Question 5 (16 marks) Island blogeography is an interesting field of ecological study. It is known that lizards and inse

[answerhappygod]

Question 5 16 Marks Island Blogeography Is An Interesting Field Of Ecological Study It Is Known That Lizards And Inse 1 (79.35 KiB) Viewed 97 times

Question 5 (16 marks) Island blogeography is an interesting field of ecological study. It is known that lizards and insects evolve to larger sizes on islands and that both animal and floral diversity increases with Island size. A recently published study by plant biologist Patrick Kavanagh of the University of Wellington in NZ investigated the average seed size of plants on Islands compared to the same or equivalent plant species on the mainland. The basic data is presented in the file "Seed Area" available from the SC11020 Moodle site in the "Assessment block. It presents the data of the average seed area for different plant types on Islands and on the mainland. The values are averages of many measurements in each plant type. (Data file has been adapted from Kavanagh PH, Burns KC. 2014 "The repeated evolution of large seeds on islands." Proc. R. Soc. B 281: 20140675. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0675 and described in http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/ ... 007567.htm) Investigate what mathematical function best describes how the seed area on islands varies with the seed area of that plant on the mainland. a) What type of association is present? b) State the most appropriate mathematical function for the relationship in the data. Your answer must show all necessary (and well-presented) Excel plots as evidence for the most appropriate model for this data. c) State the best equation that describes the relationship to predict the seed area on the island from the seed area of the corresponding mainland species. d) Use the best model to estimate the average seed area of a plant species that on the mainland has an average seed size of 80mm e) Do you see any difficulty with the data to think that this model determination and thus predictions of size are fully accurate or not?
1 Plant ID Mainland variety 2 3 4 1 2 3 5 5 7 $ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Seed Arcamm) Island variety 14.56 1.27 55.4 8.7 18.01 5.93 11.75 9.04 3.26 3.59 4.05 85.79 6.98 14.26 21.61 1.83 6.74 11.14 45.52 26.96 35.52 12.95 4.42 2.35 17. 5.03 21.88 1.44 0.89 0.73 0.73 4.27 4.27 23.93 12.64 1.74 1.74 1.48 3.08 7.92 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 19.94 3.26 71.78 33.3 40.44 18.63 13.93 20.43 9.87 3.94 2.33 171.83 9.1 28.85 38.76 1.17 19.92 12.03 55.4 43.52 31.57 11.44 5.23 1.6 15.93 4.27 38.63 2.81 0.51 3.57 3.4 2.08 2.78 43.52 17.32 1.54 1.86 1.27 5.23 5.23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 44