Aims
In this exercise you are asked to derive the species-area relationship for the flowering plants in a uniform area of Mediterranean garrigue grassland.
The data were collected from a small area in the Corbières maritimes of Southern France. Plot this data as a scattergraph and then fit an appropriate trendline (using the facility in Excel) to derive S (the number of species) per unit of sampling and z, the relationship (or slope) of the line relating S to area sampled.
This allows you to practice some basic graph-drawing skills on Excel. It also requires you to interpret the relationship you find and then asks questions about the species-area relationship and island biogeography theory (see Chapter 9 of the textbook).
