FERMI QUADRAT PRAIRIE STUDY 2006

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Madison Jr. High at Fermi Lab in the Praire

Copyright	Bison                                                          Fermi                                           Hawk	Big Bluestem
Acknowledgment	Madison
References	Junior
Graphs for all quadrats	High

DATA:                             

Plants Plants and More Plants

Table of our Fermi Quadrat

Table of all quadrates of plot 17

GRAPHS OF DOMINANCE AND IMPORTANCE VALUE:

Graphs of dominance and importance values for all quadrats

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS:

Prairie Data Analysis

 Part 1

 Fermilab was once all farmland and used to be 100 percent bare earth until they plowed it and planted the prairie plants in 1992. Most of it was just weeds but every year after they burned the prairie; less and less non-native plants would come back every year. Even though the prairie plants grew slowly they were starting to overtake the weeds and non-native weeds. Over the years the roots have grown to two to three times larger then the actual prairie plant itself. Fire is one of the important growth parts of a prairie because it allows new life to grow each time that it burns. Fires were usually started by thunder strikes that storms caused. In a quadrat study researchers look at certain characteristics of the prairie plant population, these include plant dominance, importance value and diversity. Dominance is the total percent cover of a species and it is also the total area sampled. This is important to the prairie because the scientists can calculate how many plant species are in a quadrat and plot which can tell them the health of the prairie. Also it can tell them the dominant plants of the area. For example the Big Bluestem might be the dominant plant in the prairie plot because it is so noticeable and there is a lot of it. Importance value is tells how dominant, how frequent, and how dense a plant is in the ecosystem. This helps determine what plants need to be planted in an area and also the health because a healthy prairie needs to have a different variety of plants so that it can thrive and suit the needs of the other plants and animals around it. And lastly the diversity of a prairie is the total number of different species for all quadrats. Scientists use this to count the different species and how many there are so they can determine how they can grow and how long it takes. They can also, like the other two important parts, determine what the health of the prairie is and what they might need to do to improve it in the future.

Part 2

In 2004, 2005 and 2006 had a lot in common. In my quadrat, for diversity, I had more unlisted grasses than my plants combined. When I compared this to plot 17 and found that the numbers went up significantly and there were still a lot of weeds but the number of prairie plants grew. For the diversity of the prairie scientists have to do a lot of calculating and have to get the species for each year and then compare them. Some of the plants in 05 were Big Bluestem, Wild Bergamot, Stiff Goldenrod, Indian Grass, Prairie Cord grass, Yellow Cornflower, Compass Plant, Rosinweed, Tall Coreopsis, and Foxglove Beard Tongue. For 06 some of the plants were Big Bluestem, Wild Bergamot, Indian Grass, Compass Plant, Prairie Dock, Switch Grass, Sawtooth Sunflower, Rosinweed, Black-eyed Susan, and Stiff Goldenrod. As you can see some of the plants are the same and different. This shows that the prairie is healthy because of the diversity of the plants. In 04 some of the plants were Big Bluestem, Wild Bergamot, Indian Grass, Rosinweed, Compass Plant, Mountain Mint, Tall Coreopsis, Black-eyed Susan, Prairie Dock, and Stiff Goldenrod.  Comparing to 06 they have some of the same but there are some different ones so this shows how much the prairie has grown and they can now determine what they need to do to get new species in Fermi. For the Dominance of the prairie though out the years it has varied and gone up and done each year. For 04 comparing to 06 the dominance went up over the two year period. The top three in 04 were Big Bluestem 19.93, Wild Bergamot 5.38 and Indian Grass 4.38. In 06 the top three were Big Bluestem 24.19, Wild Bergamot 10.4 and Indian Grass 7.3. As you can see over the two year period the dominance went up significantly. In 05 the top three were Big Bluestem 4.38, Wild Bergamot 4.23, and Stiff Goldenrod 3.79. As you can see the numbers are significantly down. As for the weed they are the exact same as the plants except in 04 when the weeds had really high dominance. In 04 05 and 06 the importance value varied a lot. For 04 the numbers were every high and as the years went on the went lower and higher. Same for the weeds and also in each year Big Bluestem was the number one in every column.

Part 3

In the next ten years I predict that most of the prairie plants will became more prevalent then the non-native weeds. In 1992 there were a lot more weeds then plants, but as the years progressed they started to disappear. This year, 2006, we found over all more prairie plants in our quadrat then in some of the quadrats in 1992. More and more of the prairie plants, after burnings, would come back every year. Also I predict that the soil will become richer after burnings because of all of the dead and decaying plants that help nutrients get into the soil. Even though that they have been doing burnings for awhile the diversity of the plants shows that the soil has become richer already, but I can predict that it will get even richer over time because of the factors that I mentioned before.

Part 4

Fermilab was a very good experience for me. I learned about new ecosystems that you could never illustrate in a book. Also I think that this trip was interesting because of all the different facts that I learned about diversity, importance value and dominance of the prairie plants. I have also learned a lot about the different types of prairie plants that there are in a prairie. This experience has also taught me that if we didn’t have one of the important plants in an environment then the population of any specific species would crumble. I learned so much about how to take the temperature of a prairie area and compare it to a forest ecosystem and other ecosystems.  I also have learned, over all, that a prairie is very different from other climates, and ecosystems, so that makes it special to study. I would recommend Fermilab to anyone and hope people who already and are going to go will get the same, interesting trip I got.

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.