Andrew, Wrigley, Ethan

Andrew Z- Visual Director

Wrigley N- Editor

Ethan R- Project Documenter

(Edits made by Andrew Zimmerschied in red)

Labels for the Flowers:

IG=Indian Grasses

TWA=Tall White Ester

BBS=Big Blue Stem

Our Question:

What plots in the prairie produce more for the consumers of these plots?

Background:

Our scientific question asked is what plots in the prairie produced the most matter into the prairie. First we had to figure out what consumers were in the prairie. Our group needed this because we have to find good plants to base our research off of. Most consumers in the prairie were insects, small animals, and other animals. According to Exploring Nature (In-text citation) we concluded that the main consumers in a prairie biome are prairie dogs, grasshoppers, jackrabbits, and pronghorn antelopes. After we collected all of this data on the consumers we decided to base our research experiment on Indian grass, big bluestem flowers, and tall white ester flowers. We thought these plants would be fitting because of the four animals, two eat plants and grasses (in-text citation) according to Illinois Wild Flowers. The first day we counted that there were 12 groupings indian grasses, 19 tall white ester flowers, and 19 big bluestem flowers in plots 14, 8, and 2. Day two was spent collecting data in plots 15, 9, and 3. In these three plots we counted a total of 17 indian grasses, 21 tall white esters, and 14 big bluestems. On day three in plots 16, 10, and 4 there were 15 indian grasses, 12 tall white esters, and 24 big bluestems. In total we counted 153 species of flowers and grasses combined. After this we concluded that plot 4 produced the largest total of the big bluestem flower. Plot 9 produced the most tall white esters. And plot 15 produced the most indian grass.

(All photos imported and taken by Andrew Zimmerschied)

Reasoning:

Our data was very reasonable and controlled in our opinion. The data we collected backed up what we thought would be our out come. As we only counted three species of plants, our data came out very controlled. In having a small sample size our data should have been controlled which as stated above, it was. I feel if we had more time that we would have been able to survey and collect data on more plants. This would have caused results to be significantly more violent since there would be so many more outcomes. The data we collected in the time we were given was very reasonable and we feel that we did a very good job. And finally the data we collected was all collected in the summer months so plants were still alive and doing well. Our Big Blue Stem flowers measured in anywhere from six to eight feet in hight. The Tall White Ester flowers range from around three to eight feet. And the Indian Grasses was just like the tall White Esters and was in at anywhere from three to eight feet in hight.

Evidence:

At first our group decided to collect materials. These materials consisted of a net, a cup, and for one of us an orange jump suit. This was used for walking into the tall grasses. We also used our notes app and Seek app so we could identify plants, grasses, and animal species. One the first day we went out to the prairie and counted as many plants as possible in a set of three plots. The next day we did the same thing and kept counting the plants. Everyday we counted a certain amount of plants we would record this into a spreadsheet. Finally on day three we started our count for the last time and once we finished we added up the numbers and started to look at and analyze them. Once we looked over these things we decide to make a graph of our collected data.

Discussion and Next Steps:

I believe that if we were given more time to collect data in the prairie, it would have been all overall better experiment. I also think that some plots were harder to get because of the conditions of the weather. If we were given two more weeks we could do a survey of the whole prairie and all of the plots. We could also add more species of plants, animals, and grasses to our experiment. We couldn't get some of the plots because of the difficulties of getting into the prairie and our limited amount of time that was available. In total and to sum it all up we were only able to run three test (counting the plants in each plot) on these three days. Each day we surveyed a total of three plots per day that gave us all of our data.

Bibliography:

American Prairie Food Web. (2005). Exploring Nature. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://www.exploringnature.org/db/view/American-Prairie-Food-Web#:~:text=The%20Primary%20Consumers%20%E2%80%93%20the%20prairie,the%20owls%2C%20rattlesnakes%20and%20coyotes.

Prairie Wild Flowers of Illinois. (2 C.E.). Illinois Prairie Wild Flowers. Retrieved November 16, 2021, from https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plant_index.htm#prairie_blazingstar