SHANE
WOODS
Department of Biological Sciences
Murray State University
Mentor: Terry
L. Derting
Title of Presentation: The Relationship Between Human
Population Size and the Richness of Water-Related
Species in Kentucky
This research was supported by: The Kentucky
Gap Analysis Project
ABSTRACT
It is important to study the relationship between species richness and
human population in order to understand how human populations affect biodiversity.
I used the state of Kentucky as my work site, and used a variety of data
sources to obtain species ranges within Kentucky and human population
sizes for county seats. After manipulating this data, I was able
to form seven maps and seven tables: one for each order studied and one
for all the orders combined. One of the orders studied was the Gruiformes.
The only significant finding was that the species richness of the Gruiformes
order became 45% greater near large human populations, as compared with
small human populations. On the whole, human populations had a negligible
impact upon the diversity of the studied species. In addition, the
Gruiformes order has successfully adapted to significant human presence
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