Distribution of Organisms

Organisms live in different places as the environment is varied

• habitats = the place where an organism lives
• distribution of an organism is where it is found 
• an organism is affected by environmental factors depending on where it is found:
  • temperature
  • availability of water
  • availability of oxygen and carbon dioxide
  • availability of nutrients
  • amount of light
• an organism might be more common in one area due to differences in environmental factors

Quadrats:

• these measure the distribution of an organism 
• place a quadrat on a random place on the ground, count all organisms in the quadrat and repeat the steps, work out a mean number of organisms per quadrat in the first area
• repeat the same steps for another area, then compare the two means