An Experiment on the Change in Precipitation
Change in Precipitation
Ramon Pena
BIO101
February 14, 2011
Dr. Richard Steiner
Change in Precipitation
Introduction
This experiment will take course during a 300-year-time -period simulation. This experiment will consist of two islands, Darwin Island, Wallace Island and take only into account the bird population of these two islands. The parameter will stay the same, except for one variable; precipitation. I will record how the precipitation changes the beak size of the bird population and what other effects it has on them. My hypothesis is that if the amount of precipitation is changed in one of the island then there will be more food. If there is more food in one of the islands then I can assume that more birds have access to more food, thus requiring a bird’s beak to stay the same while the birds from the other island have an increase in beak size due to the fact that they have to scavenge more for their food.
Materials
For this experiment, I will use a windows-based desktop computer with a 24-inch monitor for better viewing of graphs and simulations. I will also use notebook for recording cross time period information. Within the computer, I will be using a Java-based tool simulation, named Evolution Lab that will run the experiment and demonstrate the results. This will be the most important material for this experiment.
Procedures
First, this experiment takes place on a computer simulation called Evolution Lab. The Evolution lab can be accessed through the University of Phoenix web portal for students and faculty members. Upon access to the simulation and starting up there is a button that can change the inputs of certain parameters, in this experiment, I will only change the amount of precipitation that falls on one of the islands. Upon changing the amount I can already see that there is a change in food.
The seed from the island that we are changing precipitation is Darwin Island. The amount of change is by two. Wallace Island will get
Ramon Pena
BIO101
February 14, 2011
Dr. Richard Steiner
Change in Precipitation
Introduction
This experiment will take course during a 300-year-time -period simulation. This experiment will consist of two islands, Darwin Island, Wallace Island and take only into account the bird population of these two islands. The parameter will stay the same, except for one variable; precipitation. I will record how the precipitation changes the beak size of the bird population and what other effects it has on them. My hypothesis is that if the amount of precipitation is changed in one of the island then there will be more food. If there is more food in one of the islands then I can assume that more birds have access to more food, thus requiring a bird’s beak to stay the same while the birds from the other island have an increase in beak size due to the fact that they have to scavenge more for their food.
Materials
For this experiment, I will use a windows-based desktop computer with a 24-inch monitor for better viewing of graphs and simulations. I will also use notebook for recording cross time period information. Within the computer, I will be using a Java-based tool simulation, named Evolution Lab that will run the experiment and demonstrate the results. This will be the most important material for this experiment.
Procedures
First, this experiment takes place on a computer simulation called Evolution Lab. The Evolution lab can be accessed through the University of Phoenix web portal for students and faculty members. Upon access to the simulation and starting up there is a button that can change the inputs of certain parameters, in this experiment, I will only change the amount of precipitation that falls on one of the islands. Upon changing the amount I can already see that there is a change in food.
The seed from the island that we are changing precipitation is Darwin Island. The amount of change is by two. Wallace Island will get
References: EvolutionLab, 2001. California State University and Benjamin Cummings.