“Is this Prairie Healthy?

”
Assessing the biotic and abiotic health of
the Funks Grove Nature Preserve

By: Noah Pounds, Renee Jumonville, Prathik Gowda, and Fiona Ward
Shaw

AP Environmental Science 2018-19

 Introduction
Where are we going?
In this survey, we attempted to assess the overall health of the prairie land at Funks
Grove Nature Center in Illinois. Funks Grove is among over 1,000 acres of natural land, most of
which is protected as registered Illinois Land & Water Reserves or dedicated Illinois Nature
Preserves. “Funks Grove is the largest remaining intact prairie grove in the state of Illinois and
portions have been designated a National Natural Landmark by the U.S. Department of Interior”
(Funks Grove). The purpose of the land is largely to preserve the natural beauty and resources
of Central Illinois, and to provide outdoor education and recreational opportunities for the
citizens of the surrounding areas.

Climate data:
Prior to our survey, we gathered climate data about the surrounding area (Graphs 1A-
1C). Over the past 100 years, Central Illinois has experienced an overall increase in observed
summer precipitation (1A), an above average number of extreme precipitation events since the
1990s (1B), and a 1℉ total increase in temperature since 1900 (1C). The 2000s were the
highest temperature decade, with the exception of the 1930s Dust Bowl era. Average
temperature in Illinois is expected to greatly increase within the coming decades.
Climate data source: https://statesummaries.ncics.org/il

What should a healthy prairie look like?

The purpose of our field data collection was to evaluate the overall health of this prairie.
In order to fully assess this health, we needed to first look at ideal ranges for the factors we
studied. In Central Illinois, a healthy prairie is expected to fall within the following biotic and
abiotic ranges:
● Soil pH: 6-7
○ http://www.forages.psu.edu/topics/species_variety_trials/species/agfacts/
agfact39.pdf
● Soil nitrate levels: 7 ppm (parts per million)
○ https://homeguides.sfgate.com/normal-soil-nitrate-levels-80102.html
● Plant biodiversity:
● Animal biodiversity:

How will we answer our research question?

We will attempt to answer the overall question of health by comparing the above ranges
to our collected data. A complete set of research methods is outlined below. Post data
collection, we compared the correlations between data sets, seen in the data analysis sections
below.

Graph 1A:
Graph 1B:

Graph 1C:
 Research Methods
What will we measure?
In this report, we will measure the following factors: soil nitrate levels, soil pH levels,
plant biodiversity, and animal/insect biodiversity. Plant and animal biodiversity were measured
by the entire class, but soil pH and nitrate levels were only assessed by our one research group.

How will we measure it?

● Soil pH and nitrate levels were taken using the soil testing kits provided by Bloomington
High School. Once at Funks Grove, we randomly selected a patch of land to assess.
With a clean shovel, we scraped small, marble-sized amounts of dirt from just below the
surface into separate test tubes. Then, we poured clean, bottled water into each of the
tubes. After combining the water and soil, we dropped pH indicator correlated to the
desired compound. Once thoroughly mixed, we inserted the litmus papers into the tubes,
and compared their color changes to the color levels indicated on the testing kit’s key.
Noah Pounds was the researcher in charge of collecting this data.
● Plant biodiversity was assessed by cataloging every plant in within our 10x10x10 meter
area of prairieland (randomly assigned). We recorded every plant in the plot by marking
them on a piece of graph paper with initials corresponding to plant type. Every research
group in the class did this, so we later combined our plant catalogue with the rest of the
class, to create a larger-scale assessment. Fiona Ward Shaw, Renee Jumonville, and
Noah Pounds were the researchers involved in collecting this data.
● Animal and insect biodiversity was assessed by recording all of the insects, birds, and
butterflies seen during the survey. When spotted, insects and butterflies were captured,
identified, recorded, and released into a separate part of the prairie, so as to not become
repeat captures. Insects were captured using butterfly nets and small jars, and were
identified using the catalogue provided by Bloomington High School. This data was
primarily collected by Fiona Ward Shaw.

Data
Group Data:
 Funks Grove demonstrates low species richness, low evenness, high dominance, and
low overall density. The following graph demonstrates the overwhelming concentration
of stiff goldenrods compared to
other plants in the environment.
This demonstrates the high
dominance of a certain plant in
the environment. Because of
this large outlier, complete
evenness would be difficult to
achieve- considering a majority
of the plants are below 50 in
count. Further, the overall
diversity would be very low due
to the excess of stiff goldenrods,
sunflowers, and misc. grasses
and lack thereof pink guara, tall
goldenrod, and black-eyed Susans. Numerically, the evenness of the plants is
Shannon's index of 2.32, leaning more towards evenness than complete disorder.

Nitrate level: 40 lb A/6” or approximately 20 ppm (This according to the soil test was low)

Why are there so many Stiff Goldenrods?

Stiff Goldenrods are often debated upon whether they should be adored or treated as a
menace for their dominance in the fields. The Stiff Goldenrods windblown seeds spread
mostly towards perennial grasses (grasses that live more than two years), where
competition is light. This situation is ideal for the Stiff goldenrod as they are fierce when
it comes to competition, unlike Black-eyed susans. Because of the goldenrods xeric
nature(Adapted towards dry habitat), its seeds are produced heavier than most which
allow further penetration into the soil. After resting in the soil, Stiff Goldenrods would
have no problem germinating: an Ohio State University study concluded the Stiff
goldenrod seeds have a germination rate of 70% which is higher than most prairie
plants. Furthermore, through biological advantages, the Stiff golden rod was able to
dominate the light based community of the roadside prairie habitat observed. Leading to
low species richness and high dominance from the all too competitive Stiff
goldenrod. The following map, showing the presence of Stiff goldenrods in
Illinois, describes the characteristics and explains why our data was skewed
towards goldenrods. However, although misguided, many farmers are currently
taking action against goldenrods for their growth in Prairies. Further, over time
the data will trend toward near evenness moreso(@renee fight me
http://grammarist.com/usage/moreso/) than now.
Class Data:

Above is the class data organized by group for how many plants of each species they found in
their quadrant. The white columns on the right combine all the groups data to find average
values for the whole class. The density is the population of the specific species found within a
100 meter squared quadrant. The dominance is the percent that species makes up of all the
plants found. One plant species with an overwhelming dominance is the Tall Goldenrod. With a
dominance of 51.01%, the Tall Goldenrod makes up the slight majority of the plants found. This
is possibly indicative of poor species diversity and/or richness.

Class Animals Data:

Above is the class data divided by group for how many animals of each species they found in
their quadrant. The white columns on the right combine all the groups data to find average
values for the whole class. The density is the population of the specific species found within a
100 meter squared quadrant. The dominance is the percent that species makes up of all the
animals found. Making up 48.88% of the animal species, Ants/Flies/bees/mosquitos have a high
dominance in the community. This is indicative of lesser species richness and/or diversity.

Class Data Analysis:

The “Species” ID Code is the

value/symbol used to record the
occurrence of a species while we
were collecting our data. The “ni”
value is the number of individuals of
that species found. The “pi” value is
the relative abundance, or the
proportion of the whole population
that that species represents. The
Shannon Diversity Index is a
measure of species diversity within
an ecosystem. It’s calculated by the
formula:
s

H = ∑ - (Pi * ln Pi)
i=1
It is represented by the column
“pi(ln(pi))” in the above class data
analysis sheet. The absolute value
for the class’s Shannon Diversity
Index is a 2.082230357. Higher
values indicate a more diverse community. Since typical values for most ecological studies
range from 1.5 to 3.5 (with possible values exceeding 4), we can conclude that Funks Grove
was not very species diverse.

Conclusion
Plant Biodiversity:
The Shannon index of 2.34, for our group data, we calculated is low meaning there is
very little plant diversity. Tall grasses normally dominate the prairie; however of all the data
found there was very little tall grass. The class data with a shannon index of 2 reflected the the
diversity and alarming lack of tall grass of our group. This is an indicator of unhealthiness. While
a study by the Ecological Society of America found that tall grass domination tends to go up with
conservation; our prairie was almost completely lacking in it.
Along this strain of data, the over abundance of golden rod, both tall and stiff, may
indicate unhealthiness as it is a common concern that golden rod’s dominate nature will allow it
to out compete other pants; however a study done by “the American Naturalist” found that
goldenrod abundance was normal despite its potential threat and its dominance alone does not
indicate unhealthiness in a prairie.
Putting it all together, we cannot say our prairie is healthy. The lack of tall gasses and
the inclusion of invasive species such as thistle are keen indicators of a poorly conserved
prairie.
Our group was pleased to find indicator species such as milkweed; however it was in
such low density that they did not indicate a thriving prairie.

Animal and Insect Biodiversity:

The majority of the insect genuses were found by the class as whole. This means that
insect wise the prairie is rather healthy. The only concern with this was the lack of butterfly
diversity and animals; however this can be accounted to the time of year and noise level of the
class. According to a study done by “Biodiversity and Conservation” there should have been a
much higher number of butterflies present in the area, but due to the time of year, late
september with several cold days prior to the trip, the migration of the butterfly species present
at the prairie may have already migrated.
The issue with the lack of animal can be boiled down to the amount of noise our class
made. The loud noise and violent prairie traversing done by the class may have driven off any
potential animals resulting in zero animals being seen.
While animal and insect diversity are a good indicator of prairie health, the noise, time of
year, and lack of focus on this aspect of prairie health makes it hard to properly determine
whether the prairie is healthy based on animals and insects.

Soil:
Our nitrate level was 20 ppm this is very far from the expected 7 ppm. Normally a 1
sample t-test would be used to determine if this fit the expected average however as there is
only one value we simply took it as face value. Since the margin of error from the ideal value
was 64% for a confidence interval of 80 and the percent error was 185.71 it can be assumed
that the prairie is unhealthy; however it needs further investigation.

As a whole the section of prairie our class studied would not be considered to be
healthy. The overabundance of goldenrod, lack of animals, and high nitrate levels show
unhealthy prairie. Despite this we would find our data to be inconclusive from a scientific
standpoint as time of year, presence of other humans, and low quantity sampling may have
skewed data. Sadly, this does not excuse the goldenrod issue, our highest indicator of prairie
unhealthiness.

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