Analysis
The scatter plot provide a visual representation of the relationship between white pine and the percentage of Penn Sedge. It form the preliminary analysis. The scatter plot shows a negative relationship between the percentage of Penn Sedge and the number of white pine. However, the relationship seems to be weak since the trend line is almost horizontal. Besides, the data points are far away from the trend line.
Further analysis was conducted using regression analysis to test the hypothesis under consideration. The regression results as follows:
The adjusted R square is -0.004. This means that the percentage of Penn Sedge only explains 0.004 percent variation in the number of white pine and approximately 99 percent of the number of white pine are explained by other factors.
A percent change in Penn Sedge results in a 0.001 reduction in the number of white pine. However, the p-value of 0.64 is greater than 10 percent. Therefore, we fail to reject the null hypothesis at 10 percent, 5 percent and 1 percent significance levels. We can conclude that there is no significant relationship between percentage Penn Sedge and the number of white pine. There is no conclusive evidence that the percentage of Pennsylvania sedge constrains white pine regeneration.
Hypothesis B: Pennsylvania sedge inhibits regeneration of sugar maple
The scatter plot provide a visual representation of the relationship between white pine and the percentage of Penn Sedge. It form the preliminary analysis. The scatter plot shows a negative relationship between the percentage of Penn Sedge and the number of sugar maple. The relationship seems to be strong since the trend line is dips considerably.
Further analysis was conducted using regression analysis to test the hypothesis under consideration. The regression results as follows:
The adjusted R square is 0.0358. This means that the percentage of Penn Sedge only explains 3.58 percent variation in the number of sugar maple and approximately 94 percent of the number of sugar maple are explained by other factors.
A percentage change in Penn Sedge results in a 0.00649 reduction in the number of sugar maple. The p-value of 0.0091 is less than 1 percent. Therefore, we reject the null hypothesis at 10 percent, 5 percent and 1 percent significance levels. We can conclude that there is a significant relationship between percentage Penn Sedge and the number of sugar maple. There is conclusive evidence that the percentage of Pennsylvania sedge constrains maple sugar regeneration.
Hypothesis C: Pennsylvania sedge decreases biodiversity
The scatter plot provide a visual representation of the relationship between white pine and the percentage of Penn Sedge. It form the preliminary analysis. The scatter plot shows a positive relationship between the percentage of Penn Sedge and the number of species. The relationship seems to be strong since the trend line is dips considerably. The data points are also relatively close to the trend line.
The adjusted R square is 0.006277. This means that the percentage of Penn Sedge only explains 0.627 percent variation in the number of species and approximately 99 percent of the number of species are explained by other factors.
A percentage change in Penn Sedge results in a 0.00445 increase in the number of species. The p-value of 0.278 is greater than 1 percent but less than 5 percent. Therefore, we reject the null hypothesis at 10 percent and 5 percent significance levels. We can conclude that there is a significant relationship between percentage Penn Sedge and the number of species at 5 percent. Contrary to expectation, there is conclusive evidence that the percentage of Pennsylvania sedge increases biodiversity.
In conclusion, the analysis revealed that the percentage of Pennsylvania sedge is a significant determinant of the number of species and the number of sugar maple. In plots with a number of species it plausible that there was interaction effects between the different species. The experiment did not take any measures to eliminate the possible interactions. There is a need for further experiments to test whether presence of white pine influences the number of maple sugar or whether the presence of maple sugar influences the number of white pine. This paper postulates that they compete for resources creating a negative relationship.
Hypotheses
The % of white pine inhibits the number of maple sugar
The % of maple sugar inhibits the number of white pine.
