Question 1.
a.) Chitons are marine mollusks that range in size from small to large. They belong to the Animalia kingdom, the Mollusca Phylum, and the polyplacophora class. They have a dorsal shell of chalky plates that are found mainly in shallow water while other types can be found in deep waters. A few physiological factors that may limit their distribution is the fact that they move slowly and are mainly herbivores that have to compete for food.
b.) The Mantel-Haenzel test is a way to test data from a 2x2 table that has been repeated at different times and locations in order to compare the survival of the two different samples. The researcher used this statistical test since it is a way to calculate the significance and distribution of the species in two different locations. However, the test showed that no matter what location the Chiton were placed the data did not differ significantly, meaning location does not affect their survival. The data shows that competitors may be in lower depths and likely simply do not affect this species.
c.) The distribution of these creatures and getting seemingly unimportant findings may be due to the fact that food such as snails are available for the Chitons in high tides. In order to validate this the researcher would have to hold the experiment in two high tides with one area having snails and the other without the snails.
Question 2.
The estimated number of flies in the local popular is around 11,000. The formula used is 550/x=25/500. A soldier fly is a family of flies containing over 2,700 species worldwide and is in the Stratiomyidae family.
Question 3.
A good estimate for the population of nesting black-headed gulls is about 92,950. I came up with this number by adding the numbers of nests as follows: 33+88+77+40+1+0+21+5+61+12=338 and then multiplying that number by the length of the cliff, 275km. Black headed gulls are ground nesters so they have very limited material to protect their eggs. They take care of their offspring by picking up the empty eggshells once the bird has hatched and dropping it off elsewhere away from the nest to deter predators from harming them once they are born. The black-headed gulls do not actually have a black head during mating season.
Question 4.
R: 11.9% per year
Population number: 470
T: 4 years
N(t): #e^(rt)
N(4): 757 catfish at the start of 2016
You could essentially remove 227 catfish while still managing to keep the population
