Amazing Arthropods
By: Jon Abegg, Landry Koster, Cami Lee, and Annah Steele.
By: Jon Abegg, Landry Koster, Cami Lee, and Annah Steele.
Map of our section of the Prairie
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.
Image of Landry, Cami, and Jon entering the prarie shelter after collecting data.
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.
Our Experiment
On 10/26/22, Cami, Landry, Annah, and Jon went to the prairie. Landry was in plot 1, Cami in plot 7, and Annah in plot 13. Jon was walking around the perimeter of all 3 plots. We all kept track of how many arthropods we found in each plot in the span of 20 minutes. On 10/27/22 we repeated this process with Annah in plot one, Jon in plot 7, Cami in plot 13, and Landry walking around the perimeter.
Our group of four people wanted to know if the number of forbs affects the number of arthropods in the prairie ecosystem. We used the same three plots during our experiment. Plot one, which only consisted of grasses, plot seven, which was a mixture of grasses and 2x forbs, and plot 13, which was a mixture of grasses and forbs. We took two days to count the number of arthropods in each plot. Each day, for precisely twenty minutes, 3 members of our group individually wandered around their designated plot. They recorded every arthropod they saw by writing the number down on a piece of paper. The fourth member would walk around the plots, recording all the arthropods found by the members inside the prairie, as well as any arthropods missed by the members. We switched roles, as well as plots each day in the prairie. We attempted to use bug nets on the first day, but failed. Because of that we did not bring them on the second day. We took pictures with our phones of all the arthropods as possible, on both days.
Images of arthropods we found in the prairie.
Top: Roly-Polies
Bottom: Grasshopper
Results
At the end of our experiment we found that the plot treatment type with the lowest average number of arthropods was grasses only, with only 14.5. The 2nd highest average was the grasses and forbs with 23.5. And the plot that arthropods preferred the most was the grass and 2x forbs with 28. This shows that insects prefer forbs rather than just plain grass. To answer our initial question of “What plot treatment do arthropods prefer?” We found the answer was plot 7 with grasses and 2x forbs.
American Museum of Natural History. (2022). What is Biodiversity? American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://www.amnh.org/research/center-for-biodiversity-conservation/what-is-biodiversity
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2022, Feburary 14). trophic pyramid. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/science/trophic-pyramid
Free State High school. (n.d.). Tallgrass Prairie. Free State Prairie . Retrieved november 1, 2022, from https://freestateprairie.wixsite.com/mysite/ecology
Great Plains Nature Center. (2017). Insects in Kansas. Great Plains Nature Center. https://gpnc.org/insects/#:~:text=With%20more%20than%2015%2C000%20insects,be%20representative%20rather%20than%20comprehensive.
National Geographic. (2022, May 20). Praire. National Geographic. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/prairie
National Park Service. (2020, November 2). Prairies and Grasslands. National Park Service. Retrieved november 2, 2022, from https://www.nps.gov/wica/learn/nature/prairies.htm