FERMI QUADRAT PRAIRIE STUDY 2006

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Map of Fermilab

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DATA:

Table of our Fermi Quadrat

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GRAPHS OF DOMINANCE AND IMPORTANCE VALUE:

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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS:

Part 1: Background Information: Our class went to the Fermi Lab. We encountered many grasses and weeds. Fermi was once a farmland, and even before that it was once 100% bare earth and non-native grass. The prairie was planted in 1992 and the prairie grass soon took over the weeds. The importance value tells us how dominant, how frequent and how dense a plant is in the ecosystem, we looked for the importance value at Fermi in our own quadrat. We also looked for dominance, which means the total area covered of a type of plant and we divided it by our total quadrat that we used. We learned that the more diversity there is in a prairie the better the environment is. This is because if there is a disease in the prairie within a species of a plant, it may wipe out all of that plant type, if there is more diversity, then it would be better for the prairie.

Part 2: Comparison: Our group’s single quadrat and the team’s totals had different data. Five different types of plants in our groups quadrat was cord grass, mountain mint, rosinweed, yarrow and Indian grass. The team totals for year 2005 and 2006 had much more diversity compared to one quadrat because in plot 17 more were sampled and the data changes. They only showed the top ten yet there was much more diversity than that in the years of 2005 and 2006. The dominance in our prairie quadrat (that was 1x1 meter) was about 32% covered, while the total dominance of 2005 and 2006 was very different because more of 2005 and 2006 got sampled compared to just one quadrat. The importance value in our quadrat has less importance value than the 2005-2006 totals had.

Part 3: Prediction: The top three in plants by their dominance in 1992 is unlisted-grasslike, Indian grass and big bluestem. The top three plants found categorized by importance value was unlisted-grasslike, Indian grass and big bluestem. “Unlisted grasslike” we define as a grass that we cannot quite identify but we categorize it as crabgrass because it just looks like grass except taller. Through the ten years of having a prairie, the prairie will grow larger, we know this because ten years ago, the prairie did not have very tall grass and there wasn’t as much diversity as there is now and the grasses now can be from six feet or shorter. As the time moves on, in about ten years, the prairie should have many more diversity and maybe even fewer weeds because of all the weathering and prairie fires. The small roots of a weed will not help the weed continue surviving through an amount of time.

Part 4: Reflection:  The trip to Fermi Lab was an enjoying experience. I learned that even trees can be competitive trying to get more sunlight than the other tree. Everything we learned about prairies increased my knowledge about diversity, dominance and importance value. All of our classmates did not know much about prairies before this experience. Even I just thought it was a field covered with tall grasses. Now, we know that there is a larger meaning to this and we have many discoveries found from this trip.

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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.
 

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