Arthropod Diversity between Undisturbed and Disturbed Habitats of South Miami, Florida

Arthropod diversity between disturbed and undisturbed habitats was studied. Arthropods are organisms that have six or more jointed legs, there are numerous in species and can be found in several different habitats. In our experiment, we wanted to test if there was a significant difference in arthropod diversity between undisturbed and disturbed areas of South Florida. We focused on two Miami-Dade County locations, Tropical Park and Thompson Park, to sweep net for arthropods. All of the contents captured during sweep netting were placed in plastic zip lock bags and were frozen for later observation, classification, sorting, and pinning. Utilizing Simpson’s Index we verified that we could reject our null hypothesis and that there was a significant difference in arthropod diversity among disturbed and undisturbed habitats. Also, we found that we could support our prediction that there was more diversity in the undisturbed habitats than the disturbed habitats.