Answer Happy

As a marine ecologist, you are interested in determining whether marsh grass growth is decreased by algal settlement on top of marsh grass blades. You design an experiment in which replicate marsh grasses start with one of three densities of algae growing on them: no algae, 50% of the blade covered by algae, and 100% of the blade covered by algae. Over the next month, you measure the growth of the grass blades in cm. At the end of the experiment, you analyze your data and find that, on average, the blades that were 100% covered in algae were smallest while the no algae treatment blades were largest. Your ANOVA has a p-value of p = 0.0843. Did the results of your experiment support the hypothesis that algal presence has a negative effect on marsh grass growth? Yes, grass blades covered in algae grew less than the blades without algae, and this result was statistically significant No, based on the analysis we cannot reject the null hypothesis that there was no difference between the three algae treatments