Highest Mean Number Of Seed Removal example essay topic

Abstract Why do seeds disperse to form new plants? If the seeds simply fell and grew beneath the parent plants they would be too overcrowded and would be starved of nutrients. So it is important that the seeds are dispersed over a wide area where they stand a better chance of finding the right condition to grow. In this experiment I predicted that the red color of jello would have the highest mean number of seeds removed from the aluminum tin pan. Also, between site 1 and site 2 of jello set out, site 1 would have a higher total number of seeds removed.

Basically, for this lab we placed ten oat seeds in five different colors of jello: red, yellow, orange, blue, and green which were molded into an aluminum tin pan. We also had two controls in which there was no jello. We placed the tin pans out onto two experimental sites. For a period of seven days, a group member would go out to the sites (approximately the same time of day) and replace the seeds in each tin pan and dispose of the old seeds away from the sites.

The number of seeds removed from each tin pan was recorded. A chi-square test was calculated from our data and a p-value of 0.75 was determined. Results show that the highest mean number of seed removal came from the tin pans with the jello colors of blue and green. Red being the second lowest mean number of seeds removed. Also, site two had the higher total number of seeds removed compared to site one. The calculated p-value of 0.75 indicated that our data was statistically insignificant.

There could have been many factors influencing our results since we are dealing with nature. Introduction Flowering plants reproduce themselves by producing seeds. The seeds also provide the plants with a way to spread out and grow in new places, sometimes a long way from the parent. This is important because if the seeds are not dispersed, many germinating seedlings will grow very close to the parent plant. This results in competition between every one of the seedlings as well as with the parent plant. The competition is for light, space, water and nutrients.

All of these are important for plants to be able to grow. (3) Seeds can be dispersed in a number of different ways. They may be carried by wind, water or animals. Thus, the reasons why we are calling this experiment as "seed removal" not "seed predation". In this experiment we used five different colors of jello as our medium to place the oat seeds in. I hypothesized that the medium that contained the red jello will have the most seeds removed from it because of its high wavelength value, which is most visible to birds.

(2) We placed the tin pans in two locations, one with bushes / trees around it and the other in open flat land. I also hypothesized that the location with bushes / trees around it will have more seeds removed from the jello because of predation living nearby in the bushes / trees. The animals wouldn't have to go far from their home to find food. Methods The general methods of this experiment were taken from the Laboratory Manual for General Ecology written by Richard Mack and Alan Black. The overall experimental design was devised by our group. We obtained twelve aluminum weighing pans and molded jello into ten of the pans.

We used five different colors: red, yellow, orange, green, and blue. There were two replicates for each color and two controls in which there were no jello. We used oat seeds; ten seeds in each aluminum pan. The seeds were "probed" into the jello in random locations spaced as equally apart as we could. The aluminum weighing pans were then placed and secured directly onto the ground with thin wires at the experimental sites.

We placed the pans into two sites, each site having one color of jello and one control. Each pan was approximately placed five feet from one another and each site approximately fifteen feet from one another. The first site had a little slope and a couple bushes / trees surrounding it. The second site was more open and had a flatter ground.

The tin pans were observed for seven days. Each day, a group member went out to the sites (approximately the same time of day) and replaced the seeds while collecting the "old" seeds and disposing them away from the sites. Also, the number of seeds removed from each tin pan was recorded. After the seven days of observation, using the data collected, a chi-square test was calculated and a critical value was determined.

Results Our results clearly show that there is a difference between the observed mean number of oat seeds removed from each individual color treatments (Figure 1) over a period of seven days. The blue and green jello was determined to have the same mean number of seeds removed, which were two. This was followed closely by orange, yellow and red (1.86, 1.571, and 0.286 respectively). Lastly, the smallest mean number calculated was the control group. Figure 2 shows the difference between the total number of seeds removed from each color over a period of seven days from plots one and two. It is clearly shown that more seeds were taken from plot two than plot one.

Discussion Once again we are referring to this experiment as "seed removal" not "seed predation". The only way we would really know if the seeds were taken from predator would be from direct visual observation or with cameras; this would be very time consuming and elaborate. I hypothesized that the aluminum tin pan with the red jello would have the most seeds removed from it. However, results show that the red jello had the second lowest mean number of seed removed. The jello color that had the highest mean number of seeds removed was blue and green. Assuming that there are field mice living near our experimental sites, this high number of seed removal from the blue and green jello can be explained.

Research has shown that mice are able to perceive ultraviolet light and can distinguish colors in the blue-green range. (4) Field mice could very well be the reason why the blue and green jello had the highest mean number of seeds removed. Also, there may not have been any birds out during the seven days of experimentation which could explain the low mean number of seed removal because of the weather (rain and snow). There are a lot of factors that could have influenced the amount of seeds removed such as the smell of the jello.

Also, the fact that the p-value determined from the chi-square test was p = 0.75, which is greater than 0.05 means that our results are not statistically significant. My second hypothesis dealt with the comparison of total number of seeds removed from plots one and two over a period of seven days. Because there were bushes / trees near the surrounding area of plot one, there was a good chance that predators would use that as habitats. Therefore, the predators would be closer to the seeds in plot one and would have a higher total number of seeds removed. However, our results show the opposite. There was a higher total number of seeds removed from site two.

Site two was flatter and more open than site one. This high number of seeds removed from site two can be explained by the competition of seeds (amount and types) set out by other groups. I observed that there were a few tin pans set under the bushes / trees surrounding site one, therefore predators who were not able to feed on those seeds had to roam further out in the field, site two, to find food. However, like my first hypothesis, there were a lot of factors that may have influenced the number of seeds removed from site one to site two.