Deep Dive, Pillbugs Thrive

Rivka Schafer, Sarah Gorbatov

We observed that there existed more pillbugs in the areas that were abundant
in leaves, debris, and decaying matter.
We hypothesize that the more layers of coverage in the environment, the
greater the pillbug population.
Our pre-experiment
process poster →
Do insects have a preference for the density of
decaying matter in their habitat?
Materials for the Experiment:
● Ruler (1)
● Container with poked holes (1)
● Gloves (2 pairs)
● Notebook/writing utensil (1)
● Stopwatch (1)
Steps:
1. Venture outside, find a denser, deeper area, and measure the height of the decomposing leaves on the ground
2. Repeat Step 1 in a less dense and deep area
3. Count the number of pillbugs in both areas and compare our data

Independent variable = density of leaves and other foliage

Dependent variable = population of pillbugs
Controlled variables = temperature, time of day, sounds, food, etc.
Data & Findings
The results of our experiment were both
successful and surprising. Although our
hypothesis proved to be accurate, we did
stumble upon various unanticipated
findings and are now formulating new
hypotheses related to them.
Discussion
In the region with more coverage and greater
depths of leaves, debris, and decaying matter,
there existed many more organisms than in the
region with less coverage and a flatter surface
area just 5 feet away. For the former, the height
of the coverage was exactly 10.16 cm, and for
the latter, 5.08 (50% as deep as the other
region). We limited our experimenting time to
13 minutes per region, and during those
intervals, in total, discovered 24 insects in the
10.16 cm region and 16 in the 5.08--a 3:2 ratio.
Evidently, there resided more animal life in the
denser regions, and there are numerous
theories to draw from this conclusion.
 Firstly, it must be established that all the insects
we came across, for survivalistic purposes and
intents, do not need to live in the sort of
regions we found them in--beetles, centipedes,
and pillbugs are all incredibly self-sufficient, as
they, with their glands, produce antifreeze
chemicals to protect themselves in the winter
and defensive, venomous ones to ward off
predators (they also have the ability to compress
and camouflage). These insects dwell where
they do because they prefer to, because these
environments provide them humid, confined,
and comfortable spaces to mate and fend for the
plentiful sources of food there.
 As for the region with less coverage, we, expectedly, found a lesser amount of animals.
However, despite the fact that we unearthed fewer animals in this shallow area, we did
unearth an array of different animals than in the other and in staggering populations. Not
only did this present to us the biodiversity of animal life in two distinct terrains just feet
apart, but the varying dynamics between the organisms in each terrain and how all of them
have formed a symbiotic relationship to optimize the probability of group survival,
reproduction, and the hereditary transfer of genetic code. Our discovery of the variety of
animal life in adjacent wilderness environments took us by pleasant surprise and has paved
the path for more hypotheses and, eventually, experiments!
Additional Questions
& Hypotheses
A question we stumbled upon
during our experiment was: why
do certain insects live in the
places they do?
Previously, we assumed that we would find more slugs in the denser area. However,
it happened that in the area with less decaying matter, the slugs accounted for 62.5
percent of the creatures we found. We believe the reason for this is that there is
more air circulation in the area with less decaying matter.
 In addition, we found a
multitude of spiders in
the less dense area,
whereas we did not find a
single one in the area that
had more matter. We
believe the answer to this
discrepancy is because we
had observed many tiny
insects in the area with
less decaying matter that
we thought the spiders
must have been preying
on, e.g. termites.
We also found worms at a hugely disproportionate rate, where we found nine
in the denser area and only one in the area with fewer leaves and other
foliage. We believe this is the case because there is much decaying matter in
the denser area and so there is more for the worms to consume, and
because it was darker in the denser area and worms prefer the dark.
 Ultimately, while our original
hypothesis was accurate, we were
fortunate enough to discover more
information than we set out to,
information that we have now
concocted various questions about. We
can’t wait to continue observing and
experimenting!