ENS 53- TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY

Exercise No. 3
COMPETITION BETWEEN MONGO AND CORN PLANTS

I. Introduction

In an ecosystem, organisms faced with limiting resources will often compete among themselves
in order to survive. The limiting resources may be food, space, mates, or elevated status within a social
hierarchy. In competition, two or more individuals within or between species populations are striving
against each other to secure some resource that is in limited supply. The “limited resource” and “strife”,
imply some harm to weaker competitors. Competition among plants can be detected by comparing
differences in growth form, vigor, reproductive rate, or the ability to produce chemical inhibitors of the
competing species.

In this exercise, the students will observe and quantify the effects of competitive interaction that
exists between two local plants: corn and mongo plants.

Key terms:
Competition scramble competition
Intraspecific competition contest competition
Interspecific competition Lotka-Volterra model

II. Materials
3 rectangular or square plastic pots soil to fill the pots
2 sharp-pointed sticks 3 large styropor boxes
30 mongo seeds 30 corn seeds
tissue paper/paper towels fungicide
weighing balance

III. Procedure

1. Separately wash the corn and mongo seeds with fungicide and soak for overnight. The water level
should be just a few centimeters above the seeds.

2. Get three styropor boxes laden with two-tiered tissue papers and label as A, B, and C. Sprinkle the
tissue papers with water until they become wet. Then place 20 corn seeds in box A, 10 corn seeds and
10 mongo seeds in box B, and 20 mongo seeds in box C.

Box A (20 corn seeds) Box B (10 corn & 10 mongo seeds) Box C (20 mongo seeds)

3. Sprinkle the three set-ups daily for 3-5 days. Compare the germination rate for the three sets.

4. Get three rectangular small pots (either clay, wooden or plastic) and fill each with garden soil. Using a
wooden stick, draw parallel furrows on the surface of the soil. Make it 0.5 cm deep and 3 cm apart.
Transfer the germinated seeds (seedlings) from the styropor boxes to small pots with soils
correspondingly labeled as A, B, and C. Each pot should contain the same number of seedlings. All
seedlings should be 1 cm apart. Ensure that the soil barely covers the seedlings.

Pot A (20 corn seedlings) Pot B (10 corn & 10 mongo seedlings) Pot C (20 mongo seedlings)

5. Allow the seedlings to grow until they are about 8-15 cm high. Harvest them without mixing the plants
from the three pots. To do this, gently pull all the corn plants in box A. Rinse the soil from the roots and air
dry the plants on paper towels. Do the same with the mongo plants from box C. Remove, wash and air
dry the corn plants in box B separately from the mongo plants.
6. Count and weigh together all the plants from box A. Then weigh together all the plants from box C. Do
the same with all the corn plants from box B, then with all the mongo plants from box B.

7. There were only half as many corn seeds and mongo seeds in box B as there were in boxes A and C.
Before you can compare the weights of corn plants and mongo plants, you must divide the A and C
weights by 2.

8. Organize your data in the form of a graph, with weight on the vertical axis. Arrange the 4 bars along the
horizontal axis, left to right, in order in which you obtained the weights.

IV. Guide Questions

1. In this experiment, which plant is a stronger competitor? Justify.

2. Do you think growing corn and mongo together has more effects on corn or on mongo? Or the effects
equal?
3. Enumerate the possible effects of competition on a weaker competitor.
4. How would you detect the presence of competition in a community of plants? Or animals?
Data Sheet

Table 1. Germination rate of seedlings

Plant Set-up Number of Seeds Sown Number of Seeds % Germination
Germinated
Box A (corn) 20

Box B (corn & mongo 10 each

combined)
Box C (mongo) 20

Table 2. Weight of plants under study

Plant Set-up Number of Seedlings Plant Weight*, grams

Box A (corn)

Box B (corn)

Box B (mongo)

Box C (mongo)

* Before you can compare the weights of corn plants and mongo plants, you must divide the A and C
weights by 2.

Figure 1. Graph comparing weights of plants under study.