With increasing pressures on natural areas from expansion of human development, we are often forced to make decisions about which areas to set aside as preserves in order to maintain as much of our native

      How do you find out which areas have the greatest numbers of species?  You could visit all of the counties in Ohio, looking for as many species as you can find.  This would take a lot of time and effort -- much more than one person could afford to spend.  Luckily, there is a better way -- consulting a biodiversity collection.  For plants, such a collection is called a Herbarium.  It contains dried plant specimens mounted on sheets of heavy paper that have labels with associated information.  The idea is that these specimens will last for a very long time and will form a permanent record of what grew where and when.

      This exercise illustrates how we can use museum specimens to determine which areas in Ohio are most diverse.  We'll work with plants as our sample of the entire biota.  We have chosen species that have particular habitat requirements – acid soils, limestone-derived soils, bogs, etc. – rather than widespread species that will grow almost anywhere.  By using these special taxa, we can focus on interesting and specialized habitats throughout the state, and we will be able to discover which counties in the state have the highest diversity of plant species and habitats and probably the highest numbers of species overall as well.

      After we discover which parts of the state have the most diversity and use this information to plan where to locate our preserves, we'll look at each plant species and try to understand why it occurs where it does in the state.

Click on one of the following questions to go to that part of the exercise:

      1)  Which counties in Ohio are most diverse, and which might we choose to preserve?

      2)  Why might these counties be most diverse and why do these plants grow where they do?

 

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