Biomass in the Forest, by Sophia

Biomass is a comprehensive measure in the mass of living biological organisms in a given area or ecosystem. It can be interpreted in terms of species biomass, where one particular species’ biomass is calculated in a definite quadrat. For our Nose Hill project, we decided to calculate Biomass in a quadrat measured at 1m by 1m, an area that is classified as a small community with various living insects and plants.

A comprehensive study of ecological pyramids

A measure of the dry mass used in the degrees of biomass can expressed using an energy pyramid based on the dry mass of tissue of organisms and plants at each trophic level. Ecological pyramids begin with producers on the bottom; the popular producers that we discovered in Nose Hill include a variety of plant species as plants photosynthesize light to create usable forms of sugar and other nutrients in species such as purslane, scowler’s willow, spear grass, and green alder that is to be consumed by primary and secondary organisms later on.

In figure 1, a graphical representation of an energy pyramid based on the dry mass tissue of organisms can be observed, producers take up most room on the pyramid since it comprises of not only insects, but plants as well. The decomposer mass is one of the smallest biomasses measured, simply because our experiment didn’t involve the process of digging soil. Therefore, the concentration of decomposers remains fairly low as we only calculated about 0.02 grams of decomposers on a scale of 7 total numbers of each organism. The second largest mass measured in this energy pyramid are primary consumers as we counted a total number of over 40 primary consumers weighing about 0.05 grams in total. This number clearly demonstrates to us that primary producers along with producers are some of the building blocks required for the pyramid to support further trophic levels of life in Nose Hill and can be seen as a ratio to compare with the shockingly small numbers of secondary consumers. Only 3 secondary consumers were present in this particular pyramid as they weight about 0.02 grams in mass, the exact number present in decomposers but on a smaller scale. To extrapolate this data beyond the scientific horizon, some possible solutions that we developed with our hypothesis match up along with the reason why tertiary consumers weight about 0.04 grams ranging at 12 organisms. Due to the alarmingly large number of primary consumers captured in the quadrat, we can predict that the number of secondary consumers in this particular environment may be at its lowest peak as the low numbers suggest. Furthermore, the large numbers of tertiary consumers is also easily understandable since 75% of the tertiary consumers that we captured were mosquitos. Mosquitos primarily feed on the blood of Homo sapiens; they don’t necessarily need plant life or other smaller bugs to survive. Due to the hot weather present on the day of the data collection, it is fair to say that a large number of mosquitos were captured due to human interference within the Nose Hill community.

    Types of organisms and plants observed in forest communities

An array of different organisms and plants were present within our observational range as it helped us identify the different biomasses and pyramids that we could create in order to correctly calculate the biomass of the separate wildlife components and how they all tie together in an energy pyramid within a forest community in Nose Hill. Below is a table that accurately summarizes our findings of each specific organism and plants observed.

Name of Each Observed Trophic Level	Types of Organisms Observed
Producers	Trees, shrubs, saplings, seedlings
Primary Consumers	Aphid, fruit flies, blowfly, sawfly
Secondary Consumers	Mosquitoes, spiders, chalicidfly
Tertiary Consumers	Spider, ladybug (lady bug beetle), yellow lacewing, mosquitoes
Decomposers	Flies, termite

Table 1. Observed organisms in a 1m x 1m quadrat set in the forest of Nose Hill Park. Not all could be identified, general organisms observed are recorded, due to the specific time arrangements during the date collection process, certain minor errors may be present because of systematic and random error within the time frame given and techniques used. The recording of the specified location using longitude and latitude was used and may be helpful in gathering future data, the altitude is 1205 m, latitude is 51°, 6.794m N, the longitude was 114°, 7.750 W.

© Sophia Yang and Yuchen Yang

Of course, the quadrat and space that we condensed our self to was a huge factor in determining the organisms and plants present in our project due to reduced spacing in comparison if we were to use a 10m by 10m quadrat, below is a picture of our quadrat used with a variety of plants observed.

We were able to observe trees, shrubs, saplings, and a few small arrays of seedlings in this particular quadrat, small branches and leaves of oak trees and evergreen leaves can be found, one particular interesting species of sapling that we found and would like to do future research on is the sapling displayed in picture 2. The human impact present in Nose Hill and the different organisms interaction is greatly varied as it can observed that towards the left side of the leaf, a small hole is present, mostly likely from the distribution of this plant to primary producers and small possible decomposers.

After much consideration, we came into conclusion that the sawfly and the flying ant were two of the most important organisms because of their weight in ratio with the other organisms (insects) in each trophic level. Sawfly belongs with primary consumers as it eats plants leaves in its larva stage, pioneers on willow, poplar, alder spirea, also present in clearings and forest edges. The sawfly that we captured was most likely near a wooded region in the forest as it was likely a willow or poplar tree that it stuck onto. Flying ant is considered a secondary consumer that eats a variety of small insects that they capture or dead insects that they find because they need to balance carbohydrates and proteins, since protein is needed for queen to lay eggs and larvae to grow. Some of the small primary consumer insects that the flying ant could indulge include aphid, fruit flies, blowfly, sawfly and sawfly.

Despite our writings about the sawfly and flying ant, some other important organisms that we also found will be included in the pictures below as they help to establish a clear understanding of some of the other trophic level insects that we took a look at.

Some of the other insects that we took a look at through the compound light microscope using the computer software included the Seven Dotted Ladybug and also common types of mosquitoes found throughout the city of Calgary.

Name of Each Observed Trophic Level	Mass of Different Trophic Levels (g) +/- 0.01g	Number of Organisms Observed and Collected (#)
Producers	99.15	N/A (Plants)
Primary Consumers	0.05	41
Secondary Consumers	0.02	3
Tertiary Consumers	0.04	12
Decomposers	0.02	7

Table 2. Observed masses of the dried organisms along with the number of organisms observed and collected in each different trophic level measured in the 1m x 1m quadrat. The mass was measured on a digital scale, therefore has a measurement error of +/- 0.01g, and may differ depending on the air/wind in the room while measuring. The recording of the specified location using longitude and latitude was used and may be helpful in gathering future data, the altitude is 1205 m, latitude is 51°, 6.794m N, the longitude was 114°, 7.750 W.

© Sophia Yang and Yuchen Yang

Table 2 actively portrays the mass weighed and calculated for each trophic level present in the usage of dry mass in correlation with the number of organisms present. This table has been reference to in the pyramid picture displayed above since it demonstrates a relationship between the number of organism and the overall weight that each individual organism approximately weighs.

Name of Each Observed Trophic Level	Averaged calculated weight per one organism (g) +/- 0.001g
Producers	N/A (Plants)
Primary Consumers	0.0012
Secondary Consumers	0.0067
Tertiary Consumers	0.0033
Decomposers	0.0029

Table 3. The averaged calculated weight per one organism measured in grams with an uncertainty of +/- 0.001g observed and collected in each different trophic level measured in the 1m x 1m quadrat. The mass was measured on a digital scale, producing a total measurement of all the organisms together, this table demonstrates calculated values, and may differ depending on the precision of the calculative instrument. The recording of the specified location using longitude and latitude was used and may be helpful in gathering future date, the altitude is 1205 m, latitude is 51°, 6.794m N, the longitude was 114°, 7.750 W

© Sophia Yang and Yuchen Yang

The values calculated in Table 3 were received by dividing the number of organisms observed and collected by the mass of each different trophic level. Thus, secondary consumers consist of the highest individual mass due to the limited number of organisms observed to divide with. Primary consumers were heavy in terms of numbers but based upon a small scale in relationship to primary consumers small size overall in comparison with the other trophic levels.