Post Lab 3: Results Section and Figures

Carefully read the results section of the paper “CLIMATE CHANGE, MULTIPLE PATERNITY
AND OFFSPRING SURVIVAL IN LIZARDS”. Answer the questions pertaining to the results
section.
• Why type of graph is Figure 1?
A Scatterplot
• What is the independent variable in Fig. 1? What is the dependent variable?
The independent variable is mean daily temperature in Celsius, while the dependent
variable is the average number of sires in a clutch.
• What do the lines on the data points represent in Figure 1?
The average number of male sand lizards in a group of eggs
• Look at how the axis are labeled.
• What is the label for the x-axis?
Mean daily temperature
• What is the unit for the x-axis?
Celsius
• What is the label for the y-axis?
Mean no of sires in a clutch
• What is the unit for the y-axis?
+/- SE
• Examine the figure caption and how it is written. Summarize the information given in the
caption in your own words.
In Laymans terms, the caption is saying that weather influences the average amount of
male sand lizard eggs. Specifically, that it increases as the temperature gets warmer.
• Describe the data trends this graph visually shows?
It shows an increase of the average number of male sand lizards in a clutch as the
temperature also increases
• What values are reported in the results section?
Fixed effects, slope coefficients, offspring mean mass and others. I do not know what they mean.
• What trend(s) in the data are described?
Paternity (the mean number of fathers in each clutch) increases as the temperature gets warmer
• Are any results explained or analyzed? If so, what?
The researchers mentioned that the 'fixed effects' were the number of sires per clutch, which was
labeled F = 5.4, P = 0.02