Screen 1: Introduction



Activity: Empirical study of the physical effects of fragmentation

Part 1: Introduction to Habitat Fragmentation

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1.1 Introduction To The Forest Habitat and Fragmentation

Graphics: Introduction text screen in panel on left. Right side shows picture of European forest of the type that nuthatches use.

Text: Introduces students to species, forest system, social milieu, and the concept of fragmentation.

Tools: No tools

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1.2 Learn About Measurements of Fragments: Area, Perimeter, and Perimeter/Area Ratio.

Outline: Students learn what area and perimeter mean, and calculate perimeter / area ratios for smaller and larger areas of forest to see how those change with patch size. Also become familiar with the tools they have for manipulating the forest.

Graphics: Text panel on left. Screen on right shows model with stretch of forest surrounded by a strip of farmland. Forest takes up most of the landscape – strip of farmland is thin. Forest is done using individual tree creature icons. Bottom of landscape panel is 200 pixels up from control panel. That space is empty here.

Toolbar at bottom of experiment panel. Toolbar contains model controls (Go/Step/Stop/Reset) for later, Also contains tape measure tool. Also contains tagging tool grayed out.

Text: Guide students through measuring the full perimeter and area of forest using the tape measure.

Guide students through calculating perimeter / area ratio.

Tools: Go/Step/Stop/Reset as normal in our labs. Standard selection tool which lets you click on bird to see close-up. Tape measure tool lets students click and drag to measure a distance (in coordinates of forest). Distance measure shows up as tape measure is dragged out. Tagging tool grayed out.

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1.3 Continue Learning About Fragment Measurements

Graphics: Toolbar at bottom same as previous panel. In Landscape panel, show one larger fragment of forest at left (similar in size to the one that is currently in lower right, but centered). Show a smaller fragment about 200 pixels to the right the large one (similar in size to the one that is currently in the upper left, but centered). Below landscape, show the area of the small patch, and the distance between the two patches, as numbers. Farmland in between forest fragments. When running, a horde of chainsaws comes out and cuts down trees in between patches.

In the middle of the text panel, show two buttons, one of a chainsaw, the other somehow representing planting trees, next to each other. Under that, show two more buttons, one with arrows pointing towards each other and the other with arrows pointing away, that let students adjust distance between patches.

Text: Embedded buttons in text let students increase and decrease size of remaining smaller patch. Students told to adjust small patch to a certain size, then Run model for 20 years.

Guide students through calculating new perimeter length and perimeter / area ratio.

In a new text panel, students have a second set of buttons to adjust patch distance. have them play with that.

Ask students to speculate on the biological effects of changes in these parameters on the organisms living in the fragmented habitat.

Tools: Same as in 1.2

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1.4 Discussion: Biological Effects of Fragmentation

Outline: Students will read a summary of the biological effects of fragmentation, with particular attention to the effects of habitat loss, isolation, and edge effects. They will compare the summary with their speculations.

Graphics: Remain the same as 1.3

Text: Description of potential effects of fragmentation

One or two questions asking them to compare summary with their own thoughts.

Objectives for Part 1:

At the end of this section, students should be able to

• Define habitat fragmentation.

• List, describe, and explain how to measure the physical effects of habitat fragmentation.

• Explain how the physical effects of habitat fragmentation are related to biological effects on the organisms living in those habitats.

Part 2: The Effects of Habitat Fragmentation

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2.1 Introduction to Eurasian nuthatches

Outline: Students will read a brief description of the natural history of Eurasian nuthatches, including an explanation of why they are good model systems for the study of fragmentation (i.e., the characteristics that suggest they are susceptible to its effects).

Graphics: Text panel on left. Picture of Eurasian nuthatch on the right. Changes to picture of nuthatch predators (raptor, great spotted woodpecker, some mammal that lives there) when next text page is shown.

Text: 1 or 2 pages description of nuthatches and nuthatch biology

Tools: none

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2.2 Modeling the effects of habitat fragmentation on Eurasian nuthatches

Outline: Students will manipulate a model of nuthatches in an intact forest habitat. They will track individual birds and measure the density of breeding pairs, juvenile dispersal distance, survivorship during pre-settlement dispersal, and overwinter mortality.

Graphics: Large forest spread across landscape as in 1.2. Below landscape panel is population size graph that shows number of adult nuthatches over time (line graph). Somewhere we also have to put some numbers: Area; and Perimeter/area ratio for both small and large fragments; and also, distance between patches. Small patch numbers and distance between patches not shown here but shown in next pages. These might fit next to the graph, or they might be something you have to click on fragments to pop up and show. Tagging tool is enabled.

There are juvenile and adult nuthatches flying around. Outside of forest there are raptors flying around. Inside forest there is some predatory mammal species.

Text: In intact forest, students told how to calculate density of birds and get explanation of what density is.

Use a tagging tool to mark a number of juveniles with different colors and follow them through the dispersal cycle. Record how far they go and the percentage that survive. Also measure the proportion of adults that survive from one summer to the next using the graph. Repeat these measurements a couple times to get enough samples.

Tools: Tagging tool lets students click on a bird and ‘tag’ that bird. Tagging means changing the drawing of the bird to be something different from the others – either drawing another image with the bird icon, or drawing a colored object on top of the bird. Students can click on a tagged bird with the selection tool and find out how far it moved that year – this is recorded in one of the traits.

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2.3 Nuthatches in fragmented habitat

Outline: Students fragment the habitat into two patches, one large, and one which they can vary size and degree of isolation. They will again track individual birds, measuring the same parameters as above. The graph shows population size in each patch and in whole area. Students manipulate small patch size and distance to observe effect of each of those on nuthatch densities. Using similar measurements as before, students try to explain their observations.

Graphics: Like 1.3 with population graph and patch statistics like 2.2.

Text: Remind students how to manipulate smaller patch size and distance and give them

2 sizes and 2 distances to try.

Guide students through doing same experiments as before and recording data.

Give text area where they can draw conclusions.

Objectives for Part 2:

At the end of this section, students should be able to

• Describe the features of Eurasian nuthatch biology that make this species susceptible to habitat fragmentation.

• Apply their understanding by predicting, given the appropriate information, which species in a given habitat type are most likely to be affected by fragmentation in that habitat.

• Infer, given the appropriate information, the specific effects of fragmentation on a target species.

• Describe, based on their simulated study, how the effects of fragmentation might be studied in a real field setting; identify some of the practical difficulties such studies might entail.

Part 3: Nuthatches in Spanish Chestnut Groves

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3.1 Introduction to the Chestnut Grove Habitat

Outline: Students will read a brief description of traditional chestnut groves and their role, both as resources for local human communities and as ecological surrogates for other plants and animals.

Graphics: Text panel on left. Picture of chestnut groves on right.

Text: Description of chestnut groves and social aspects as well as their being nuthatch habitat.

Tools: None.

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3.2 Effects of Habitat Fragmentation in Chestnut Groves

Outline: Students will begin by using the effects of fragmentation derived from the initial simulation to predict the effects of habitat fragmentation in the new habitat and determine the measurements they need to take to test those predictions. Students will then be presented with a model of chestnut groves and allowed to measure the same parameters as they did in the initial model.

Students will compare their results with their predictions. They should find that one prediction (that breeding pairs do worse in smaller fragments) is not met.

Students will discuss possible explanations for this finding and propose additional studies they could use to test them.

Graphics: Landscape has two chestnut groves. One smaller one and one larger one. Groves are far apart from each other, on opposite sides of the landscape. Each grove has a village associated with it.

Text: Students are told to repeat their measurements in each of these patches. They are asked to focus on density of birds and guided to notice that the density is higher in the small patch. Also asked to look for predators. After they take their measurements, told that the inside-forest predator does not like to go outside of the forest very far, and guided to infer that lack of predator inside small patch might let birds survive better in small patch.

Tools: Same as in 2.3. No buttons for changing size of patches (sizes are fixed).

Objectives for Part 3:

At the end of this section, students should be able to

• Design an experiment to test alternative hypotheses for their findings in this simulation.

• Discuss the potential for human-managed ecological systems to replace, at least in some ways, natural ecological systems.

Part 4. On Your Own

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4.1 Experimenting on your own

Outline: Students have the same setup as in 2.3, plus a pointer tool that lets them move animals around. They are told that if they have other experiments they want to do, they are free to do them here.

Graphics: Same as 2.3 but now selection tool also allows students to drag creatures around. Patch positioning buttons available in text panel.

Text: Students told how to drag creatures around and how they can use this to remove or add predators or nuthatches to patches.

Tools: as in 2.3.

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