Lena, Andrew, Hope

Biodiversity in Prairie Plots - An Investigation

Group Members

Our group consisted of Hope, our documenter, Andrew, our researcher, and Lena, the visual director.

Background

Walking through the prairie, one might often look at the many different types of plants that are in each plot. By looking at this, we were inspired to see which type of plot is the most biodiverse in plant species.

To find the difference in biodiversity between the plots over one year, we have found an experiment that takes three plots of different types and records the flower types of each plot. Things to take note is that, they only gathered data from one plot of each type. The group also only did flower plants which is not an accurate representation considering the fact that one of the plot types does not have any flowers. Another thing to consider is that they didn’t do any plots we did.

Background Research

For background research we used the Dominant Prairie Plant Species, by Iowa State University. It is relevant because we were looking at the different prairie plant types in the different plot types, it was also made/updated this year, I can tell by the fact it is copyrighted 2022. The website has a list recording the common prairie plants, it also has descriptions for each plant it lists.

Map of the Prairie

This map shows where our group surveyed and what types of plants were in each plot.

Question

What type of prairie plot has the most amount of biodiversity in the type of plants?

Our Experiment

Method

Materials:

-Clipboard

-Paper

-Pencil

-iPad/Phone and Seek app

Firstly, download the Seek app on an iPad to help identify plants we are unfamiliar with.
Once at the Prairie, start at plot 18 and enter from the North side. Then, walk through each plot North to South end of the plot.
As you walk through the plot, use the Seek app to evaluate what plants you see.
Once you see the plant and recognize it within the plot, write it down on a sheet of notebook paper under the plot number. Repeat this every time you see a new plant.
Once you have collected nine plots worth of data (three of each type of plot), conclude your data collection and exit the prairie.
On the sheet, total the amount of different plants found in each individual plot. Take this plot total and average it within each type of plot.
This should leave you with the average amount of different plants on each plot type.

Summary

On the first day we surveyed plots 1, 2, 3 and 4. It was 10 AM when we took the data and it was 52 degrees with wind and a chill. We started with plot 1 and counted all plant species. If we didn’t know the plant we used the Seek app on Ms. Abeita's iPad to see what species it was. We then went on to plots 2, 3, and 4 doing the same thing with Lena and Andrew recording the species types for the plot and Hope took amounts of plant types to figure out the biodiversity. On the second day we surveyed plots 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. It was 10 AM when we took the data and it was 50 degrees, but warmer due to no wind. In total we surveyed 9 of 18 plots, 3 of each type of plot; Seeded Grass, Grasses and forbs, and Grasses and forbs 2x.

A planning document that shows what our plan was for each day on the prairie

Andrew's identification sheet

Another planning document that shows variables and other parts of the plan

Lena's identification sheet

Prairie Plants In Action - Photos of the Experiment

Lena and Andrew using the iPad to identify grass types

In the back, you can see an example of Little Blue Stem and Indian grass

A close look at a New England Aster (purple flower)

A variety of Dicot types

Data Conclusion

In our experiment we wanted to find out which plot type has the most biodiversity. Based on our data we collected from the prairie Seeded grass plots have the most biodiversity. The average number of plants in seeded grass plots were 8 types of plants, while Grasses and forbs (2x as well) had 7 plants on average. We could assume that this means Seeded grass is slightly more Biodiverse than Grasses and forbs. If KU had to fix parts of our experiment they would probably use a better app to identify plants as the app we used was not specific. They'd also take the data in a different time of year to get more accurate results, we took our data in october.

Sources/Citations

Scwarting, Julie, and Helen Alexander. “Home | Free State Prairie.” Free State Prairie, https://freestateprairie.wixsite.com/mysite. Accessed 2 Nov. 2022.

Mott, Willard. “Dominant Prairie Plant Species | Science-Based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips.” Science-Based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips, https://www.nrem.iastate.edu/research/STRIPS/dominant-prairie-plant-species. Accessed 2 Nov. 2022.

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