Introduction

 Where are we going (Sugar Grove Nature Center) for the study?

We are going to the Sugar Grove Nature Center. The Sugar Grove Nature is in McClean, IL which

is in McClean County. It is located off Route 66. Sugar Grove was first developed in 1824 by

Absalom and Isaac Funk. They settled the land because it was close to water, had fertile soil, and

had timber for shelter and heat. In 1992 the land was purchased by the Funks Grove Cemetery

Association (FGCA). The primary members of the association were Stubblefield and Funk family

members. In 1995 the FGCA established the Sugar Gove Foundation where their mission was to

create a nurturing nature center. Due to this foundation it was possible to take this field trip and

research the land. Sugar Grove sits on appx. 3000 acres of land. The land consists of a majority of

prairie but also has smaller acreage of wooded lands with a small creek running through the

property.

 Graphs depicting average and current precipitation and temperatures

 What would a healthy prairie look like?

A healthy prairie has lots of biodiversity, fertile soil, and good drainage. How to tell a Mesic

prairie is healthy. They have very fertile soil as well as great drainage. A healthy prairie can

provide food and shelter for many animals and insects. The plants of the prairie have very strong

fibrous root systems and can withstand high winds due to the lack of other plants blocking wind

such as trees. A strong prairie would be one that would be able to bounce back from natural

disasters such as tornados or wild fires.

 How will you attempt to answer the research questions?

We’ve been practicing in class identifying some plants that we might find at the prairie. Once we

get to the prairie, we will choose our quadrant. Corinna and Ale will search for the insects in our

quadrant, while Paul and Jenette will count and identify the vegetation that they can find there.

Once we have this data, we can discuss if our prairie is healthy and answer the questions asked in

this project.

Methods

When out in the Prairie we split our group into 2 to cover the 2 pieces of data we needed, plants

and animals. Paul and Jenette coved the plants while Corinna and Ale found the animals. Paul

and Jenette collected the plant data by using the method of moving back a forth starting from the

10,10 coordinate of our quadrant and move back and forth moving east and west and then up by

appx. one coordinate to record all the plants as best as we could and this method seemed to work

the best. As they walked Jenette would identify the plant the appx. area where it was and Paul

recorded the information in the notebook and kept a running tally of all the plants called out. The

animal side with Corinna and Ale took a different method because it was a hunt to find the
animals. They walked through the field looked together and when they spotted an animal they

would share the responsibility of catching the animal with the net and then trapping it the

specimen jar. Corinna would then record the information in the journal where they found the

animal and how many they had collected. We then compiled the data when we got back to the

classroom and using the formulas Mr. Lee provided found our Shannon index and calculated our

findings.

Data:

We visted the Sugar Grove Nature Center on September 28, 2018. When we arrived at the

Nature center the temperature in the sun was warming but not enough to take off a sweatshirt

while the temperature in the shade was very cool. Also the sky was coved by about 10% of

clouds leaving the remaining 90% clear. The wind condition while we were there was constant

and based off the Beaufort Scale was appx. a 2 where the leaves were moving. The topography

of our quadrant was flat with very gentile slope. While we were there we collected our data for

the plants and animals we found in our 10 x 10 meter quadrant. Our finding are listed below.

Some of the evidence of humans being in the prairie was all of the moved trails and builds on the

grouds while we found evidence of animals by seeing humming bird (outside of quadrant) , deer

beds and deer scat. We also saw 7 little sulfur butterflies as well as and monarch and a painted

lady. When we left the property the temperature in the sun was hot while the temperature in the

shade remained cool. The cloud cover also changed when we left by 50% of the sky being filled

by clouds and the other 50% being clear.

Class Data
Our Data

Species Richness low

Evenness low
Dominance high
Overall Diversity medium
Shannon Index 1.873959893

Species Species ni pi
ln(pi) pi(ln(pi))
Big Bluestem (B) 0 0 0 0
Indian Grass (I) 5 0.009633911 -4.642465971 -0.044725106
Nodding Wild Rye (R) 0 0 0 0
Switch Grass (S) 6 0.011560694 -4.460144414 -0.051562363
Misc. Grasses (M) 25 0.048169557 -3.033028058 -0.146099617
Black Eyed Susan A 0 0 0 0
Boneset B 0 0 0 0
Brown Eyed Susan H 6 0.011560694 -4.460144414 -0.051562363
Chicory I 0 0 0 0
Compass Plant C 155 0.298651252 -1.208478766 -0.360913697
Cup Plant P 9 0.01734104 -4.054679306 -0.070312358
Drooping Cone
0
Flower D 0 0 0
Wild Bergamot W 34 0.065510597 -2.725543359 -0.178551973
Milkweed J 0 0 0 0
New England Aster N 0 0 0 0
Prairie Dock K 9 0.01734104 -4.054679306 -0.070312358
Stiff Goldenrod N 0 0 0 0
Sunflower S 0 0 0 0
Tall Goldenrod G 143 0.275529865 -1.289059253 -0.355174322
Thistle T 0 0 0 0
Heath Aster S 10 0.019267823 -3.94931879 -0.076094774
Misc. Forbs M 0 0 0 0
Aphids 1 0 0 0 0
Grass Hopper 2 4 0.007707129 -4.865609522 -0.037499881
Spiders 4 4 0.007707129 -4.865609522 -0.037499881
Ants/Flies/bees/mosq 5 100 0.192678227 -1.646733697 -0.31728973
Beetles 6 0 0 0 0
Moth Butterflies 7 8 0.015414258 -4.172462341 -0.064315412
Dragonfly 8 1 0.001926782 -6.251903883 -0.012046058
Birds 9 0 0 0 0
Amphibians 10 0 0 0 0
Reptiles 11 0 0 0 0
Misc. Animals 13 0 0 0 0
Total 519 -1.873959893
\
Conclusion

We believe that our Prairie is a semi-healthy prairie. We believe this because the Shannon index

in our quadrant is 1.874 and the entire groups index was a 2.094. The index could be a lot lower

and compared to the prairies in the area it seemed to have similar numbers, but we believe that it

also could have had a higher Shannon index and been more diverse which is why we believe it is

semi- healthy. Our evidence from this comes from the Floristic Quality Assessment for

vegetation in Illinois, a method for assessing vegetation integrity. The report stated that, “We

offer Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) for the Illinois flora as a versatile” While they said

the Shannon index was about a 2.6 this was for the whole state where they recorded some areas

as a zero and others as high as a five. Based on this evidence therefore we said our prairie was

semi-healthy. Along with the evidence that we acquired based on our findings we had

an extremely high dominance of tall golden rod and compass plant. Everything else that was

present was in a very small quantity and very spread and never really clumped together. Of the

21 different types of plants that we could have found we found and recorded 14 different kinds

which is why we established our diversity as medium since there was such a variety of different

kinds of plants. Our species richness and evenness we determined as low due to dominance of

the tall golden rod and compass plant. Our animal collection was also very similar to the plant

data collected in which the dominance was very high and was concentrated of ants, flies, bees,

mosquitos which we can all testify there was all kinds of out in the field. Of the 13 different

kinds of animals we found 5 of them so we determined the diversity as a medium. The species

richness and evenness were low due to large dominance of ant, flies, bees, mosquitos. We felt

that if we could have used more of the property to record the animals and only the animals then

we would have found more of the categories as well as make the animal environment more
balanced. Overall, from the data we collected and explained the sugar grove prairie is a semi-

healthy prairie due to the 1.874 Shannon index and a medium diversity all though it was all

dragged down by the dominance of the tall golden rod and compass plants.
 Works Cited

“A Complex Prairie Ecosystem.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior,

www.nps.gov/tapr/learn/nature/a-complex-prairie-ecosystem.htm.

“History.” Sugar Grove Nature Center, McLean,

Illinois, www.sugargrovenaturecenter.org/history.html.

Taft, John B. “FLORISTIC QUALITY ASSESSMENT FOR VEGETATION IN ILLINOIS A

METHOD FOR ASSESSING VEGETATION

INTEGRITY.” ResearchGate, www.researchgate.net/.