Victoria Henry

BIO 325G

Make-Up Assignment

During the pollination lab several hypotheses were proposed based off of a pollinator’s

interaction with local flowers. These hypotheses pertained to the flowers scent, color, mixture

of the previously mentioned, who comes, and how much is eaten. The hypotheses the following

experiment aroused from was that scents influenced the presence of pollinators, and

potentially their duration of their stay. More specifically for this paper the influence of

pollinators and their stay duration will be dissected, and other method will be proposed. The

tested hypothesis for the original experiment was that the scent of a flower influences the

frequency of visits based on the lavender presents and the concentration that is was present in.

This means that the fake flowers that’s had higher concentrations will have increased visits

from pollinators. Other hypothesis that were proposed during class looked at color variation

among the fake flowers, the color and scent variation that attracted pollinators, and other

similar factors. Several new experiments and hypotheses that will further be proposed and

dissect moving forward consist of: the effects of ultraviolet patterns on flowers and their

relation to pollinators more specifically bees, the neighborhood each fake flower was found in,

the presence of predators, and actual ways of calculating pollen collection from specimen

rather than random visits. In addition to these hypotheses and new experiments proposed the
experiment itself will be broken down into replicable ways and mention potential problems

that may arise and solutions for them.

The initial hypothesis for testing the ultraviolet patterns on flowers and their relation to

pollinators will be: ultraviolet patterns found on flowers specifically attracts bees to the flower

and cause them to be attracted to flowers such as color and scent. This experiment would be

tested by having three sets of four fake flowers. Each set will be differentiated by one

characteristic in this case so that the pollinators can be attributed to the ultraviolet patterns

present on the flower. The data would be collected like previous experiment, but for this

particular experiment rather than calculating all pollinators on the fake flower there would be a

special focus on the specimen that could see the ultraviolet such as bees. Potential problems

that are important to note are the occurs of spiders which may detour pollinators for coming to

the flowers therefore location is something that should be considered to avoid them. Other

concerns may be that specific specimen see didn’t ultraviolet frequency so at what frequency

will it attract bees and is it possible to place that on a fake flower. With this being said the

testable hypothesis that the ultraviolet frequency will not only attract pollinators but also the

frequency of which pollinators come to the flower.

Another feasible experiment that could’ve taken place to study pollination frequency is

the neighborhood the fake flower is found in. Based off of my own experimentation when

looking at the experiment the fake flowers were seen to have more pollinators when in open

fields rather than in clusters with other real flowers. With this experiment specifically, the

neighborhood itself would be looked at therefore all characteristics of the fake flower will

remain the same. Of the twelve flowers provided six would go to an open field where there are
not any other surrounding flowers, and the remain six will go to an area where other flowers

are present, and each flower would be compared to their counterpart in contrast of pollinators

and duration of pollinators stay. In this case the testable hypothesis is the influences

neighborhoods to the presence of pollinators and their counterparts, and there is an increased

likelihood that when fake flowers are presented in lower flower density populations they will be

frequented more. Some problems that may arise with this experiment could be insuring equal

sugar levels for each flower and their counter-part. To ensure that this problem doesn’t occur

nectar levels can be measured for each fake flower as well as measuring sugar contents before

mixing in water and pouring individual into fake flowers.

In addition to the previously mentioned hypotheses the presence of predators can be

seen in their relationship with pollinators. For this particular experiment all aspects of the

flowers will remain the same, but similar to the neighborhood aspect but the locations of each

flower will not remain the same, and there will be no counter-part to compare it too. As well as

having no counterpart to compare each individual flower to the flower location will not be

based on other flower density but on the disturbance present. Therefore, a concentration of

flowers will be split and placed into areas that have an increased amount of traffic and others

will be placed in less frequented areas. The testable hypothesis for this study is if the fake

flowers were placed in high trafficked areas that have an increased population of “predators”

the presence of pollinators will decrease regardless of nutritional substance offered. The

problem that may occur with this experiment is that traffic density may not be a frequent as

hoping one day and more on another, and therefore this may make repeating harder. To avoid

this problem from arising specifically laying out the parameters for defining what exactly is
consider heavy trafficked areas and vice versa. By doing this it will avoid possibility for bias as

well as allowing area to change without necessarily changing the study.

The last hypothesis that will be proposed is one that calculates if the said flower is

getting pollinated in contrast to not only duration of stay, but also breaks down where the

pollinator lands. Throughout the original data was recorded for bugs that may not have landed

on where a flower would need them to, to be pollinator and the pollinator was still included in

data. With the hypothesis that pollinator landing site of the pollinator affects whether the

flower is actually receiving and giving pollen. For this experiment all fake flowers with have

similar characteristics. Rather than changing locations or characteristics about the fake flower

specifically the sponges used inside of the flower will be weighted be and after the experiment,

and before placing them outside a weight powdered mass will be placed on each individual

flower. With placing the power on top of the flower this will help measure pollen levels lost

throughout the experiment. A problem that may occur if such things like baby powder are used

do not necessarily pertain to the experiment itself but rather then environmental aspects of the

experiment. To avoid affecting the pollinators negatively potentially using a clear or less

noticeable powder could be used.qq