Spring Wildflowers

BIOL 130 Spring 2011

Spring Wildflowers

Introduction For this lab we are asking: Are there an equal number of plants (or flowers, or whatever you want to ask about!) found on the north-facing and south-facing slopes of MacMillan Gorge? We will discuss some reasons for this question in lab - but you should keep your eyes open for other differences when actually collecting data - this is primary research, and you may have some great ideas about what's going on! You will need to find some literature to explain the reasons when writing your paper - Due the week of May 9!

Methods As a class we will head to the gorge - you and your partners will randomly sample (using techniques discussed at the beginning of lab) five (5) one-by-one meter quadrats on both the north and south sides of the gorge. You will count and record all the plants that are found within your quadrat. You may also want to record the numbers flowering. To figure out if there are more plants (or flowers) on either the north-facing or the south-facing slope of the gorge, you will use a Chi-square test. (see handout for more information if necessary). The Chi-square test allows you to compare frequencies and determine if they are what are expected. 2 =  (observed-expected)2 / expected

You will compare the numbers of plants (or flowers) found on each slope to the total numbers that you found. If there were an equal amount of plants on each slope, you'd expect 50% to be found on the north-facing slope and 50% on the south-facing slope. So, sum all of your plants together, and divide by 2. That's your expected frequency. To calculate your observed, sum the total plants (or flowers) found on each slope and divide by the total found on both slopes. Since you only have 2 slopes, the calculation is easy! 2 = (observed-expected)2 / expected If that number is greater than 3.8, there is a significant difference in the numbers of plants (or flowers) found on each site!

Results Make sure to include a graph of your results - whatever it is that you are investigating! Describe what that graph shows. Make sure to also tell me if your chi-square analysis indicates that there are differences between the slopes.

Discussion Was your hypothesis upheld? What might that mean? USE literature (NOT WIKIPEDIA!) to up hold your claims. BIOL 130 Spring 2011

Literature Cited You must include at least 3 citations in your Introduction and your Discussion. They can be the same papers (but don't need to be...), but you must mention literature in both sections. Places to look for peer-reviewed literature: www.jstor.org (on Wells campus) http://scholar.google.com/ http://agricola.nal.usda.gov/ Other library databases.

Search terms you should try: Wildflowers and aspect Wildflowers and slope aspect and plants etc.

Paper format:

You should have a: 1. Title. What is the name of your project? 2. Abstract: This is an overview of what you did – including the hypothesis, the methods, the results and the conclusion. Think of it as the “cliff notes” of your lab report – it allows people to decide if they want to read your whole paper or not. 3. Introduction: This will be a very comprehensive overview of the “problem”. What have others found? (Thus, you should cite other studies in the intro. In scientific writing, we use the in-text- citing format of (Author year)). How do their results relate to each other? Is there something lacking in what others have done that you needed to research? That should be your question. You will have outlined the problem so well that when you finally get to the question you are asking it will make logical sense to your reader. Also include any expectations about what you thought would happen – your hypothesized answer to the question. If you include this here, in the discussion you can talk about whether your prediction was upheld! 4. Methods: What exact methods did you use? Make sure that you write this section in the past tense. Include everything that you did - in the field, in the lab, and on the computer. Although it may seem strange, statistical analyses are actually only methods that you used to determine if your hypothesis was supported or not. You don’t need to include results here, just say, “I performed a t- test to determine if there was a significant difference between…” 5. Results: Here is where you present what you found. Include a graph of the data (average together multiple trials, and include error bars so your reader can see how variable the data were). Don’t include raw data – and that includes t-test results from excel! Refer to the figures in the text when you explain what they mean: “There was a significant difference among my treatments (P<0.05); the flowers were on the south side of the gorge (Fig. 1).” That way you tell the reader what is important for them to know – and you point them to the data to see it for themselves. Be very explicit when you discuss what you found – but don’t include any conclusions here. At first that seems pretty tricky, but the results are usually fairly dry – “just the facts, ma’am.” 6. Discussion: In this section you wrap up the whole project. What did you find? What do your results mean? How do they relate to what others have found? Was your hypothesis supported? Why or why not? Again, since you are referring to what others have found you should have citations in the discussion. 7. Literature Cited: This is where you put all those citations you used in the introduction and discussion. In the sciences, we use the format:

Author Last Name, First Initial. Year. Title. Journal name. Volume:Pages.