11th Grade – Science – Biology 2

The predator’s name is the subterrainial swooper. It is a type of bird that must live in the ground at times because it lives in the grasslands where there are not many trees. The swooper burrows into the ground to make its nest. It is white with a bluish tint, so it blends in with the sky. It has long legs with sharp claws. Its head is shaped aerodynamically, aligned with its beak, so that it can swoop down and capture its prey, and also so it can fit into holes in the ground. The swooper has a sharp beak for killing its prey. It has great eyesight and hearing so it can detect the prey from high in the sky. It can also eat bugs in the ground where it lives. Their prey, which is a type of rodent, can also fall into their homes because it can’t see well. Lastly, the swooper can make itself get covered with dirt, so it can camouflage with the ground to capture prey.

The prey’s name is the elusive dasher. It is a rodent resembling a small mouse. It is brownish in color to blend in with the ground. It has a very slippery coat of fur that can shed at a moment’s notice. Its tail can also fall off and grow back. This helps it escape from the grasp of the swooper. It eats grass and bugs. The dasher can smell and hear very exceptionally, but it can’t see well. They are very fast and small, so they are hard to capture.

For the dandelion 1m x 1m subplots, we found Morisita’s index to be 1.49, which means they are clumped. For the dandelion 2m x 2m subplots, we found Morisita’s index to be 1.33, which is also clumped. For the dandelion 4m x 4m subplots, we found Morisita’s index to be 1.36, which is again clumped. For the plantain 1m x 1m subplots, we found Morisita’s index to be 1.64, which is clumped. For the plantain 2m x 2m subplots, we found Morisita’s index to be 1.18, which is random dispersion. For the plantain 4m x 4m subplots, we found Morisita’s index to be 1.35, which is clumped. I believe the perception of dispersion changed with the size of the sampling unit because when you do smaller plots you are not really seeing the whole picture. If you were to take a bird’s eye view of the whole plot it would be different than just looking over the small 1m x 1m section of it. The dispersion in one subplot could be totally different than the rest of the plot. The percent error goes down when you take a bigger sample.

The reproductive traits of the plants helped control the dispersion. The dandelion has light seeds that blow off when it is windy. The area we took the plot on was on a hill and that blocked off a lot of the wind. This prevented the seeds from traveling very far so they fell off right near the original dandelion. Dandelions also reproduce asexually so this contributed to the clumped dispersion. Plantains have heavy little seeds. They fell off right near the plant so they were clumped also.

The root system contributed to the dispersion also. Dandelions have tap roots, which go straight and deep into the ground. Most of the dandelions were found on the hill. Their roots went deep enough so they would not wash away and they also didn’t have to compete with the plantains on the hill. Plantains have a hair-like network of roots near the surface. They could not survive on the hill because they would be washed away. The plantains were found mostly on flat land. These traits caused the plants to be clumped.

Lastly, the habitat traits led the plants to being clumped. Dandelions can tolerate more dry areas than plantains. The hill was dryer than the flat land so dandelions could live there without competing with plantains for the flat land. Plantains like it wetter, so they were clumped around the drain and the bottom of the hill. Dandelions can tolerate more shade so they were clumped around the tree and the plantains were more out in the open where there is more light. All these factors lead the dandelions and plantains to be clumped.