Handout for the Forest Ecology Activity
Developed by Dr. Greg Perrier, NOVA
Introduction
NOVA has a campus in a virtual world called Second Life (SL). On this virtual campus there is a forest very similar to the forests you would see on the real NOVA campuses. Because of the high tick population with the corresponding risk on Lyme’s disease we have stopped taking students into the real forest, but we can still conduct interactive forest ecology activities in the forest on NOVA’s Second Life campus. In this activity you will collect data on the number of trees by species in three different plots and from this data will be able to determine relative frequency, relative density, and relative basal area for the different tree species. For Bio 102 classes, you will be provided with an Excel Program that does these calculations for you and you need only interpret the results. For an Ecology class, you will be asked to do these calculations.
