What This Document Is
This is a “Mission Memo” for Act I of the Population Biology lab (BIO 182) at Arizona State University. It frames a fictional research scenario involving a declining griff population and sets the stage for a lab investigation. It’s essentially a briefing for students taking on the role of field researchers.
Why This Document Matters
This memo is crucial for students enrolled in BIO 182 who are beginning the Population Biology lab. It provides the context and driving questions for the first act of the lab exercise. Students will use the information within to guide their data analysis and modeling efforts. It’s distributed at the start of the lab to orient students to the problem they’ll be addressing.
Common Limitations or Challenges
This document *only* provides the initial scenario and research questions. It does not contain any data, analysis methods, or solutions. It’s a starting point, not a complete guide to the lab.
What This Document Provides
The memo details a scenario where a griff population is facing reproductive failure due to a lack of a hormone called octaphorin. It introduces a potential link between octaphorin production and a novel microorganism found in the brains of older griffs. It also outlines three key questions students will investigate: population decline prediction, time to extinction, and the microorganism’s role in octaphorin production. Appendix 1 begins to introduce the modeling framework that will be used. This preview does *not* include the full Appendix 1 content, any data sets, or instructions on how to perform the calculations.
