Brooke Troxell

Biology 301 laboratory Section 006

Density Effect and Competition Between Radishes (Raphinus sativa)

and Collards (Brassica oleraceae)

Abstract

A common question in ecology is how do intraspecific and interspecific

competitions influence the fitness of individuals in a population. In this

experiment, we address both types of competition by comparing 6

treatments of radishes (R. sativa) and collards (B. oleraceae) at different

densities and in both monotone and mixed species environments. I

hypothesized that high density would have a negative effect on plant growth.

The data collected supported this hypothesis and statistical analysis

supported that it was a significant difference. I also hypothesized that there

would not be a significant difference in growth between the radishes and

collards. However, the data collected refutes this hypothesis as statistical

analysis shows that there was a significant difference between the percent

survivorship of the radishes as compared to the collards.

Introduction

One of the essential questions of ecology is how intraspecific competition

(competition between individuals of the same species) and interspecific

competition (competition between individuals of different species) influence

the fitness of individuals in populations. Plants are often used to experiment

with this question as their populations and habitats are easy to control (Metz

et al, 2013). How intraspecific and interspecific competitions influence

fitness has real-world applications as farmers can use data to maximize crop

yield and calculate the effects of weeds on their crops (Armin and

Asghripour, 2011). For example, in 2011, Armin and Asghripour performed an

experiment that analyzed the effect of density on wheat crops and how the

weed wild oat affected the fitness of the wheat crop. In the experiment this

paper covers, we also attempted to address both intraspecific and

interspecific aspects of the ecological question by placing two different

species (radishes: Raphinus sativa and collards: Brassica oleraceae) in low

density and high density environments by themselves and with individuals of

the different species. I hypothesized that density would have a negative

effect on the growth of plants (including number of leaves, leaf weight, stem

weight, and underground biomass) because of intraspecific competition for

limiting resources (Metz et al., 2013). I also hypothesized that mixed

speciation would not have an effect on percent survival; there would not be a

significant difference of growth between the species in single or mixed

habitats because I did not think the species would have more of an influence

on competition for limiting resources than density. The null hypothesis is

that density would have no effect on growth or percent survival.

Materials and Methods

In this experiment we had 6 different treatments with 4 repetitions for each

treatment, for a total of 24 treatments. The 6 treatments were 8 radishes,

64 radishes, 8 collards, 64 collards, 4 radishes and 4 collards, and 32

radishes and 32 collards. Each treatment was planted in a 4 inch by 4 inch

by 4 inch cubic container and was exposed to the same amount of light and

water in a greenhouse. The seeds were distributed equidistantly in each pot

and then covered with a thin layer (about 1 cm) of soil. After six weeks of

letting the plants grow, we terminated the experiment and collected data.

We cleaned as much dirt out of the plants as possible, then separated the

underground biomass, stems, and leaves to find the total number of plants,

average underground biomass, average mass of stems, average mass of

leaves, and average number of leaves. We performed t-tests to determine if

density had a significant effect on the growth of the plants and to determine

if there was a significant difference in the survival of one species with

respect to the other.

Results

In order to examine the implications of intraspecific competition on individual

fitness, we compared the high and low density treatments of the individual

and different species (shown in figures 1, 2, 3, and 4).

Effect of Density of Number of Leaves per Plant
4.50
4.00
C-8 C-64 R-8 R-64 Mixed-8-C Mixed-64-C
3.50
3.00
2.50
Average number of leaves per plant
2.00
Mixed-8-R Mixed-64-R
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00

Figure 1. The average number of leaves per plant of the comparative low
and high densities, respectively, juxtaposed.

Effect of Density on Mean Leaf Weight

1.40
C-8 C-64 R-8 R-64 1.20
Mixed-8-C Mixed-64-C

1.00

0.80
Average Leaf Weight (grams) 0.60
Mixed-8-R Mixed-64-R
0.40

0.20

0.00
1
Figure 2. The average leaf weight, in grams, of the treatments of the
comparative low and high densities, respectively, juxtaposed.
Effect of Density on Mean Stem Weight
0.40

C-8 C-64 R-8 R-64 0.35

Mixed-8-C Mixed-64-C
0.30

0.25

Average Stem Weight (grams) 0.20

Mixed-8-R Mixed-64-R 0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00
Figure 3. The average stem weight, in grams, of the treatments of the
comparative low and high densities, respectively, juxtaposed.

Effect of Density on Below Ground Biomass

1.20

C-8 C-64 Mixed-8-C Mixed-64-C 1.00

R-8 R-64

0.80

Av erage Below Groung Biomass (grams) 0.60

Mixed-8-R Mixed-64-R
0.40

0.20

0.00

Figure 4. The average below ground biomass, in grams, of the treatment of

the comparative low and high densities, respectively, juxtaposed.
In all of our criteria of growth and survival (number of leaves per plant,

average leaf weight, average stem weight, and average below ground

biomass), the lower densities treatments did better than the high density

treatments, even in the mixed species treatments except for when the

collards were mixed with the radishes (see figures 1, 2, 3, and 4). To

determine if these differences were significant, we performed t-tests for each

comparison of low to high density (see Table 1). To examine the effects of

interspecific competition, we compared the percent survival of radishes

versus collards (see figure 5). The radishes did better in the experimental

conditions than the collards in both monotone and mixed species treatments

(see figure 5). To determine whether these differences were significant, we

performed t-tests comparing the survival of radishes and collards of similar

densities (see table 2).

Percent Survivorship
C-8
1.00
C-64
0.90
Mixed-8-C
0.80
Mixed-64-C
0.70
R-8
0.60
Percent Survival 0.50 R-64

0.40 Mixed-8-R

0.30 Mixed-64-R
0.20
0.10
0.00

Figure 5. The percent survival for each treatment with comparative density
treatments juxtaposed.
Table 1. P-values calculated by performing a t-test to determine if a
significant difference exists in the growth of low and high densities.
T-test
# leaves per plant p-value
C-8 vs. C-64 0.006115
R-8 vs. R-64 2.76E-11
MC-8 vs. MC-64 0.488943
MR-8 vs. MR-64 0.000318

mean leaf weight

C-8 vs. C-64 8.73E-05
R-8 vs. R-64 1.6E-10
MC-8 vs. MC-64 0.000255
MR-8 vs. MR-64 3.61E-06

mean stem weight

C-8 vs. C-64 0.001058
R-8 vs. R-64 0.034275
MC-8 vs. MC-64 0.003282
MR-8 vs. MR-64 0.049792

below ground
biomass
C-8 vs. C-64 0.02915
R-8 vs. R-64 1.22E-05
MC-8 vs. MC-64 0.487929
MR-8 vs. MR-64 0.000105

Table 2. P-values calculated by performing a t-test to determine if a

significant difference exists between percent survival of radishes and
collards.
T-test P-
value
5.41337E-
C-8 vs. R-8 10
2.68476E-
C-64 vs. R-64 18
Mixed-8-C vs. Mixed-8- 2.76752E-
R 08
Mixed-64-C vs. Mixed- 3.30926E-
64-R 16

Discussion
I hypothesized that the individuals in the lower density treatments would

survive better than the individuals in the high density treatments. This

hypothesis is supported by the significant difference between each

comparative low and high density treatments, even with mixed species (see

figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 and table 1). Therefore, the difference in the different

density treatments shows that access to and competition for limiting

resources, both intraspecifically and interspecifically, have a significant

impact on individual growth and fitness (Metz et al., 2013). However, the

collards, when mixed in with radishes, did not vary with respect to density. I

also hypothesized that there would not be a significant difference in the

survival of the two different species of plants. However, this hypothesis is

refuted by the significant difference between the radish percent survival and

the collard percent survival (see figure 5 and table 2). The data showed that

the radishes did better than the collards over the course of the experiment

even when not exposed to interspecific competition. This is also

demonstrated by the fact that the collards, when mixed in with radishes, had

very low survivorship not dependent on the density (see figures 1, 2, 3, 4,

and 5). Therefore, even though there is a significant difference supporting

the radishes victory of interspecific competition, the overall poor

developmental quality of the collards makes me question the integrity of the

design of the experiment to the ideal conditions for collards. More

experimentation can be done with an environment that is more ideal for both
collards and radishes so that a fiercer interspecific battle for limiting

resources can be observed.

Acknowledgements

I would like to give credit to Amanda Schlemmer, Audrey Baudendistel, and

Greg Sippel for their assistance with initiation and maintenance of the

experiment. Amanda Schlemmer and Greg Sippel also helped greatly with

the collection and analysis of data.

Literature Cited

Armin, M. and Asghripour, M. 2011. Effect of plant density on wild oat

competition with competitive and non-competitive wheat cultivars.

Agricultural Sciences in China. 10. 1554-1561.

Metz, J., Seidel, D., Schall, P., Scheffer, D., Schulze, E., Amner, C. 2013.

Crown modeling by terrestrial laser scanning as an approach to assess

the effect of aboveground intra- and interspecific competition on tree

growth. Forest Ecology and Management. 310. 275-288.