Living in the Environment 18th Edition by Tyler Miller,Scott Spoolman

Exercise 24

Pick an area near where you live or go to school that hosts plants and animals. It could be a yard, an abandoned lot, a park, a forest, or some part of your campus. Visit this area at least 3 times and make a survey of the plants and animals that you find there, including any trees, shrubs, groundcover plants, insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals. Also, take a small sample of the topsoil and find out what organisms are living there. (Be careful to get permission from whomever owns or manages the land before doing any digging.) Using guidebooks and other resources to help identify different species, record your findings and categorize them into the general types of organisms listed above. Then think of, and record, five ecosystem services that you think some or all of these organisms provide.