Prairies are a large area of flat land with many different types of grasses and forbes (National Geographic, 2022). Kansas Prairies alone are home to over 15,000 species of insects (Great Plains Nature Center, 2017). The Free State Prairie consists of 3 different plot treatment types. There are plots that are planted with only grasses, plots with grasses and forbs, and plots with grasses and 2x forbs. The Free State Prairie has been a restoration and experimental ground since 2014 when the first seeds were planted (Free State High school, n.d.). The Prairie project is led by Julie Schwarting (Free State High School) and Dr. Helen Alexander (University of Kansas). Their goal was to have students connect with the natural environment around them. Our experiment was to find out what plot treatment type arthropods in our prairie preferred. We thought it would be interesting to find out if the plot treatment has an effect on the arthropod population eight years after the prairie was first planted.

Before we started this project, we knew that the types, as well as the amount of plants, had a direct connection to the amount of first level heterotrophs in an ecosystem. However, we wanted to find out how different plot treatment types in our prairie affected the amount of arthropods. We assumed that the arthropods relied on the amount of plants more than the type. The number of plants is what we thought more directly affected arthropods because of trophic pyramids. A trophic pyramid is the basic structure of organisms interacting with each other. Biological communities pass energy from one trophic level to the next along the food chain. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022). This shows that the amount of plants regulates how many arthropods can survive. While that is all true, plant types also play a massive role in ecosystems. For example, if an invasive species takes over, biodiversity takes a massive decrease and in some cases leads to extinction for certain species (National Park Service, 2020). Biodiversity is the variety of life in ecosystems and it is very important because without biodiversity ecosystems can fall apart (American Museum of Natural History, 2022). You can not just have one plant type, you need a variety of types to have Biodiversity. Now we know that types of plant life have a direct affect on the amount of first level heterotrophs.