BIOL301L – WS2

Michael Draper
Plant Competition:
Set-up – Worksheet 1

Part 1: Hypotheses

1. Effects of density [3]:

a. How do you expect growth and survival of plants in the high-density treatments to
compare to growth and survival of those in the low-density treatments?
a. The growth and survival of plants in high-density treatments will be
significantly lower than those in the low-density population.
b. Why?
a. Competition has increased. Intraspecific and interspecific may show significant
variation in the data, however competition is competition. When a population is
faced with a finite resource (ex: sunlight, space, nutrients) survival for each
individual decreases. Add into the factor that the mentioned organism is
immobile (little to no dispersal), the organism that can obtain the most amount
of finite resource will survive. The denser the population (with a controlled
amount of resources) the decreased chance of survival for each individual.

2. Effects of composition of plants in the pot [3]:

a. How do you expect growth and survival of plants in monoculture pots to compare to
growth and survival of plants in pots where both species are present? Address your
expectations for each of the species.
a. Plants from either intraspecific competition will have higher fitness (higher
growth and survival) than that of interspecific competition. Raphanus sativus
will have higher growth and survival than Brassica oleracea. The Raphanus
monoculture pots would have higher fitness than that of Raphanus in the mixed
pots, the same will follow with that of the Brassica oleracea.
b. Why?
a. The intraspecific competition will produce plants with more fitness because the
monocultured plants will be less affected by the allelopathic chemicals of that in
the opposing species.

3. Which species do you expect to be the superior competitor? Why? [2]

a. Raphanus sativus will produce plants with superior fitness (higher growth and
survival) than that of Brassica oleracea. This production of plants with superior
fitness will be due to the radish’s ability to produce DHAP (3,4-
Dihydroxyacetopheno) which at low concentrations promotes growth in radish
shoots and growth inhibitions in other species (at least 6 thus far) ( Xiao Ruan, Zhao-
Hui Li, Qiang Wang,Cun-De Pan,3 De-An Jiang,and G. Geoff Wang, Autotoxicity and
Allelopathy of 3,4-Dihydroxyacetophenone Isolated from Picea schrenkiana Needle,
Molecules, 2011, October 24).

4. Provide one peer-reviewed citation supporting your claim in 3, in CSE citation style format
 BIOL301L – WS2

(See Lab Report Rubric for format. You don’t need to attach the article, just provide the
citation). [2]
a. Xiao Ruan, Zhao-Hui Li, Qiang Wang,Cun-De Pan, De-An Jiang,and G. Geoff Wang,
Autotoxicity and Allelopathy of 3,4-Dihydroxyacetophenone Isolated from Picea
schrenkiana Needle, Molecules, 2011, October 24.

Part 2: Visualizing predictions

You and your group will take three above ground biomass measurements in a later lab to assess
the effects of the two experimental factors (density and species composition) on growth of
collards and radishes. The three measurements are:
1. Average Leaf Weight
2. Average Stem Height
3. Average Number of Leaves per Pot

5. Construct two hypothetical graphs to display the expected outcome for above ground
biomass (leaves + stems) in:
a. The intraspecific case for radishes and collards [5]
b. The interspecific case for radishes and collards [5]

Graphs may be hand drawn or produced digitally. Remember to include all necessary labels
and components on your graph (main title, axis titles and units, caption). You currently
have no data, but you should be able to predict general trends in growth (think about what
these plants look like) and thus give possible patterns for the data that you will collect at
the end of the experiment.
See the example handout on Blackboard (Course Documents > Plant Competition > Plant
Competition Graph Example).

Overall Biomass (g) of Intraspecific Plant Species in High Density (HD) and Low Density (LD)
35

30

25
Overall Biomass (g)

20

15

10

0
LD HD
Raphanus sativus Brassica oleracea

Figure 1.0: The overall biomass of the monocultured plant species in both low and high
densities. Raphanus sativus showed a greater biomass than that of Brassica oleracea. Both
species had an increase in biomass under low density populations.
 BIOL301L – WS2

Overall Biomass (g) of Interspecific Plant Species in High Density (HD) and low Density (LD)
30

25

20
Overall Biomass (g)

15

10

0
LD HD
Raphanus sativus Brassica oleracea

Figure 2.0: The overall biomass of the mixed plant species in both low and high densities.
Raphanus sativus showed a greater biomass than that of Brassica oleracea. Both species
showed an increase in biomass under low density populations. As compared to figure 1.0
Both respective plant species showed a decrease in biomass.