Shannon Patrick

Bio 103
SimBio Research Paper

Introduction:
I am studying an ecosystem located at the bottom of an ocean, specifically the ocean
floor. There is a wide variety of marine life within this ecosystem, and inevitably there are
several predator prey relationships. These relationships are described by the following four
levels, Producers, Stationary Consumers, Mobile Consumers, and Invasive Mobile Consumers.
The producers are made up of, Nori Seaweed, Black Pine, and Coral Weed, the Stationary
Consumers consist of Gooseneck Barnacle, Acorn Barnacle, and Mussel, the Mobile Consumers
are Whelk, Starfish, and Chitin, and lastly the Invasive Mobile Consumer is the Green Crab.
With this many organisms, there is bound to be some competition prevalent due to the constant
need for resources.
One form of competition observed in this ecosystem is between the Whelk, Starfish, and
Green Crab for a common resource of food, Gooseneck Barnacle. Another form of competition
seen in this ecosystem is between the Green Crab and Whelk for Acorn Barnacle. One last form
of competition is between the Starfish and Green Crab for the Mussel. Although competition is
prevalent it is reduced through resource partitioning.
Hypothesis:
I believe that if I increase the amount of Whelk, the amount of Starfish will decrease. I
believe this will happen because both the Whelk and Starfish prey on a common resource,
Gooseneck Barnacle. Thus if the amount of Whelk increases and the amount of Gooseneck
Barnacle remains constant, there will be less of a food resource for the Starfish.
Method:
The variable I will be manipulating, the independent variable, will be the amount of
Whelk. The variable I will be studying the change of, the dependent variable, will be the amount
of Starfish. I will increase the Whelk population by 10, 20, and 30. I plan to test each Whelk
population variation for the duration of 10 weeks. I will test each population variation for the
same time duration, three times to ensure precision and accuracy.
Results:
Whelk Population

Starfish Population
Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Average

10

20

21

21

20.67

20

18

19

21

19.3

30

18

18

21

19

Discussion:
From this experiment I learned that by increasing the number of Whelk it did not
substantially affect the population of Starfish. As previously stated in my hypothesis, I thought
the population of Starfish would noticeably decrease after increasing the amount of Whelk. The
results partially supported by hypothesis because on average the population decreased but very
minimally and occasionally increased. A possible reason why these results did not completely
support my hypothesis is that I did not increase the amount of Whelk enough to make a
noticeable difference in the Starfish population. In the future I would increase the amount of
Whelk by 100 for the same 10 week period, to see if that would make a larger impact on the
Starfish population.