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At this point, I have completed the collection of all my data. In the Small Assignment #5, I have made some graphs using the data I collected from the field (garden) for this experiment.
My graph demonstrates the relationship between the number of other types of plants growing in 30 cm from each bean plant (sample plant), and each individual plant’s growth estimated using its leaf and bean pod numbers. Each graph is a representation of sample data from one garden bed. While summarizing my data, I did not have any major difficulties, but it rather helped me to see if really there was a correlation between both the independent and dependent variables. It also helped me to eliminate one row of data recorded from when I collected data, in which all numbers were 0, except for only one sample, in which there were 6 flowers per bean plant.
Referring back to my hypothesis, which involved determining whether the presence of other plant species growing near an individual bean (Phaseolus vulgarus) plant contributes to its growth and abundance. When I did the experiment, I was looking forward to understanding whether greater diversity in garden plots would reduce the intraspecific competitions; therefore, leading to larger bean plants. However, the results obtained from the experiment, were unexpected, as I anticipated a positive relationship between the growth of the bean plant, and diversity of plants near it. Some of the results indicates a negative correlation, others weak positive correlation, and the rest show no correlation. This opened my mind to further explore the effect of greater diversity of plants in the same garden bed, or in a close area. I also want to explore the effects of interspecific as well as intraspecific competition. I wonder if either ever favours the growth of bean plants, or if there are perhaps other confounding variables that might be leading to the bean growth and abundance. Finally, I am looking forward to comparing my research results with other results from literature, as I continue to write my report.
