FERMI QUADRAT PRAIRIE STUDY 2006

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GPS LOCATION: N: 41° 50' 28.5''    W: 88° 16' 24.6''

STUDENT RESEARCHER: JaisonM.1

DATA:

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GRAPHS OF DOMINANCE AND IMPORTANCE VALUE:

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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS:

 Part 1: Background Information

 Have you ever heard of a quadrat study?  Well, it is a small square of a whole prairie forest.  More specifically, usually a 1 M x 1 M square.  It is like one picture in a whole photo album.  On October 4, 2006 we went out to the Fermilab prairie to study quadrats.  By the way, there are 3 main categories we used to find out more information about competing prairie plots.  The first one is dominance.  Dominance is the plants that are most noticeable and take up the first room.  Dominant plants are most important because they supply much of the food and living space for animals.  They are also important because they not only take up the most space above the ground, but below it too.  Finally, dominant plants may control some environmental conditions.  They may change the amount of sunlight available to shelter plants, and their roots may change the soil chemistry.  These changes may also affect the other species of plants that live with the dominance plants.  Dominance is used to compare prairie plots because it can tell you which plant that prairie has the majority of.  The next way to compare prairie plots is importance value.

 Importance value is the sum of three values:  relative dominance, relative frequency and relative density.  We only find these when we combined the data for all the quadrats we studied.  The way to find relative dominance is you find dominance of a certain species, multiply that by 100, then divide by the sum of the dominance for all species.  Relative frequency is the frequency of a particular species, multiply by 100, and then divide by the sum of the frequency for all species.  Finally, relative density is the density of a particular species, times 100, then divided by the sum of the densities for all species.  The last way to compare prairie plots is by biological diversity.  That is many different kinds of living things live together in the same area.  If an area has a big diversity or variety of species of plants, weeds, that leads to a better environment.  The way to compare diversity is tot count the number of species found in Plot 17.  As you have just read dominance, importance value, and biological diversity are very important when comparing prairie plots.

 Part 2:  Comparison

 As you would think the diversity of plants from my small one-meter by one-meter quadrat is a lot different than the entire plot 17.  My group thought that we had found a lot.  In all, we found 10 different species.  But in the entire plot 17 there is like five times the amount more.  Since there are more plants in the entire plot 17 there is obviously more diversity.  That is because yet again my quadrat is just a minute part of the entire plot 17.  First off the plant that was most dominant for plot 17 was Big Blue Stem, but mine was Kentucky Blue Grass.  Even though it seems incorrect that it is that way because for plot 17 because that is adding all the quadrats together compared to only my one.  If you are comparing my quadrat to Plot 17 in dominance you would see that in Plot 17, Big Blue Stem is at the top with a dominance of 24.19, but for mine it is at the bottom with a dominance of 5.  My most dominant plant was Kentucky Blue Grass with a dominance of 100.  Then again if you are comparing my quadrat to the totals for plot 18 you will again find out there is a difference between most important and that is because of the size difference.  If you look at the data you would find that the most important is Kentucky Blue Grass with an importance value of 998.846.  But for overall the most important plant is Big Blue Stem for prairie plant and unlisted grasslike for weed plants.  Big Blue Stem had 119.07 while unlisted grasslike had 181.71.  So, all in all, to reason for that is because the size of areas the data is recorded for.

 Part 3: Prediction

 I predict that in 10 years, 2016, the way the prairie plot is made up will be up of pretty much the same plants as this year, 2006.  The plants that I think will still be the most dominant will be the Big Blue Stem and the second would be Indian Grass. The reason I predicted this is because since 1992, the first year Madison recorded data for prairie plots it has been those two plants in the top two all the time.

 Part 4: Reflection

 Throughout the unit of prairie plants and environmental science I learned a lot of new things.  Though I have learned many things I think the main thing was how to compare and distinguish prairie plants.  Because before we did this unit, I didn’t know one thing about prairie plants or prairie plots.

COPYRIGHT:

© Copyright 2006, L&T Natural Images and Madison Jr. High, all rights reserved. Contact information: email at lccwik@comcast.net or tcoutts@naperville203.org

ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
This project was created by the 7th grade students of team 7 UPS from Madison Jr. High, Naperville Consolidated Unit School District #203 in Naperville, Illinois with the help of their teacher Mrs. Trudi Coutts along with Technology Lab Director Mrs. Margaret Gilmore. Support for the project came from Principal Ms. Erin Anderson and the other dedicated and cooperative faculty and staff of Madison Jr. High.

REFERENCES:
Fermilab Education Department particularly the SIMply Prairie Project. Authors: Bill Fraccaro, Johnson School, Wheaton, IL; Larry Cwik and Pat Franzen, Madison Junior High School, Naperville, IL; and Bernie Jokiel, Gary D, Jewel Middle School, North Aurora, IL.
Created for the NTEP II Fermilab LInC program sponsored by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Education Office and Friends of Fermilab, and funded by United States Department of Energy, Illinois State Board of Education, North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium which is operated by North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), and the National Science Foundation.