This experiment examines the influence of moderate (pH 5.5) to extreme (pH 3.5) sulfuric acid-induced acidification on the ability of soil microorganisms to conduct ammonification. Two common soil inhabiting bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus cereus, are analyzed for their ability to perform ammonification given only organic nitrogen and their ammonification ability in an acidic...
This Data Set allows students to use long-term data from Konza to explore the relationships between multiple characteristics of a tallgrass prairie ecosystem and the productivity of prairie plants. Specifically, students compare the interactive effects of fire frequency, topography, and inter-annual variation in precipitation on the productivity of two major plant groups (grasses and forbs). To...
This Data Set focuses on the question: How does plant biodiversity in a grassland savannah community affect ecosystem productivity? To investigate this question, students use create graphs using seven years of data collected at Cedar Creek during an experiment set up to examine the effects of manipulating species richness on plant productivity and biomass. Cedar Creek Natural History Area is an...
All ecology texts include figures showing carbon cycles of various types (terrestrial, marine, global, etc). However, education research shows that introductory level students (both college and high school) and many citizens do not understand the biological and ecological processes that are the foundation for these cycles.
In this TIEE experiment, students investigate the costs of reproduction. In dioecious plants, a female's investment in reproduction is typically much greater than a male's, because while both sexes encounter the basic cost to produce a flower, only females have to allocate energy to seeds, exceeding the energy requirements to produce pollen. This 1-2 week field project tests whether the effects of...
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