Soil and PopulationSoil and Population

Mahum Farooqui, KT Littell, Mahum Farooqui, KT Littell,

and Connor Glickand Connor Glick

RESEARCH QUESTION

What is the effect of the swamp on the population density of twinleaves?

HYPOTHESISIf twinleaves are closer to the swamp, then the population density of plants is larger because the soil is moister in the swamp and the water there allows for more twinleaves to grow.

Independent Variable: Distance from swamp-This variable is the one that is

manipulated.

Dependant Variable: Number of twinleaves in hula hoop

-This is the effected variable which responds to independent variable.

Constants: Type of plant, area, amount of light-These stay the same in the experiment.

Materials: Yardstick, Hula hoop-We used a yardstick to measure and a

hula hoop to count.

• We started at the swamp, where soil is most moist.

• We counted 5 times in the hula hoop how many twinleaves would be around the swamp.

• Then we used an interval of 5 and measured 5 meters away from the swamp and counted how many twinleaves were there, again 5 times.

• We did the same for 10, 15, and 20 meters away from the swamp and once more counted 5 times how many twinleaves were in the area.

0 5 10 15 20

50 42 29 25 18

57 45 30 26 19

49 40 28 23 20

55 46 31 25 16

60 38 35 24 17

Meters from Swamp

Number of twinleaves

Number of twinleaves

Meters away from swamp

o Based on the looks of the previous graph, there seemed to be fewer twinleaves as distance from the swamp increased. This concludes that the closer twinleaves are to the swamp, the greater the population of twinleaves will be.

o Also, the greater the distance is from the

swamp, the fewer twinleaves will be there I the area.

o This is probably because plants need to take in additional water in order to grow and reproduce more, so that is why there is a greater population of twinleaves near the swamp and fewer population away from the swamp.

Next time I would change the location where I would do this experiment.

The area behind the school was relatively small. Also, there were many other plants in the woods such as ivy and weeds and it got in our way when we were counting.

Trees were also a big obstacle, so if this experiment were done near a creek than results would have proven more accurate.