Plant Composition in Lake Munson and Lake Hiawatha

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Plant Composition in Lake Munson and Lake Hiawatha

• How does plant composition of Lake Munson compare
  to a more pristine lake?
• Kevin Harrison
• Terrance Mathis
• Kelvin Durant
• Marcus Thompkins
• Victor Wiley
• Kevin Green

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Background Information

• Lake Hiawatha is part of the Bradford Brooks
  Chain of Lakes, an important recreational area.
  The Chain is formed as water flows from Lake
  Cascade into Lake Hiawatha, then to Lake Bradford
  and on into Grassy Lake. Magnificent cypress
  trees surround these lakes. The waters are very
  tannic and acidic.
• Leon County began the restoration of Lake Munson
  by constructing a storm water treatment facility
  at Lake Henrietta. The facility treats runoff
  before it enters Lake Munson. In addition, Munson
  Slough was upgraded and stabilized from the
  restored Lake Henrietta to the beginning of Lake
  Munson.

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Research Question

• How does plant species diversity and abundance
  differ between Lake Hiawatha and Lake Munson?

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HYPOTHESIS

• Lake Hiawatha gets water from natural runoff and
  thus will have higher species diversity and more
  plants overall.
• Since Lake Munson is a more polluted lake,
  drawing water from urban runoff, it will have
  fewer species and fewer plants in the environment
  because of the urban pollution.

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Procedure

• Specify 3 different points along the shore of
  each lake.
• With a stake mark 7 meters to the left and right
  of the point.
• At these two points mark 2 meters on and off
  shore with a stake.
• Divide this created quadrat into three sections
  with string so there are six sections, 3 onshore
  and 3 offshore.
• Identify and count the number of each plant
  species in each section of each quadrat.

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Lake Munson Data

• 
  Q1L Q1W
  Q2L Q2W
• Lake Munson 1
• A Knotweed 0
  0
  0 27
• B Sedge 4
  0
  7 0
• C Water penny wort 0
  0
  25 4
• D Parrot feather 0
  0
  0 14
• E Quillwort 90
  0
  120 0
• F Bog rushes 3
  0
  0 0
• G Alligator weed 0
  23
  0 10
• Lake Munson 2
• A Water penny wort 0
  16
  0 8
• B Knotweed 3
  12
  0 6
• C Bog rushes 6
  0
  5 0
• D Sedge 13
  0
  6 0
• E Unknown 29
  0
  14 0
• Lake Munson 3
• A Water penny wort 21
  26
  26 13

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Lake Hiawatha Data

• Q1W
  Q1L Q2W Q2L
• Lake Hiawatha1
• A Southern Naiad 28 19
  15 11
• B Unknown 1 0
  0 36 25
• C Road Grass 0
  143 0 0
• Lake H 2
• A Southern Naiad 15 12
  9 11
• B Unknown 1 33
  27 11 15
• C Road Grass 0
  0 105 120
• D Mangrove Tree
  1
• Lake Hiawatha 3
• A Southern Naiad 49
  42 30 27
• B Unknown 1 2
  3 3 1
• C Road Grass 127
  0 178 0

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Discussion

• Sometimes plants clumped together in one
  particular quadrat which is why there may be
  plants in one quadrat but half the number in the
  next.
• It is obvious that some plants belong on either
  land or water because they show in the data on
  either QL or QW but not both.
• Large numbers usually indicate that the plant was
  small and plentiful.
• We noticed a greater variety of plants at Lake
  Munson. Lake Hiawatha only had a few plant
  species but was very abundant when it came to
  those plants.

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Improvements

• We could have more than one type of plant
  Identification just in case a plant isnt in one
  book.
• Have more than one person count plants each time
  for a more accurate count.

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Conclusions

• Our hypothesis stated that because Lake Munson is
  polluted, the more fragile plants that cant
  handle the pollution in Lake Munson would survive
  in a less polluted Lake Hiawatha along with the
  more durable plants who can handle both lakes.
  However, our initial survey found that Lake
  Hiawatha had fewer plant species possibly due to
  being out-competed for nutrients by the large
  Cypress trees in the lake.
• We would need to make a more complete survey of
  both Lakes before being able to draw a
  generalized conclusion to our research question.
• We could also improve our investigation by
  determining how much of the plant composition at
  both lakes was native versus exotic species.

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Possible Sources of Error

• Counting errors
• Misidentifying different plant species
• Mismeasuring quadrants