Lab 2 Ecology fall 2024

Experimental Design – Constructing an ecological experiment

Lab objectives:
• Learn the specific considerations for designing an experimentally driven
investigation on some Ecological conundrum.
• Consider the process of experimental design in terms of the steps and
specific components for hypothesis testing in order to generate data which
can be properly analyzed to support or reject the hypothesis
• Design an ecological experiment and answer the questions associated with
the process of design (15pt)

Ecologists design experiments carefully structuring a study to test a hypothesis

about ecological relationships by manipulating one or more environmental
variables (independent variables) and observing the resulting changes in a specific
organism or community (dependent variable), while controlling for other potential
confounding factors, often utilizing techniques like replication, randomization, and
control groups to ensure reliable results. Ecologists are interested both in the
structure and function of ecological systems. Structure refers to measurable
conditions of the system at one point in time. These include biotic attributes such
as the body mass of an organism, the density of individuals in a population, the
ratio of predator numbers to those of a prey species, or the biomass of all species
that share some basic feature, such as photosynthesis. Structure also includes the
physical and chemical conditions that prevail in the space occupied by organisms.
Function refers to the processes that create structure at a given instant, and how
these processes are affect as structure changes. Function includes, for example, the
relationships that determine the growth rates of organisms, the rates of survival and
reproduction of individuals in populations, the rates of predation by one species on
another, and the intensity of other interactions, such as competition and mutualism.
These processes determine the distribution and abundance of species, and thus the
makeup of communities and ecosystems.

You are tasked with conjuring an ecological question and subsequent hypothesis
and providing a general methodology to test the hypothesis as well as consider how
the data will be generated and analyzed to support or reject that hypothesis. This
lab will be a step-wise progression through the experimental design process.
Please answer the following requests for this lab assignment (15pts):

1) The stimulus for almost all ecological research, whether in the field or the
laboratory, comes initially from the observation of some distinctive pattern
in nature. Provide the ecological observation and the general question that
was conjured from the observation. 2pts
Observation: In a local forest, there appears to be a variation in the growth of
understory plants depending on the amount of sunlight they receive due to
varying canopy densities.
Question: How does the amount of sunlight reaching the forest floor affect the
growth rate and biomass of understory plants?

2) Forming an experimentally testable hypothesis, an educated guess - based on

both prior observation and reasoning - predicts what will happen under a specific
set of circumstances and why. In other words, what will the independent variable
to do the dependent variable and how will you know that the response of the
independent variable is the driver of the response. A scientific hypothesis gives
specific predictions that can be tested via experimentation. When constructing a
hypothesis, it is also beneficial to explain to your audience the physiological
drivers behind your predictions. For example, here is a well-written hypothesis:
“Potted plants that are placed inside a warehouse without windows will not survive
the growing season as the plants are not exposed to sunlight, which is needed to
drive photosynthesis and thereby produce the sugars oxidized to generate ATP and
NADH.” You can start by constructing an if…then statement and them editing
that to a more polished statement. Provide an experimentally testable hypothesis
for your question. 2 pts

Hypothesis: If the amount of sunlight reaching the forest floor increases, then the
growth rate and biomass of understory plants will also increase, as plants require
sunlight for photosynthesis, which produces the energy necessary for growth and
survival.
3) Often the question derived from an observation is too wide, deep, dense, or
complicated in term of the numbers of variables affecting the target physiology,
population, community, or ecosystem. Therefore, often a question has to be
molded into a much simpler and / or specific inquiry in order to generate a
hypothesis. What considerations did you have to account for in your initial
observation and question to derive your hypothesis? 1pt
I had to simplify the observation by focusing on one environmental factor
(sunlight) and one biological response (plant growth) instead of considering other
factors like soil moisture, nutrient availability, or species interactions.

4) What scale of biological organization is this hypothesis connected? For

example if you are investigating the effects of rain on zebra migration that would
be a population study. 1 pt
This hypothesis is connected to the population level, as it examines how
environmental variables affect the growth of a specific group of plants within the
forest ecosystem.

5) Define the variables: What is the dependent variable of the study? This is the
response that will be measured in the experimental group. What response are you
measuring? 1pt
The dependent variable is the growth rate and biomass of the understory plants.
These are the responses being measured in terms of height, leaf area, and overall
plant mass.

6) What is the independent variable? This is the manipulation that is driving the
response. What is the control group that you will compare the dependent variable
response to? This can include change in abiotics, effects of time, predation,
nutrients, competition, comparisons. 1 pt

The independent variable is the amount of sunlight reaching the forest floor,
which will be manipulated by selecting areas with varying canopy cover densities
(e.g., 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% sunlight penetration). The control group will be plants
growing in an area with 0% sunlight (complete shade).

7) What about confounding variables: What confounding variables exist in the

experiment? How can you control for these? What are the issues of your design?
1pt
Confounding variables could include soil moisture, nutrient levels, and plant
species composition. These can be controlled by ensuring all experimental plots
have similar soil types and moisture levels, and by focusing on one species of
understory plant for consistency.

8) Also, what is the control treatment for your experiment? Experiments need a
control where all aspects of the design are the same as the independent variable
treatment but without that manipulation so you can confidently tell that the
independent variable in the experimental treatment is indeed driving the response.
In other words if I was investigating the effects on excessive nitrate concentrations
on plant growth, my control group would measure plant growth in soil without the
nitrate addition, but everything else would be identical growing conditions so I
could quantify the effect of the nitrate. 1 pt

The control treatment would be understory plants growing in complete shade,

with no sunlight reaching them. All other environmental conditions, such as soil
type and moisture, would remain the same as in the experimental groups.
9) General experimental design: Please provide a brief description of the overall
experiment design and include number of replicates, where the above defined
variables play a role and what data will be generated. 2 pt

The experiment will consist of five plots with varying canopy cover levels (0%,
20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% sunlight penetration). Each plot will have five
replicates to ensure statistical validity. The data collected will include the height,
leaf area, and biomass of the plants in each plot over a growing season. The data
will help determine how the different levels of sunlight affect plant growth.

10) Graphical illustration: Below you will find two empty graphs. Please provide
hypothetical illustration of the results that you will obtain. Please define the axis
and units. You required to use at least one of these but often studies have multiple
aspects of the results to illustrate. The X axis is typically the independent variable
aspects of the experiment and the Y axis is the dependent response. Also, consider
whether you design lends to data that should correlated or compared and the
graphical style that should be illustrated. i.e. bar graphs or whisker plots for
comparisons or scatter plots with a fit line for correlations. 2 pt

Effect of Sunlight on Plant Biomass

90
Average Biomass(grams)

80
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0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Sunlight Penetration (%)

Series1 Series2
 Correlation between Sunlight and Plant Height
90
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Plant height (cm)

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0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Sunlight Penetration

11) Predict what type of statistical analysis will you employ. Nothing specific but
rather some aspect of mean comparisons or regressions for correlations. We will
get into more specifics on these next week. 1pt

The statistical analysis will likely involve ANOVA to compare the means of plant
growth between the different levels of sunlight. If a correlation exists, a linear
regression could also be employed to examine the relationship between sunlight
levels and plant growth.