Investigation to Find Out Whether Light Distribution Affects the Abundance of Daisys free essay sample

As the light intensity goes up the abundance of daisys on The Downs School field will also increase. Equipment: †¢10 meter tape measure †¢ light intensity meter †¢ Identification key †¢ Thermometer †¢soil depth spike †¢ PH Probe †¢ quadrat 0. 5 by 0. 5 Method: 1. Line up the tape measure from the chosen tree on the ground. 2. Place the quadrat on the ground next to the tape measure at 0cm 3. Count the number of squares in the quadrat where part of a daisy is present 4. Take the light intensity after each count of daisys has being taken. 5. Move the quadrat to 1 meter and measure from 1 to 1. 5 meters, then from 2 to 2. 5 meters etc. 6. After the 10 meter tape measure has finished you should have collected 10 sets of data. 7. Move the 10 meter tape measure to a Different area but using the same tree as a starting point. We will write a custom essay sample on Investigation to Find Out Whether Light Distribution Affects the Abundance of Daisys or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 8. Repeat step 2 to 6 9. Move the 10 meter tape measure to a different area but using the same tree as a starting point. 0. Repeat step 2 to 6. 11. You should have collected 30 sets of data overall. A (i) Variables: Independent variable- The light intensity and how it affects the amount of daisys growing on the Downs School field. Dependant variable- The abundance of daisys in the school field depending on the light intensity. A (ii) Ethical considerations: In order to carry this experiment out in a way which will take the environment and animals into consideration we will have to take a few precautions to stop the environment being damaged. Firstly we will not pick any of the plants while carrying out this experiment out. Another purpose of not picking any of the plants to so that small animals homes do not get destroyed. When taking results from the quadrat we will not sit on the floor as this could squash the daisys and other wild life, like small animals. While taking the soil moisture measurement we will make sure the area we are stabbing the soil in does not have any visible wild life on so we are not destroying any wild life. Wearing appropriate shoes will minimize the risk of falling over meaning there will be as little damage as possible to the wildlife , plants and animals. B (i) Transect 1Temperature 19 ? C Quadrat numberAbundance of daisysLight intensity (%)Soil depth 108112cm 2082 3189 4484 5084 6985 7585 8386 9287 10189 Transect 2Temperature 20 ? C Quadrat numberAbundance of daisysLight intensity (%)Soil depth 108111cm 2081 3183 4283 5385 6286 7087 8787 9187 10389 Transect 3Temperature 20 ? C Quadrat numberAbundance of daisysLight intensity (%)Soil depth 108011cm 080 3180 4286 5786 6386 7687 8988 9689 10190 I will make this experiment as reliable as possible by making my method repeatable, I am using 3 different sections around the same tree meaning that the amount of light accessing that part of the field will not be a problem as it will all be the same. To increase the reliability I will find the average from the 3 different readings at the same point on each one. The chances of anomalies will al so be narrowed down by repeating my experiment on different parts round the tree. To make my results valid I will make sure my experiment is controlled. Control variables VariableHow to control it Time of dayThis will be controlled because the experiment we are doing will take place in 1 hour, this means the time of day will not have change too much, therefore there will be little or no affect on the plants. TemperatureWe are going to control this by taking the temperature every 20 minutes and recording it, this will show when analysing the results whether the temperature will have an effect on the overall results. MoistureThe moisture is going to be measured in a lab by taking a sample of the soil and weighing it then heating it using a Bunsen burner, the weight after will show what the moisture volume was. TramplingWe will measure trampling by using a soil spike to push into the ground until it stops then pull out and measure how deep the soil was. We will take 3 measurements of how deep the soil is in 3 different places to get an overall average. MowingThe whole of the grass has being mowed therefore all the plants have gone through the same . SeasonBecause the experiment is only take place in 1 hour the season will not affect the results. If I had a whole year to carry this experiment out I would do the experiment throughout different seasons to see what affect the seasons has on the results. Soil PHI will measure the soil PH in 5 different places to get an accurate and reliable results. B(ii) In transect 1 quadrat number 3 there is an anomaly, the sequence is broken 81, 82, 89, 84, this could have been because Shelby pointed the light meter up into the sky instead of the 90 degree angle. If I had more time then we would have repeated this result. Most of the other results are accurate and reliable because looking at the graph there are no completely out of place results, there are a few that do not fit with the line of best fit very well but ecology is very hard to get perfect as you cannot make the environment do what you want to do. Some of the light measurements may not be accurate because when we did the experiment the light was changing and was very unpredictable, sometimes the sun would go behind a cloud which meant the light measurement would be low when actually most the time that part would have been in the sun. There would be no way to solve this issue other than coming out at different times of the day and taking measurements and averages to get the most accurate and reliable results. Another issue we had was that some of the daisys were not in flower, this made them very hard to spot meaning we could have missed some out, if we had longer to conduct this experiment we would have had someone double checking the amount of daisys is correct. C (i) My results clearly show the positive correlation between the light distribution and the abundance of daisys on the school field. There is a clear positive correlation and the line of best fit shows the average. The results prove my hypothesis correct, as the light distribution goes up, the abundance of daisys goes up. There is a lot of variation between the results and although most the results are around the line of best fit, not all of them are. It was hard to get the results completely accurate because counting the daisys was very difficult as said before, some of them were not in flower making them hard to spot. If I did the experiment again I would do 5 repeats to get a better average, I would also do a trial test to see what time of day the experiment is best to do at, where the light is most consistent. I would also make sure that the whole class was investigating the same plant, this would mean that everyone could use each others data to get a better idea of the results, it would also make it easier to identify anomalies. C (ii) As seen in the graph there are clearly some anomalies that do not fit in with the line of best fit, one of these is at light intensity 90, there is only 1 daisy (transect 3 quadrat 10). This results could have been a result of the sun coming out from a cloud, or it could just be the unpredictability of ecology. It is hard to tell from the results whether the outcome is an actual result or a result of human error. Some other anomalies are at light intensity 87 there are no daisys (transect 2 quadrat 7) again as with the other anomaly it is hard to tell whether this is an actual result or human error. To help decide whether the result are an anomaly more repeats would have to be done at different times of the day. Most of the method went well, but I would change a few things: Red= Improvements 1. Line up the tape measure from the chosen tree on the ground. 2. Place the quadrat on the ground next to the tape measure at 0cm 3. Count the number of squares in the quadrat where part of a daisy is present 4. Get someone different to check the results, when second person has finished compare results. 5. Take the light intensity after each count of daisys has being taken. 6. Move the quadrat to 1 meter and measure from 1 to 1. 5 meters, then from 2 to 2. 5 meters etc. 7. After the 10 meter tape measure has finished you should have collected 10 sets of data. 8. Move the 10 meter tape measure to a different area but using the same tree as a starting point. 9. Repeat step 2 to 6 10. Move the 10 meter tape measure to a different area but using the same tree as a starting point. 11. Repeat step 2 to 6. 12. You should have collected 50 sets of data overall. 13. Repeat the experiment 5 times a day for 1 week. If I had more time I would also use continuous sampling so that I would get more results to compare, continuous sampling would also allow a better knowledge of whether there are anomalies as there would be more results to compare it to. The method we used was goo because it meant that things like the PH, soil depth and soil moisture were taken into account, and although not relevant in my results as there was no correlation between any of these factors and my results, they were useful to have a look at to make sure any control factors that I can control, are controlled. To extend my experiment further you could collect results once a week over a year as it would give you more representative results, meaning that a better conclusion could be made about the results.