1. © File copyright Colin Purrington. You may use for making your poster, of course, but please do not plagiarize, adapt, or put on your own site. Also, do not upload this file, even if modified, to third-party file-sharing sites such as doctoc.com. If you have insatiable need to post a template onto your own site, search the internet for a different template to steal. File downloaded from http://colinpurrington.com/tips/acade mic/posterdesign. Hypothesis It is hypothesized that the number of animals will increase in the absence of human alterations in the environment. It is also hypothesized that there will be a greater number species within the human alteration alterations absence. Null: There will no difference in the number of animals present regardless if human alterations are present or absent. There will also be no difference in the number of different species between the two categories. Technology, Materials, and Methods Using motion-tracking cameras set up at over 100 sites within city parks, forest preserves, cemeteries and golf courses around the downtown, and northern areas of the greater Chicago area. 100 images were surveyed to first, distinguish the presence or absence of an animal (Domesticated dog, Mink, Coyote, etc.). Second, identify the animals categorized by common name. Three distinguish based on the image if humans have altered the environment in any way. To alter the environment for this study includes adding fences to the area, roads or houses, or automobiles. Any image that does not show wildlife species will be omitted from the survey. This will limit the data collected to only images where clear identification of animals were able to be classified. Second, any images of humans will also be omitted. This will narrow the scope to only animals. Third, Data will be collected using the zooniverse.org website under the Chicago Wildlife Watch project currently under data analysis by Dr. Magle, et al. The dada will be analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Findings Findings show that our of 100 animals surveyed, 68% were placed in the category of human alterations absent. While the remaining 32% were categorized as human alterations present (graph1). Looking at each individual category three different animals were observed in the human alteration present category, Domestic dog, Squirrel, and Birds (graph3). The human innovation absent category observed ten different animals, Opossum, Mink, Domestic Dog, Deer, Coyote, Squirrel, Muskrat, Birds, and Mice (graph2). Conclusions and Implications This research leads me to support my original hypothesis that “Diversity of animal species will be significantly larger in areas where human innovation is absent, in comparison to areas where human innovation is present.” I am also lead to reject my null hypothesis that there will be no difference in the number of animals observed in either type of habitat, and no difference will be observes in the number of different species within each habitat. However this finding require further data collection. 100 samples is not representative of this large area. Also using Zooniverse.org is limiting is that myself as a user does not have any control on how or where motion0tracking cameras are placed throughout the Chicago area. Major cities should consider the effects that expanding have on the surrounding wildlife. Increasing the amount of undisturbed areas within the city and reducing waste could potentially increase the diversity we see in urban areas. By: Taylor King Date: 29 th October 2015 Research Poster Presentation EDSE 4275 University of Wyoming Data analysis and Literature Cited Alvarez, R., & Fors, I. (2009, April). Living in the big city: Effects of urban land-use on bird community structure, diversity, and composition. ScienceDirect, 90(3-4), 189-195. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204608 002004 Hunter, P. (2007). The human impact on biological diversity. How species adapt to urban challenges sheds light on evolution and provides clues about conservation. EMBO Reports, 8(4), 316–318. http://doi.org/10.1038/sj.embor.7400951 Data was collected from the following cites by Taylor King: https://www.zooniverse.org http://www.chicagowildlifewatch.org/#/ NGSS/Crosscutting Concepts Diversity of Wildlife in the Chicago Area Introduction Building larger and larger cities is critical to solve the over population crisis growing in the world. The largest and more popular cities are gaining a vast majority of this growing population. However, humans are not the only thing that has to adjust to these changes. A 2009 study by Dr. Álvarez found that in urban settings bird species richness was lessened by the urban land development (Álvarez, 2009). This study will focus on a boarder scope involving all species in the ecosystem. Another study by Dr. Hunter in 2007 measured the impact humans have on the animal species in the surrounding area, this team was able to find that humans posed a very detrimental outcome when urbanizing areas that were previously undisturbed (Hunter, 2007). With these studies in mind I have decided to investigate the diversity of animals in the Chicago area. Image 1: Sample image from zooniverse.org website. HS-LS4-5. Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species. Patterns Different patterns may be observed at each of the scales at which system is studies and can provide evidence for causality in explanations of phenomena. (HS-LS4-1),(HS-LS4-3) Cause and Effect Empirical evidence is required to differentiate between cause and correlation and make claims about specific causes and effects. (HS-LS4-2), (HS-LS4-4), (HS-LS4-5), (HS- LS4-6) Image 2: Sample image from Zooniverse.org, shows what is classified as human alternation. Image 3: Coyote captured roaming at night Graph 1: Shows total number of animals surveyed Graph 2: Shows diversity of animal species in human alteration absent category. Graph 3: Shows diversity of animal species in human alteration present category.