Question

A scientist was observing a population of sea cucumbers in coastal waters. Over a 10-day period, she collected the following information about the distribution of the individuals within a 10-meter square plot:

Distribution of Sea Cucumbers within a 10-Meter Square Plot
Time of Day Average Distance between Individuals (cm)
Midnight 7.0
4 a.m. 7.8
8 a.m. 43.7
Noon 172.0
4 p.m. 349.5
8 p.m. 58.9
Midnight 7.0
Use the data above as a basis as you answer the following questions:
(a) Identify THREE biotic or abiotic factors that could cause the sea cucumbers to vary their distance from each other throughout the day. (b) Using one of the factors listed in part (a) as an independent variable, write a hypothesis that proposes how this variable could cause the sea cucumbers to vary their distance from each other. (c) Design a procedure for a controlled experiment to test your hypothesis. (d) Describe the results that would support your proposed hypothesis and the results that would refute your hypothesis.

Answer 1

The abiotic factors that could cause the sea cucumbers to differ their distance from one another are temperature, time of the day, and humidity. The biotic factors that could influence are the organisms around these creatures. Furthermore, the independent variable in this study is the time of the day where observed are the average distance between these sea creatures and their output, the distribution of sea cucumbers as the dependent variable.

Hypothesis: There is a link between the time of the day and the distance of sea cucumbers amongst each other.