Banksia Scientific Report: field population study

Order Description

Banksia Report
Length: 1500 words
RATIONALE
This assessment item aims to develop your skills in sampling for field work investigations, with a focus on a plant population where numbers are regulated by fire. It will further develop your skills in data collection, analysis and interpretation, presentation of findings in written form, and placing them in the context of the scientific literature.
TASK
This assessment item is based on the field trip to Agnes Banks where you will conduct an investigation into population numbers of a local resprouting plant species, Banksia oblongifolia. More specifically, you will sample in the field to estimate the current population numbers and sample the reproductive performance of this species, at sites of differing time since the last fire. You will seek to answer whether time since the last fire has impacted on the current population and reproductive performance of Banksia oblongifolia. More detailed
information on the practical and what you will need to do will be provided in the Practical hand-out and practical briefing.
Upon finishing all activities and worksheets in the practical, you will be required to write a report for assessment. Please use the structure below for your report.
Structure for the report
Title (10 – 15 words)
You will be required to provide a brief description of the investigation including the species you will investigate, the purpose(s) of your investigation and/or the major finding about the species.
Introduction (400 – 500 words)
In this section, you will be required to introduce the investigation, make a case for it, and guide readers by:
. i) stating the investigation and its context;
. ii) providing some background information to the investigation;
. iii) specifying the aims of the investigation and research questions.
Methods (200 – 300 words)
In this section, you will be required to specify the:
. i) experimental design of the investigation;
. ii) field methods used in the investigation;
. iii) methods to handle and analyse data.
Results (200 – 300 words excluding tables and graphs)
In this section, you will be required to present the data in the form of tables and graphs, and describe the results in accompanying text. Data presentation will include:
. i) treatment means +SE (4 graphs; refer to Full Criteria for Graphs pp 14);
. ii) statistical analyses (4 ANOVA Tables; refer to Full Criteria for Tables pp 15).
Please note: You will be required to print out the summary table of age treatment means and attach it to the report as an Appendix.
Discussion (500 – 700 words)
In this section, you will be required to return to the aims of the investigation and research questions, draw from the results what you find in relation to the aims/research questions, and place your findings in the context of current knowledge, using citation of relevant literature. More specifically, you will be required to discuss whether the last fire has impacted on:
. i) current density;
. ii) reproductive performance of the population as a whole;
. iii) reproductive performance of individual plants.
In addition, you will need to discuss:
. i) how your results compare to previous investigations on Banksia oblongifolia;
. ii) how your results compare to other resprouter species, and to a reseeder species such as
Banksia ericifolia.
Reference list
You will be required to provide a reference list for all in-text citations used to support your arguments. You will be required to use the Harvard style.

Appendix

You will be required to provide a summary of age treatments in the form of a table.
Criteria
You will be assessed on:
. i) the extent to which you cover all required information in each section in the body of the report;
. ii) your presentation of the report.
Resources
A sample report based on a similar study of population size and reproductive performance of a native pea species, Dillwynia tenuifolia, will be available on vUWS. This sample report is annotated with comments to assist your understanding of what goes in each section of the report.
Journal articles and book chapters relevant to this investigation are on the vUWS site.
Full criteria for figures (graphs) and tables For figures (graphs):
. i) each figure has a title, usually placed below the figure, which allocates the figure a number (which is used to refer to this figure in the text), and a brief descriptor of what the figure shows e.g. Fig. 1: plot of (response variable(Y-axis)) against (controlled or independent variable (X-axis));
. ii) graph type used is appropriate for what is being shown: the response variable on the Y- axis, the controlled variable on the X-axis, column/scatter plot as appropriate;
. iii) summary statistics with indication of error are graphed as appropriate (rather than raw data);
. iv) scale shown as ticks on axis, if a variable was measured;
. v) each axis labelled with 1. variable measured or shown; 2. units of measurement if 
appropriate (in brackets).
The example below shows how the data, as a figure, for mean density from the Banksia Report would look.

12
300838 ECOLOGY SPRING 2016 SECTION THREE
. i) each table must have a title and a brief descriptor of what the table shows;
. ii) headings for rows and columns in the table indicating what is shown;
. iii) if the row or column contains data, the units used for measurement.
.
The example below shows how the ANOVA table for the Banksia Report should look.
Table 1. One-way ANOVA of the density of B. oblongifolia for young vs. old treatments
For tables: