Chelci Erin Houston- Burroughs IB Biology HL March 11, 2013 Transect Shade Experiment Trifolium repens, also known

as the white clover, is a perennial plant that originated in Europe but in now found commonly in the United States of America. It has become one of the most widely distributed legumes in the world and is abundantly prevalent in the Pacific Northwest because they thrive best in a cool, moist climate in soils with ample lime and phosphate. The leaves are composed of three leaflets, which may or may not have a crescent or water mark on the upper surface. Leaves and roots develop along the stolon at the nodes. The flower heads, each consisting of 40 to 100 florets, are borne on long stalks from the leaf axils. Florets are white but may have a pink hue. According to the USDA, the white clover thrives in full sunlight (USDA). Most all plants need sunlight in order to turn carbon dioxide and other elements into stored energy. Plants also need sunlight to preform photosynthesis, which creates sugar that the plants need to survive. When there is an excess of shade or sunlight, average plant population tends to decrease as enzyme are unused or burn out. This investigation will test this theory with reference to the population of white clovers in relation to their distance away from a 10 meter high wall. This wall provides shade to many of these clovers daily, which limits the amount of sunlight they can absorb. The independent variable will be the distance away from the wall, and hence the wall itself while the dependent variable will be the number of clovers away from the wall in each trial. My controlled variables include testing in the same locations used, the same temperature

throughout the experiment, the constant transect tape measure used throughout and the method used to measure count the clovers in contact with the transect measure. Hypothesis: I will use the transect method in order to determine the affect of this abiotic factor (the wall) has on the population of clovers. The more sunlight exposure would intuitively produce more clover growth, and in effect more clovers. Therefore, I hypothesize that as the distance from the wall increase, the more clover population will be present, hence supporting a proportional correlation. This is because I believe that the further away the clovers are, the more sunlight they will be able to absorb because the shade will take longer to cover them as the day passes. Whereas clovers closer to the wall will get less sunlight and hence have a lower populous. Materials Pen/Pencil Writing Pad Tape Measure (in metric units) Meter stick 5 Field Markers Tape or clamps

Procedure 1. Gather materials and find a wall at least 5 meters tall near a patch of foliage/grass. Preferably in an area of clovers or another named plant species.

2. Place 5 field markers along the wall in five 1-meter intervals equally spaced. Begin from the walls edges and continue until 5 meters inwards (These will be the places you will take your 5 trials from) 3. Measure out 5 meters of measuring tape and placing the beginning mark perpendicular to the wall. 4. In 1 meter intervals count out the frequency of clovers and record on the writing pad. Make sure you are accurate in the counting as to not skew data. a. Only count the clovers on that touch the right side of the measuring tape. This count will be cumulative of the number that comes before. If the 1st meter out touches 10 clovers then your 2nd meter out will touch 10 clovers (your existing number) + the new number that comes with an increase in distance. 5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the remaining field marker indicators. 6. Record all data in a tally chart.

Tables of Raw Data: 5 trials were taken equal distance apart (5 meters) starting from 1 meter away from the wall. Clovers were counted in a cumulative fashion. The error for clovers seems reasonable (+2 clovers) because I began to realize after recounting twice I was within 1-2 clovers of my previous count. Intuitively, 0 meters away from the wall would produce 0 clovers and hence this data point was added to standardized the data. Cumulative Frequency of Clovers in contact with transect tape x meters away from the wall (+ 2 clovers) Distance in meters away from the wall (+ 0.05m) Trial 1 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 0.00 Trial 2 5 12 20 27 39 0 2 8 16 30 42 0 Trial 3 0 9 19 26 50 0 Trial 4 1 14 22 29 43 0 Trial 5 6 10 25 31 49 0

Table of Processed Data: Below is a table of the processed raw data from the previous page. To calculate averages and standard deviations, Microsoft Excel 2011 was used. Distance in meters Average Cumulative Frequency away from the wall of Clovers in contact with (+ 0.05m) transect tape (+ 2 clovers) Standard Deviation 1.00 2.8 2.00 10.6 3.00 20.4 4.00 28.6 5.00 44.6 0.00 0 Graph of Processed Data: The graph below was conjured also using Microsoft Excel 2011. It represents the processed data above of the clovers. Included also is a line of best fit to best represent the trend of the data which is a positive slope. As distance increased, the amount of clovers also increased.

2.59 2.41 3.36 2.07 4.72 0.00

Average Cumulative Frequency of Clovers in contact with transect tape (+ 2 clovers)

Average Cumulative Frequency of Clovers (+ 2 clovers) in contact with transect tape vs. the distance in meters (+ 0.05m) away from the wall
60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0.00 -10 Distance in Meters Away from the Wall (+ 0.05m)

y = 8.8629x - 4.3238

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

Conclusion: According to the data presented in this investigation, my hypothesis is supported. The graph shows a direct correlation between the distance away from the wall and the amount of clovers counted. Although the trend line is in a linear form, it seems as if the frequency of the clovers follows an almost exponential pattern. The slope of the graph is approximately 8.8 so approximately for every meter of land the clover frequency increased about 8-9. The increase in clover population could possibly be highly due to the difference in sunlight exposure between those closest to the wall and those further away from the wall. The clovers further away from the wall were given more light and therefore there were more of them. This is evident as the point (5, 44.6), furthest away from the wall is furthest away from the best-fit line, representing a more exponential pattern. Hence, from the data presented, one could conclude that with more exposure to sunlight comes more abundance of healthy clovers. And that shade limits the amount a clover will be able o grow. This is because with sunlight, plants are given the right amount of light energy to convert and produce their own food and grow. Evaluation: This experiment seemed to bring very few sources of uncertainty because of the multitude of controlled variables. In order to be accurate in my counting, I repeated my counting of each trial at least twice. This is how I conjured my uncertainty in the frequency of (+2 clovers). In order to present a more holistic view I could just perform more trials as this was just in a certain area of the entire field. I could possibly use a quadrat method that would of course contain more area to study. A further experiment could include possible measuring the heights of the clovers as they move away from a shaded area, and comparing their biomass instead of their prevalence. The area I took my measurements was also a tad hilly and this couldve affected the data and some clovers were on an incline so this couldve compromised the distance away from the wall. Next time, I could try and count all the clovers on a relatively flat surface.