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Kennedy Migchelbrink visual director Max Eldridge editor Lila Gotto documenter
Kennedy Migchelbrink visual director Max Eldridge editor Lila Gotto documenter
Our Question: Does the location of the salt marsh aster in the prairie affect their growth?
Our Question: Does the location of the salt marsh aster in the prairie affect their growth?
Background Information
Background Information
As a group, we chose this question because we wanted to study something that was interesting and engaging for all of us. When we thought about what our question could be, we all were curious and interested in what the results would be. We tested our question in the Free State high school prairie, a prairie in school grounds consisting of 18 13.7 by 16.3 meter plots. (https://freestateprairie.wixsite.com/mysite/ecology. Some of the plots have seedless grass only, some have grasses and forbs, and some have grasses and two times the forbs. A forb is a non-woody herbaceous plant. (https://www.noble.org/news/publications/ag-news-and-views/2001/february/from-weeds-to-forbs/ ) We tried to incorporate this factor into our experiment as well, choosing three different plot types we would study the oxeye daisies in (and a control plot). But what is a prairie? A prairie is a type of ecosystem usually consisting of flat grassland and moderate temperatures. (https://www.eekwi.org/explore/habitats/what-prairie ) We all enjoyed working on this experiment, and we hope you will enjoy looking at our findings!
Evidence
Evidence
We took these measurements by bringing a yard stick to each plot and measuring our plants. We made sure that we were measuring the same plant on each plot by taking pictures of the plant. To make sure we don’t lose our plant we’re tracking we also made sure that the plant was in a very obvious spot that we wouldn’t miss. Our results from measuring one oxeye dasies in three different plot types in three completely different locations for three days every other day are (drumroll please) : The oxeye in plot one grew 0.6 inches overall, the one in ten grew 0.1 inches overall, six grew 0.3 overall, and twelve grew 0.1 inches overall.
The full ranking goes: Plot one first, plot six second, and plots 10 and 12 tied for last. Plot one was far south, plot 10 in the middle, and plots 12 and six far north.
Reasoning
Because the second highest ranking plot (plot six which is ) and one of the last ranking plot (12) were right next to each other, it's hard to say weather it was the location that caused the difference in the speed of their growth, but I would say that because the highest ranking plot (plot one) was on the exact opposite part of the prairie than twelve, I would say that it could be a possibility.
Discussion and next steps
Our first error was we lost which first plant we were documenting. Though, we eventually found it.
We had every picture/document backed up on our phones to make sure we didnt loose anything, we even made a group chat so we cloud send pictures of our experiment
What could we have done differently if we were to do this experiment again?
According to the OSU (Oregon State University) Plant growth and geographic distribution are greatly affected by the environment. If any environmental factor is less than ideal, it limits a plant's growth and/or distribution. For example, only plants adapted to limited amounts of water can live in deserts.
(Oregon State University, n.d.)
References
Oregon State University. (n.d.). Environmental Factors Affecting Plant Growth. extension.oregonstate.edu. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/techniques/environmental-factors-affecting-plant-growth
Links of information on the FSHS prairie https://freestateprairie.wixsite.com/mysite
Information on the oxeye daisy https://www.kswildflower.org/flower_details.php?flowerID=280
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