Research Lead
Documentation Lead
Visual Lead
Our group asked the question, “How many insects and what kinds are in each type of plot?” We wanted to know if there are any relationships or indirect relationships between the insects and the type of plants in each plot. We also wanted to know the foods these insects might eat, whether they’re in their chosen plots because of herbivory, because their prey (other insects) live in those plots or interspecific and intraspecific competition, or suitable places for reproduction. According to the NIH (National Library of Medicine, 2017), Adult females of insect herbivores must find suitable food plants for their offspring, and these plants are often found in habitats that vary in structural and chemical complexity. When the temporal availability and quality of suitable food plants is highly predictable.
The Free State Prairie site has lots of previous experiments done by students as well as information on our prairie and prairies in general. The Free State Prairie project is led by Julie Schwarting and Helen Alexander. The prairie has 18 plots with 6 plots of just wildflowers, 6 of only prairie grasses, and 6 of both wildflowers and prairie grasses. The Free State Prairie site has information on activities and events as well as data and information from past experiments.
Before conducting the experiment first me and my partners went about creating a plan. This means planning out which plots we will be extracting from and gathering materials. The only materials we truly used were sticky traps and some kind of pen and paper to document our data with. After preparing for the experiment we went out to the prairie to collect bug samples in each planned plot. We picked 1 plot for each different type. We used plot one for seeded grass only, plot 15 for grass and forbs, and plot 11 for grass and 2x forbes. We put 2 sticky traps in each different plot type, and placed one sticky trap low to the ground and one higher up sticking to some kind of plant. Then our group waited 2 days before recollecting the traps and counting the amount of bugs on each trap. The sticky traps were 3 x 5. Then we graphed the number of bugs based on their status of low or high to the ground and which plot type they originated from. There was no specific way we counted the bugs but we counted each trap 3 times to be sure of our numbers. This is how we conducted our experiment.
Map of the Prairie
Day 1: We went out in the prairie and put our sticky traps in plot 1, 11, and 15. We put 2 traps in each plot, one on the ground and one on a tall piece of grass. I (Ellie) was the one that went in and placed them and Lauren documented and prepared the traps. Evie took pictures of us while we were out putting stuff down.
Day 2: We went back to our plots and I went and found our sticky traps. Evie took pictures of the bugs we got and Lauren organized the traps.
(Ellie)
Examples of Data Collected (Evie)
The Data Graphed (Evie)
The Raw Data (Evie)
Seeded grass only
Plot 1 (high)- 18
Plot 1 (low)- 21
Grass and forbs
Plot 15 (high)- 8
Plot 15 (low)- 12
Grass and 2x forbs
Plot 11 (high)- 10
Plot- 11 (low)- 20
It shows on our graph that in plot #1 which was all grass, that we had the most bugs. There were 21 bugs on the trap we put on the ground and 18 on the one we put on higher grass. On plot #15 it shows we have the least amount of bugs, plot #15 is a grass + forbs plot. Plot #15 had 12 bugs on the sticky trap that was put on the ground and 8 bugs on the one we put on higher grass. Plot #11 was grass + forbs x2 and again the sticky trap on the ground had more bugs. Overall in each plot we got more bugs on the sticky traps that we put on the ground rather than the ones we put up high.
National Library of Medicine. (2017, July 15). Oviposition Preference for Young Plants by the Large Cabbage Butterfly (Pieris brassicae) Does not Strongly Correlate with Caterpillar Performance. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5501907/