Our group includes Gage Monse and Otto Allen. Gage is the visual director, which does the designing of the website and is responsible for taking pictures while in the field and creating properly formatted graphs. Otto is the editor, which is responsible for writing the final text for this website and making sure everything is in order and organized.

To catch the insects we used sticky traps. We placed three sticky traps in three plots - plots 6, 12, and 18. These are the three plots on the North side of the prairie. We chose these plots because each of them had a different treatment. Plot 6 was seeded grasses only, plot 12 was seeded with grasses and forbs, and plot 18 was seeded with grasses and 2X forbs. Each plot is sectioned into four smaller sections, labeled A, B, C, and D. Within each plot we placed the sticky traps in A, B, and D. There are poles marking each smaller section, and we placed the sticky trap on or beside these poles, approximately 2 inches off the ground. The sticky traps were two-sided, so one side was stuck to the pole, and the other was out to catch bugs.

We visited the prairie on Tuesday, October 5, Thursday, October 7th, and Friday, October 8th. On the 5th we placed traps, and we collected this set of traps on the 7th, and also placed new traps in the same locations. On the 8th we collected the second batch of traps. When traps were collected, we wrapped them in saran wrap to count the bugs and cover the sticky parts of the trap. We counted the bugs by physically looking at the traps and counting them. Leaves, debris, and dirt were not counted - only insects were.

The first set of traps had more insects on them because they were out for longer than the second set of traps. Plot 12 had the most insects (261 compared to 175 and 171), while plots 6 and 18 had a similar amount of insects (175 and 171). The second set of traps were only set out for one day and had fewer insects than the first set. When the first batch of traps was out, it rained, but when the second batch of traps was out it did not. The traps on the second day caught a more similar amount of insects - 72, 73, and 75 insects for plots 6, 12, and 18.

Some sources of error or inaccuracy in our project might be the weather. The rain that occurred on October 6th could have affected our data by causing more insects to be attracted to the traps. It did not rain between the 7th and 8th. Another factor that could have affected our data was the time of year. If you were to do this experiment in the Spring, there would likely be a lot more insects caught in the traps because different flowers and grasses might have been blooming at that time.

We have two replicates for our experiment, although the first set of traps were set out for two days because of when our class periods were scheduled to meet. Ideally, we would have left the traps out for the same amount of time. We only conducted this experiment in three of the 18 plots on the prairie.

We would have to do this experiment over a longer period of time to get a more complete answer to our question. Only two sets of traps during one week were not enough data to fully draw conclusions from. Collecting data over a longer period of time would give us more data about how the insects are attracted to the grasses and forbs in the plots. If given more time, we would also use the whole prairie for data instead of just the three plots at the North end of the field.

Lawrence Free State High School. (n.d.). Tallgrass Prairie. Free State Prairie. Retrieved October 29th, 2021, from https://freestateprairie.wixsite.com/mysite/ecology