Hypothesis
The null hypothesis of the article indicates that Nootka Lupine or the black mulch do facilitate the growth and establishment of the Sikta spruce, while the alternative hypothesis indicates that article indicates that Nootka Lupine or the black mulch do facilitate the growth and establishment of the Sikta spruce. This is aimed to answer the question of how the survival of birch seedling and birch depreciated in the presence of the dense grass but not in the presence of the dense lupine on its own (Riege, 2009).
Control group
The control group used in the experiment were the seedlings that were planted under the non-lupine cover, this acted as control since it never experienced the conditions that were under investigations. The condition was the transplanting of the seeds in the presence of the lupine cover; this is because the main objective of the experiment was to explore the growth in the absence of the lupine conditions
Treatment group
The treatment groups were the plants that were planted in the presence of the lupine cover. This is because it is believed that the presence of the Lupine in the presence of the dense population of the grass would inhibit the growth of the seedlings. This treatment group was the seedling that exhibited heir growth in the presence of the Lupine condition to see whether the seedling could thrive in such conditions.
Scientific method in the research design
One of the most important scientific design that is used by most of the scientific research was the use of a control group, this was very important in the research design since one can make conclusions by looking at the development in the control experiment. The research design also incorporated the use of randomized factorial design in the in the hypothesis. This was also of importance to the research design since the each of the plant could be assigned randomly to the treatment. This can be very helpful in the Analysis of Variance to explore if there is significant difference between the treatment groups of the experiment.
Possible bias or problems in the experiment
Based on the design of the experiment, there may be rice of problem in biasness when assigning the plants to different control groups, the biasness may be when there is no randomization followed during the process of assigning the plants to different control groups in the design of the experiment. Another problem may occur when the number of plants does not correspond to the number of treatments; this may result in some treatment groups not equally represented during the analysis of Variance.
Hypothesis supported based on the data
Reference
Riege D. (2009). Facilitation of afforestation by Lupinus nootkatensis and by black plastic mulch in south-west Iceland, Icelandic Forest Research, Reykjavík, Iceland
