Group members and Roles:

Ashtyn Ortiz: Visual Director

Neylana Haque: Documenter

Liam Ray: Editor

Some Plants Of The Prarie

Background Info

Currently in our science class, we were learning about ecosystems and what major factors affect different organisms. We were assigned to create a question that we could collect data to answer. The data was gathered at the Free State Prairie located directly behind the Free State High School’s football field. (Lawrence Free State High School, 2015) The diverse vegetation of the tallgrass prairie provides food for a variety of animals including deer, rodents, bison, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. The prairie was created to allow students to observe, collect data, and connect with a natural environment close by. The prairie has many aspects that help students to understand and explain concepts of ecology.

Concepts of ecology included in the prairie are trophic pyramids and interspecific competitions. The grasses growing in the prairie dominate over the flowers in the prairie, causing a decrease in flower growth and numbers. The primary producer in the prairie are the many diverse grasses which are ingested by a variety of consumers; such as deer, rodents, birds, reptiles, and insects. This process makes up a trophic pyramid in the Free State prairie. Ecology can be everywhere, especially in the prairie.

When being asked to create a question that could be answered by collecting data about the prairie, we came up with “How many flowers are growing in the plots that only had grass planted in them?” This question took approximately four class periods for the group to gather data and come up with an answer to our question.

Data Collection Method

The procedure of how we collected data was pretty simple, for anyone trying to replicate the experiment. First, we analyzed and took photos, during September-October, of different flower and grass species in all of the plots included in the prairie that only had grass seeds planted in them (6, 11, 16, 3, 8, 13). Our photos were taken using the photo app on our phones and were identified using google. The information of these pictures allowed us to examine the wide variety of flowers in these grass plots. Afterwards, we did the same procedure in plot 4 (2x grasses and forbes) and plot 5 (grasses and forbes), and compared the three plots together. The following day we went to one of each type of plot (4: 2x grasses and forbs, 5: grasses and forbes, 6: grasses) and counted roughly how many flowers were growing in each (grasses not included). Finally, from gathering and comparing the variations of flowers and their total quantities spotted in different plots, our documenter created a table to show the differences. The table included all the different species of flowers and where they were found, as well as how many flowers were counted in the 3 opposing plots. This data helped us construct an answer to our question.

Conclusion

In the grass only plots, to our surprise, there was not a big difference in species, but more so a difference in the quantity of them. The flowers and grasses seen in the grass only plots were goldenrods, Bonesects, New England Asters, mints, common ragweed, big bluestem, Indiangrass, giant blue sage, sunflowers, lemon grass, and white aster and allies. The flowers and grasses that we recorded in the grass and forb plots were lemon grass, sunflowers and allies, white aster and allies, sennas, New England Asters, dead New England Asters, American Asters, goldenrods, sunflowers, daisies, giant blue sage, Hyssop Leaf Thoroughwort, Indiangrass, Asteroideae, Cardueae, prairie rosinweed, and Coreopsis. According to this data it shows that there are more species in grass and forb plots rather than the grass only plots, even though the two grass and forb plots have more species it is not a drastic difference between the grass only plots. Most of the flowers in the plots are the same, just the amount of them are different.

The question, “How many flowers are growing in the plots that only had grasses planted in them?” was answered by taking photos of different flower species in grass plots, and comparing them to plots that had grasses and forbes seeded in them. In addition, we counted approximately how many flowers were growing in different plots and compared and contrasted them. (Grass: plot 6, Grasses and forbes: plot 5, 2x grasses and forbes: plot 4.) We found out that plot 6 had around 22 flowers growing, plot 4 had approximately 47, and plot 5 had around 84. In conclusion we realized that the range of flowers in these grass plots were around 20-30 which means the plots with grasses and forbes planted in them had an extreme increase in the amount of flowers growing. This is caused by the larger quantity of seeds added to the grass and forb plots, as opposed to the grass only plot.

The different seasons also affect the type and amount of flowers growing. For example, in spring lots of flowers thrive rather than in the fall. However, some flowers still thrive in the fall. Seasons have a major role in affecting the amounts and types of flowers growing.

Next Steps

To take our question to the next level and get a more precise answer, we could take more data over the amounts of flowers in all of the plots and analyze the plots at different seasons. Allowing for a more definitive and complete answer. Analyzing the amounts during different seasons of the year may drastically change the data we obtain. Another thing we could have done to make sure our data was completely accurate was, counting the flowers in more plots to come up with a more exact answer. This would help due to the fact that we might have miscounted the number of flowers. Identifying flowers was also a source of inaccuracy in our project. I think a good follow up question would be, “How the flowers spread into grass only plots”. We could answer that question by researching how flowers spread and how their roots grow. Those would be the next steps in our scientific discoveries.

Bibliography

References

Lawrence Free State High School. (2015, September 4). Tall Grass Prairie. Free State Prairie. Retrieved October 12, 2021, from https://freestateprairie.wixsite.com/mysite/ecology

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app