Final answer:
To find the y-intercept and slope, we use the least-squares regression formula with the data provided. The predicted value for chaparral shrubs with 57 mg of non-native grass biomass is calculated using the regression line equation. The residual is the difference between the observed and predicted values for the chaparral shrubs biomass.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the y-intercept and slope of the least-squares regression line for predicting the biomass of chaparral shrubs based on non-native grass biomass, we use the given information to establish a linear equation in the form of y = mx + b, where m is the slope and b is the y-intercept. However, it seems there was a mention of a slope of 0.401 but no intercept provided. Assuming the slope of 0.401 is correct and using the information provided, we'd need to use the data points to calculate the y-intercept.
Once we have both the y-intercept and the slope, to calculate the predicted value for a non-native grass biomass of 57 mg, we plug this value into the regression equation and calculate y. To find the residual value, we subtract this predicted value of chaparral shrubs from the actual observed value, which in the example is 27 mg. The residual value represents how far away the observed value is from the predicted value.