Plants and Their Environment

Overview

Objectives/Goals The goal of my project was to determine how different plants respond to different extreme conditions, specifically whether or not natural disasters play a role in the invasion of non-native species into the California ecosystem. Methods/Materials I set up the aftermath of two natural disasters (wildfire and flooding), in addition to a control test. The fire aftermath consisted of heated, dried soil with ash on the surface. The flooded environment plants experienced a mock-flood soon after the experiment began. I used four species for my experiment. Two were native to California (Phacelia campanularia [California bluebell] and Eschscholzia californica [California poppy]), and two were invasive (Lobularia maritime [alyssum] and fountain grass [Pennisetum alopecuroides]). I used 300 seeds for each species (100 for each environment), for a total of 1,200 seeds. The testing period took place over two months, during which I recorded plant growth regularly. This data can be found in the binder. Additional observations are contained in the project logbook. The fire test produced very few specimens. I thought that perhaps this was due to the heating of the seeds, so I repeated the test without said step. Results In very few instances did the performance of the flooded plants exceed that of the control plants. As stated earlier, the initial fire test did not produce accurate data. In the second fire test, more plants began to grow, but that test was cut short because of the deadline for the project. Overall, the invasive species proved far hardier than the natives. Conclusions/Discussion My experiment showed how effective invasive species are at survival, even in harsh conditions. This, coupled with their overproduction of seeds, is why they are such a threat to our biodiversity. The native species simply can't compete. Southern California is one of the most bio diverse areas on earth, with the exception of rainforests, and invasive species are becoming a problem. As this was not an ideal period for growing plants, the weather somewhat interfered with the experiment, especially during the December rains. However, this weather also showed how the plants could survive in a natural setting, where, in reality, the weather is not always fair. The experiment demonstrated both the power of invasive species and the ability of all (or at least, most) plants to adapt to their surroundings, whatever they may be.

Competition history

• CSEF 2011 Environmental Science · Entry J1101

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Environmental Analysis projects
• CSEF Environmental Analysis projects
• Every CSEF 2011 project