In this section you will find methodological materials on field and laboratory studies of animals. Here you will find:
- - Methods for counting the numbers of different species of animals in the wild;
- - Materials for identifying animal traces in the wild and their structures (burrows, nests...);
- - Identification of bird of prey species' redds;
- - other ecological and zoological methods of field work...
Ecology was born as a branch of biology, which studies relationships between organisms and their environment. The first ecological studies should perhaps be attributed to the works of Aristotle, the father of zoology. "Daddy" described more than 500 species of animals, indicating, among other things, the nature of their habitats - and this is already the field of ecology. The term "ecology" itself was proposed in 1866 by Haeckel (before that other variants - "epirriology", "bionomics" - but they did not catch on). The term "ecology", as we know, comes from the Greek roots "oikos" - "abode" and "logos" - "science". That is, it is the science of the relationship between organisms and their environment (not the science of home, as some "wits" write).
Ecology - the science of relationships between organisms among themselves and with their surrounding inorganic environment, about relationships within supraorganic systems, about the structure and functioning of those systems (in the literature, of course, one can find many definitions, sometimes narrowing, sometimes vaguely broadening the scope of ecology as a science; this definition includes, above all, the field of classical bioecology).
In simple terms, ecology studies the relationships of organisms to their environment, between which a multitude of relationships arise. Organisms do not exist in nature as chaotic assemblages, but form communities - supra-organismal systems (populations, biocenoses, ecosystems - these will be discussed in the following lessons), which are also the subject of ecology like wind, water or sun.
GIS and its use
Setting up a Geographic Information System (GIS) for a region is a complex undertaking requiring a high degree of skill. However, once established, such a system greatly facilitates operations with vast amounts of data. In particular, determining the number of species for an area becomes quite easy.
In the GIS environment, an electronic map with digitized layers of relief, hydrographic network, road network, settlements and forests is superimposed on the stitched raster topographic base of M 1: 100000, to which satellite images, forest and land structure plans and other cartographic materials are subsequently attached. The latter are corrected by superposing boundaries on decoded satellite images and topographic base. The result is a GIS, each point in which has its own coordinates and carries a huge amount of information.
The area is subdivided into trapezoids using a standard coordinate system. The area of the trapezoids can vary, depending on how many degrees the verticals and horizontals are drawn. For work with raptors, the optimum is to divide the territory into trapezoids of about 1239.5 km2 (roughly represented by squares of 33.5 x 37.0 km). This results in a grid, with vertical lines drawn every 30' E and horizontal lines drawn every 20' N. Each cell is assigned a number. The cells are numbered from the northwestmost cell to the east along the horizontal rows of cells. You can also divide an area by a grid of topographic base sheets.
There can be several working layers in a GIS. Each layer is linked to the database. The most important layers are distribution and species abundance. The distribution layer (inventory layer) looks like a system of points, each representing an identified breeding area on a map, and is linked to the information block (database). The abundance layer takes the form of a system of points, lines and polygons. The dots and lines indicate the count locations, and the polygons reflect the density and abundance of the species resulting from the processing of the count data. The formulas are entered into the database and any update of the counts in the cell is immediately reflected on the map. The counts are recorded on forms. The form corresponds to the accounting methodology. This is why data from different record keeping methods are recorded on different forms.
The information points in the layers (routes, sites, nesting areas, nests, etc.) are assigned using GPS or manually. Using GPS makes the task easier, as it does not require careful orientation and georeferencing. Nests, route axes and site boundaries are geo-referenced by GPS to an accuracy of 0.1-1.0''.
Processing of the counts is done for each cell separately, which allows a more accurate estimation of the nesting area for different species. The polygon covering the biotope is characterized by two indicators - density and abundance in pairs for nesting species and in individuals for wintering and migrating species.
Correct estimation of total number of species in a cell depends on completeness of counts, since only density data from driving routes and rafting, with various corrections, are extrapolated to the whole cell area. Hiking, spot and area counts are extrapolated to the biotopes in which they were conducted, resulting in zero or minimal abundance in habitats that were not surveyed, as a result of an unadjusted survey by vehicle survey or rafting. If there are no plots or routes in a cell, then in the summary form for the biotopes of this cell, the average number of species in the 8 border cells will be calculated.
The number of species in the cells is then summed up for each nature area and/or federal entity.
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