Adaptations to Introduced Ants
Jarek Tuszyński / CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Overview
Introduced species provide an (often unfortunate) chance to see evolution in action. In today's lab students will learn about how lizards are responding to new predation risk posed by fire ant.
Objectives
Students should be able to
Identify the negative impacts that red imported fre ants can have on people and native organisms.
Predict and interpret the behavioral response of native lizards to attack by red imported fre ants.
Use evidence to explain how native fence lizard populations can respond, through different kinds of adaption processes, to the presence of red imported fre ants.
Apply statistical analysis to support an explanation that lizards with an advantageous trait tend to increase in proportion to those lacking this trait.
Introduction
Review pages 44- 51 of the lab guide. Try to complete the video observation portion (page 45) before class to aid in discussion.
Methods
For this lab exercise we will utilize materials produced by the American Museum of Natural History's Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners. The lab focuses on applying the concepts discussed above to adaptions in lizards to introduced ants.
The lab guide can be downloaded here. Note the spreadsheet instructions focus on Microsoft Excel, but we will utilize Google Sheets (as you have encountered in earlier labs). Data can be downloaded below. To update the instructions for Google Sheets, note
Comparisons(questions B: 6-7, 14-15; C: 7,8 ) can be facilitated using functions or pivot tables (see Data Summaries in Google Sheets for an overview).
t-tests (questions B: 10,18; C: 10) may be conducted in GraphPad (as noted, @ https://www.graphpad.com/quickcalcs/ttest1/?Format=C) or using the t.test function in Google Sheets (see Inducing Evolution in Bean Beetles for an example) . Arguments (input) required for the function are: t.test(first data range, second data range, 2,3). Note the last 2 arguments values are specified for use in this class and denote a request for a two-tailed test assuming the data do not have equal variances; these assumptions are given as explaining them is beyond the scope of this course. Both approaches return a p value, which is the probability that differences between the two groups are due to chance alone. p values range from 0 to 1, and generally we take p values that are less than .05 to indicate the mean of the two groups are not the same.
Graphs (questions B: 11,19, C:11 ) may be produced in Google Sheets (see Data Summaries in Google Sheets for an overview). You will need to make your own graph for question C:11 (the Part C Summary tab is not included)
References:
Freidenfelds, Nicole A, Jennifer M Deitloff, and Tracy Langkilde. “Lessons from Lizards: Adaptation to Introduced Ants.” Lessons in Conservation 13, no. 1 (2023): 44–60.