Nitrogen is an element found in soil, water, and the air we breathe. Due to the fact nitrogen can be found in soil, measuring it will be our experiment. It is important for plant growth and plant food processing. However, without having enough or having too much, it can badly damage the plant.

The prairie is built in different plots, each has different types of plants. The prairie has 16 plots and a test plot. Within those, there are three different types of plots. Our question was to see how different plants in the prairie will affect the soil nitrogen. The different types of plots in the prairie are seeded grasses only, grasses and Forbes, and grasses and twice the amount of Forbes.

To keep in consideration of the nitrogen levels, the prairie was originally a football practice field. That being said, it wasn't made optimal for plant growth, which would affect the amount of nitrogen or lack thereof that the prairie already has.

Our method for collecting data was to collect a soil sample from about half of the plots in the prairie. There were three types of soil that we tested. We took one cup from each of the same soil types, but from different plots of that type. Resulting in us having three cups of soil of the same type each from different plots. Since there were three different types of soil, we ended up with nine soil samples in total.

We took a cup of soil from plots 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18. Plots 6, 8, and 16 have seeded grasses only. Plots 4, 12, and 14 have grasses and Forbes. Lastly, plots 2, 10, and 18 have grasses and two times the amount of Forbes.

After collecting all of our soil samples, we used a nitrogen testing kit to test the nitrogen levels in each plot. First, we soaked all of the samples in water over night and then we used the kit to test the nitrogen levels.

Most of our tests came back with a low to no nitrogen result. Eight of the nine soil plot tests came back with a result of N0 - Depleted. That means the nitrogen levels in those soil plots were little to none. Only one plot, Plot 12, had a slight change in nitrogen levels. Plot 12 had a nitrogen level of N1 - Deficient. Other than that, there was not much change between the three different types of soil.

With our results, we can tell the prairie is very low in nitrogen, and different plants in the soil do not affect nitrogen, in this case at the very least. Since the plots had three different mixtures of plant species in them, we thought that it would greatly affect the nitrogen levels. As a result, it turned out that the plants didn't effect it all that much, in this prairie at least. Taking soil samples from other prairies might help determine a better outcome for our question.

The inaccuracy in our project could be from our test. We used one bought from Amazon. However, the most likely reason we didn't get our expected results was because the soil we tested wasn't made for gardening. Since the field the plots are in used to be a practice football field, the soil used to build it didn't need to be high in nutrients for plants.

We have three soil samples for each of the three different types of soil. That results in us having nine soil samples in total.

We could get better information over the subject of whether different types of plants effect the nitrogen richness in soil by testing other soil plots. To get more accurate results, we could go to other locations in Lawrence and do the same process of taking soil samples and testing them for Nitrogen. This will help determine if it's just the prairie that is low in nitrogen or if the plant species in the soil don't effect the nitrogen levels.