In Chattanooga, there are several places to go and enjoy the outdoors. With so many forests and mountains, you can expect a wide range of biodiversity. Our class took a trip to one of the more well known areas, Stringer's Ridge. It is a very popular hiking area due to the sheer amount of diversity … Continue reading Tree Diversity →

During this lab, we studied and recorded the different movements of 45 cats. We chose 15 from the US, 15 from Australia, and 15 from New Zealand. These different sets of data gave us a pretty good idea of the average ranges of cats. Our objective was to find the home range, or the physical … Continue reading Cat Tracker →

Ants are very telling insects. By focusing on how well they are doing in a particular environment, we can see how the area is doing as a whole. Ants are survivors and will find food wherever they go, so when their populations start to decline in an area, it is somewhat troubling. "Ants perform multifarious … Continue reading Urban Ecology →

Graph 1 shows the number of beans found in a specific patch density. Graph 2 shows the total time spent in a specific patch. Graph 3 shows the capture rate for a specific patch density. The capture rate was found by dividing the total beans found by the total amount of time spent in the … Continue reading Optimal Foraging →

When thinking about evolution, one must also consider natural selection and the role it plays in evolution. We have alleles to thank for natural selection. Alleles are the genes that determine everything from fur color to height to speed. If there is an allele that determines one trait is better suited than another to the … Continue reading Evolution →

Dispersion focuses on how individuals are arranged in their environment. There are three types if dispersion patterns: random, clumped, and uniform. These describe the different ways organisms space themselves out. The Walker School, Population Ecology Presentation (2009) A random pattern is the most rare type. It happens when there is no correlation between the living … Continue reading Dispersion Patterns →

Thermoregulation is how an animal keeps its inside body heat at a suitable temperature. It is a process that allows some animals to survive in the harshest environments, and others to thrive in the more moderate areas. There are different types of temperature regulating in animals: ectothermic and endothermic. An ectotherm, or cold-blooded animal, typically … Continue reading Thermoregulation →

For the graphs from the United Kingdom Meteorological Office, temperature is on the y-axis and years are on the x-axis. To see a relationship between the year and temperature, average temperatures needed to be on the y-axis. This is to emphasize how temperatures are increasing with each year. Average Annual Temperature Average Annual Temperature for … Continue reading Phenology and Climate Change →

Science communication can be a tricky subject to both learn and talk about. Most scientific findings are not easily accessed by the public. At its most basic definition, scientific communication is all about making your research and your findings available across the board. Mónica I. Feliú-Mójer sees it as simply "one person transmitting science-related information … Continue reading Science Communication →