Alex, LIsa, LaMonica

Group members:

Alex: visual director

Lisa: Editor

LaMonica: Documenter

Our Question:Does forbs density effect the biodiversity

Background Information:As we were out on the prairie we had found several species for example we had found a yellow garden spider. The prairie is the perfect place for a yellow garden spider due to their diet, the yellow garden spider feeds off of grasshoppers, wasps, bees, and flies.

We also found a praying mantis which too lives in the prairie and feeds off of pollinators like flies, honey bees, butterflies, etc.

Data collection method:We had gone out to the prairie for 3 days and the information we worked to contain involved how forbs affect biodiversity. We used plots 18, 17, 6, 10, 4, 9, and 3. Plots 18, 17, and 6 were located in spots of the prairie which didn’t have too much access to the sun at all times. Plots 10, 4, 9, and 3 were located in the front of the prairie which had direct sunlight. We had used a trail camera to track animal biodiversity but sadly we didn’t have too much luck with that so we had resorted to using our phones and the app “Seek” to identify any species and planets we found.

Conclusions:Within only 3 days of research, we had several predictions on our question “How does for diversity affect biodiversity?” which was a difficult question to answer at first due to the fact we had no idea what biodiversity meant and what forbs were. Biodiversity is anything that has life, and forbs are non-graminoid herbaceous plants. We looked at 7 Plots, 3 that had very little access to sunlight and 4 that had the most direct contact with the sun. The 3 other plots (18, 6, and 17) had less access to sunlight so they didn’t have the best growth and the plots that had any forbs didn’t do as well as others because the plants are still fighting for resources. With the other 4 plots (10, 9, 4, and 3) sunlight was most direct which resulted in better growth and more animal biodiversity.

For the animal biodiversity, we had found several species in the prairie and a few are praying mantis, assassination bug, and Yellow garden spider along with some baby garden snakes. The prairie is a great and surprising place to find these species, why it was so surprising is that you usually don’t see these kinds of species daily. A prairie is a great place for these species due to the fact they feed on very similar things, for example, the praying mantis and the yellow garden spider will feed on insects that fly and are eatable to their species.

Next Steps:We have 9 kinds of species, 27-30+ different kinds of planets. Plots with fewer forbs seem to do better due to there not being as much competition. If the weather was colder would that decrease the competition for planets in the plots with forbs? Would species take an increase when the planets are not as dead as in the spring?