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Animal Behavior (Isopods)

Aug. 22, 2016

Lab Members: Sarah Swendsrud, John Doe, Jane Doe

AP Biology Unit 1: Introduction

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IntroductionInformation: Ethology is the study of animal behavior.  This involves observing an organism’s behaviors, interpreting what is observed, and research different organisms.  Ethologists study and observe an organism’s reaction to the environment around them.     Biotic and abiotic factors are limiting factors that control the maximum size of a given population.  Favorable conditions are desired by an organism of its home environment.  Because of this, an animal must search for the environment to fit its structure and lifestyle.  This is called habitat selection.     An animal can display many different types of behaviors, two being taxis and kinesis.  Taxis behaviors are deliberate movements toward or away from a stimulus.  Kinesis is a random movement that is not oriented toward or away from a stimulus.  Taxis behaviors are exemplary of the physiological needs of an organism.  Other behaviors are agonistic, aggressive or submissive actions toward another organism; or mating behaviors.

Hypothesis: If isopods prefer dark habitats, then they will be found in the darkened camber rather than the chamber exposed to sunlight.

MaterialsThe materials used for this lab are an isopod choice chamber, black construction paper to block out light, a lamp to imitate sunlight, and 10 isopod beetles.

Procedure1. 10 Isopods were caught prior to lab and they were found in the damp soil under bricks

near the softball field.2. The isopod chamber was prepared by taping black construction paper around one

chamber in order to represent a dark habitat. In order to represent a habitat full of sunlight, a lamp was placed above the other chamber.

3. Half of the isopods were placed in the dark chamber and the other half of the isopods were placed in the light camber.

4. For every 30 seconds, a group member recorded the amount of isopods in each chamber. This step was repeated for 15 minutes.

5. At the end of the lab, the stations were cleaned up and the remaining, living isopods were released outside near the softball field.

ResultsTable 1: This table represents an isopod chart where the data was recorded.

Time (sec) Control (sunlight) Experimental (dark) Observations0 5 5 Starting point30 5 560 5 590 5 5 One isopod died in

the light chamber.120 5 5150 5 5

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Statistics:The average of the amount of isopods in each chamber was found using the following formula:

 Using the formula above, the control mean was calculated to be 5 isopods in the light chamber and the experimental mean was calculate to be 5 isopods in the dark chamber.

Graph 1: This graph shows a line graph of the isopod behavior.

ConclusionsIsopods did not prefer any type of setting; they were found to have a random pattern of movement. These conclusions can be found from the data found in Table 1 and the averages for both dark and light habitats were very similar. Data from Graph 1 show that movements of isopods are random not preferring dark or light habitats. The hypothesis of isopods preferring dark habitats over light habitats was disproved.

Modifications and ErrorsErrors: An isopod was killed when placed into the choice chamber which hindered the collection of data. There was a limited amount of time to collect the isopods for the experiment resulting in a small sample size. Modifications: Catch more isopods for a larger sample size and repeat the lab for more consistent data by not killing the isopods.