Summary of Primary Article Should include their hypothesis, what they did, what they found, and why we care. Include a mini citation of the article used. State your hypothesis for our Ecology Lab where we will be surveying the lakes on campus
My Hypothesis: If we survey the species in upper and lower pond, then there will not be a significant difference in species composition between the upper and lower ponds due to similar environmental characteristics.
Summary of Previous land use alters plant allocation and growth in forest herbs
Hypothesis- Human land use can influence ecosystems by altering the distribution and abundance of vegetation. If land use influences …show more content…
First the Abiotic characteristics, such as soil properties, next is total cover and allocation patterns, and finally relative plant growth. For abiotic characteristics, they state that several soil properties varied with previous land use. One example in their results given was mineral soil nitrogen pools, which was the largest in logged sites, followed by farmed sites, and then reference sites. To contrast this they state that soil magnesium was the largest in farmed sites. In conclusion for the soil, they state that overall nutrient ratios varied with land use history. For total cover and allocation patterns, they state that the total plant cover was significantly reduced in areas previously used for farming and logging. For example, they state that the average cover was 78% in reference sites, 51% in logged sites and 58% in farmed sites. For relative plant growth, they state that previous land use had various effects on the relative changes in plant biomass. For example, they state that relative stem growth was significantly larger on land previously used for farming, compared to land used for logging. The interaction between previous land use and species indicate that the effects of human land use on relative total above- ground growth varied among …show more content…
In their experiment, they tested how variations in ecosystems that are extremely close in proximity had differing soil, plants, and other species. The eight sites that they surveyed were in the same area, meaning they have similar weather, climates, elevations, species, etc. The two ponds that we will be surveying are extremely close in proximity only a few yards apart, meaning we can expect similar environmental characteristics. My hypothesis states that the similar environmental characteristics will result in a nonsignificant difference in species composition. However, the results from Previous land use alters plant allocation and growth in forest herbs, indicate that small differences in environments alter the plant allocation and growth. Although in their study they focused on how previous land use changed the species diversity, they were still testing how similar environments, with small differences, produced different species, and species growth. The two ponds we will be surveying most likely have small differences that may or may not produce a significant difference in species