. Some of the species found in the park are entirely new species to science (over 500 as of Fall 2006). Of the new species discovered in the Park approximately 80% are invertebrates and many of these are very small. In order to inventory the 524,000 acre Park, the scientists realized they would have to get more eyes out looking in more places. The Terrestrial Invertebrate Study is one project that allows students to get involved with the ATBI, both in the Park and in their schoolyard. To learn more about the ATBI, visit the website http://www.dlia.org. The terrestrial invertebrates study is designed to get students involved in the data collection and analysis aspects of the scientific process. Students learn how to properly collect scientific data in a national park setting, utilizing the tools, and following the methods and protocols that university researchers follow. They are then able to manipulate this data to answer questions in the classroom. Having the data available on the Hands on the Land website makes analysis convenient to teachers and students. The data we collect from these studies are listed on the Hands on the Land website. We identify and list each species of insects found, along with the number of each species found. For example if we found Collembola (Springtails) we would list the species and the number of each that was found during the study. Along with this data we measure soil temperature, air temperature, soil pH, cloud cover, precipitation, and canopy cover. We then enter the data on the Hands on the Land website, allowing students to search for variables in the data and then produce charts and graphs to support their conclusions.

US Department of the Interior National Park Service Great Smoky Mountains National Park Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center

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What This Site Offers Teachers This website is host to the databases for different locations participating in the terrestrial invertebrate study. Teachers can participate by reviewing and analyzing the data in the classroom or by joining in on the hands-on research; either by participating in a field trip at Great Smoky Mountains National Park (for more information go to http://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm) or by replicating the study in the schoolyard. How can you get started with your own insect study?

You can find all the information and resources you need to start your own insect study on this website.

If you would like to start your own site and enter the information on the website you need to contact Susan Sachs, Education Coordinator of the Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Email her at susan_sachs@nps.gov, include in your email a. School or organization name b. Your email address, this will become your user name. c. A password with at least six characters, something that you can remember

easily. d. The latitude, longitude and elevation of your site. If you do not know it send the

city and state your site is located in. e. You can also include a description of your site. To see an example of this click

on this link. http://www.handsontheland.org/monitoring/projects/inverts/site_list.cfm

To catch your insects you can just do a visual search and/or use a leaf litter sifter, aspirator, and magnifying bug boxes. To find instructions on how to make a leaf litter sifter look on the main page of the terrestrial invertebrate study under Project Development Documents or click on the following link.

http://www.handsontheland.org/monitoring/projects/inverts/shaker_box_instructions.pdf

To clean your aspirators just rinse out the vials after each study and clean the tubes with a 10:1 bleach solution. It is suggested after five uses of the aspirators soak the tubes only overnight in a 10:1 bleach solution.

To find information and guides to terrestrial invertebrate inventory datasheet, spider

inventory datasheet, terrestrial invertebrate order guide, key to common spider families of the Smokies, and a shaker box activity. Look on the main page of the terrestrial invertebrate study under Project Development Documents or click on the following link.

http://www.handsontheland.org/monitoring/projects/inverts/search.cfm

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To test the soil pH we follow the protocols from GLOBE. To download these

protocols click on the following link. http://www.globe.gov/tctg/sectionpdf.jsp?sectionId=97&rg=n&lang=en

We set out a 20 x 50 meter study plot in the forest for our students to survey. We need a large area because we sometimes have 60 students participating in the survey at one time. You may elect to choose a smaller sized plot. With younger students, you may also want to randomly toss out hula hoops into the plot and have small groups of students survey leaf litter within the area of the hoops.

Safety Considerations

Select a study area that is free of toxic and nuisance plants such as poison ivy/oak and nettles. Need to see what poison ivy looks like? Go to the following website for images http://www.poison-ivy.org/

If you live in an area with fire ants or ground nesting wasps, survey the area for

their presence before bringing a group of students into the study plot.

Know the allergies and sensitivities of your students before having them do any

work outdoors. Check for allergies to bee stings, asthma etc.

Check the area of potential falling limbs or trees if working in a forest. How to work with the data, even if you didn’t collect it Introduction to Advanced Search

By clicking on the Advanced Search field located on the main page (see sample of main page below) you can search from date ranges, site locations, soil temperature, air temperature, soil pH, cloud cover, canopy cover, precipitation, method of collecting and species. All variables may not be available for each study; the variables that will always be available are date ranges, site locations, and method of collecting data.

After clicking on the Advanced Search button the Terrestrial Invertebrate Study

Search page will appear, this page shows you all of the invertebrate studies that have been entered into the Hands on the Land website. If you look at the bottom right corner of this page, you will see a tab called “Order by.” From this command you can arrange all of the data according to date, location, collectors, and collecting method.

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Main Page

You can also research site information by clicking on Site List; (located beside the

Advanced Search field on the main page) this will allow you to find out information about each site area, including the elevation, latitude and longitude.

Introduction on how to use the Graphing Data Under Reports, Graphs and Maps, click on Comparing Order Difference by Date. You should see a blank graph area and the following menu items and notes:

Site: All Sites Change Site

Primary Data:

07/11/2006 TTEC Comparison

1: none

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Comparison 2:

none Comparison

3: none

Graph

Graphing Notes:

A site must be chosen (click Change Site) before primary data and comparison options are displayed. Right-click on the graph to zoom. This graphing tool requires the free Macromedia Flash Player.

We can use this tool to compare the relative abundance of the different orders of critters found in a single sample and to compare results for up to four different samples collected at a single site. (After you submit your class data and it is entered into the database, you will be able to do this for your own data.) For example, let’s graph some data for Purchase Knob:

In the Site menu, select Purchase Knob and click on Change Site. (Wait for a new screen to come up.)

To compare the data in the four most recent samples, choose these. The boxes

should now look like this:

Primary Data: 06/30/2006 Ecology Education Comparison 1: 06/26/2006 Talent Search Comparison 2: 06/01/2006 Randolph Learning...

Comparison 3: 05/02/2006 Yancy High School

Click on Graph and wait for a graph to appear.

Click on the graph and then right click and select Zoom In.

Now, “click and hold” to “grab” the graph and move it around in the window.

Move the graph so that you can see the results for gastropods (snails/slugs)

and coleopterans (beetles).

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Using the Graph to Answer Questions:

Let’s consider some sample questions we could answer. Sample Question #1: “Did they find more gastropods or more coleopterans in their samples?” According to the graph (and the datasets), 1 sample contained coleopterans but not gastropods, 1 contained gastropods but not coleopterans, 1 contained both, and 1 contained neither. Totaled across all 4 samples, they found 4 gastropods and 8 coleopterans. What might this mean or what might explain this? Perhaps coleopterans are more abundant. By looking at the results for other samples, we could see if this was generally true. Sample Question #2: “Were Gastropods more common in some samples than in others?” According to the graph (and the datasets), gastropods were only observed in 2 of the 4 samples. In each of the other 2, 2 were observed. What might this mean or what might explain this? Two versus zero might just mean that gastropods are generally rare. By looking at the results for other dates, we could see if many were ever found. By looking at the results for other sites, we could see whether gastropods were ever common at other sites. More Suggestions for ways to use the data

1. All species are listed in the scientific names. Students can use field books to look up the scientific names and find the common names.

2. Students could compare data from different seasons to see if more insects (as a

whole) are found during a certain period of time. For example are more insects found in the spring than the summer?

3. Students can compare data at different elevations to see if more insects are found

at higher elevations than lower elevations. For example compare Purchase Knob to Oconaluftee.

4. Are different species found at lower elevations than higher?

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5. By randomly picking different sites or dates do we tend to find more or less of a certain species.

6. Do we find more or less of a certain species during different times of the year? If

true have the student’s research there insect and see if they can come up with a conclusion to why this happens.

7. By using the website students can use the graphs to compare temperature and pH,

order difference by date, and yearly phenology trends. Students can make there own graphs and charts from the data on the website. For example see the graph below I chose from the order difference by date category. I chose three dates one in the spring, summer, and fall and picked my site location to be at Purchase Knob.

By looking at the graph can you see if there is a certain species that is found more in the spring, summer or fall? Students can play around with the data and graphs and come up with different hypothesis.

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Resources There are valuable resources and more information on insects available by clicking on Learn More at the Terrestrial Invertebrates site from the Environmental Monitoring Projects page. See example below.

Once you click on Learn More it will take you to the following page.

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From this page you can learn more about insect in the Great Smoky Mountains and find links to useful websites, and a glossary of common insect study terms. http://www.handsontheland.org/monitoring/projects/inverts/terrestrial_invertebrates.cfm Acknowledgments This guide was produced by Susan Sachs, Joy Absher and Alison Carmody at the Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Special thanks go out to webmaster extraordinaire, Dave Zelenka; Dr. Mary Ball of Carson Newman College; Paul Super and Jonathan Mays, Biologists at the Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center; Friends of the Smokies and the Western North Carolina Community Foundation for initially funding the study and the numerous research scientists who have assisted in species identification.