III.B.1 Part Three--Investigating Microhabitats

Materials needed:
Each team of 2-3 students will need:

• Life in a Microhabitat data sheet #1
• Clipboard
• Pencil
• 1 plastic grocery bag
• 1 label for leaf litter bag
• Pitfall trap (including roof and weight)
• Trowel or big spoon for digging a hole for the trap

Instructions for the teacher: Locate an area of your schoolyard study site with a variety of different microhabitats. If helpful to you, mark boundaries for your students. Use the question "What's the difference between a habitat and a microhabitat?" and information from the Introduction to initiate a microhabitat discussion with your class. Distribute and review the data sheet #1. Take your class out to search for microhabitats. Encourage each team to find at least three different types of microhabitats and complete the data sheet. Examples of types of microhabitats include: under an oak tree, inside a dead log, at the base of a pine tree, inside a clump of grass, on a palmetto frond or stem, on the side of the road, etc. As teams finish their data sheets, give them plastic bags to collect leaf litter. Students should push aside large, dry leaves and pine needles and collect one handful of well-composted leaf litter from one microhabitat. Students should avoid pine cones or wood chunks. Also instruct students to avoid taking handfuls of sand or soil. These will fall through the wire in the Berlese funnels and make it difficult to see the animals on the bottom of the trap. In each bag of leaf litter, teams should place a label that states the date, team members, location (school or study site), and description of microhabitat. This label will later be taped to the outside of the Berlese funnel trap. Have each team choose one of their microhabitats for the pitfall trap. Make sure they put the trap in an undisturbed area where it is unlikely to get stepped on or moved. The area they choose should be one easy to dig-preferably sand with a leaf litter cover. (See pitfall trap instructions for how to set the traps.) When you return to class, carefully set up the Berlese funnels. (Funnels can be set up prior to going out.) Make sure the label from the leaf litter bag is taped to the outside of the trap. If you want live animals from the trap, line the bottom of the trap with a moistened paper. If you prefer to observe dead animals, tape a small container of rubbing alcohol to the bottom of the funnel (see illustration). See Berlese funnel instructions for more information about how to use them. Leave the Berlese funnel lights on overnight. The next day, each team of students should check their pitfall trap and Berlese funnel and fill out data sheet #2 and data sheet #3. When recording information on data sheet #3, it is not important that your students correctly identify what they catch. However, descriptions should be consistent. Encourage students to develop look-alike categories such as brown walking stick, small gray toad, black beetle with fancy antennae, etc.