Without intervention, invasive species will frequently spread from one community to other nearby communities. The number of stems of garlic mustard and four different native plants were counted in plots found in forests near various Wisconsin towns. The results are in Table 1.
Table 1: Number of Stems of Invasive and Native Plants found in Wisconsin Forests
Wisconsin Town | Invasive Stems (Garlic Mustard) | Natural Stems (Chestnut Seedling, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Milkweed, Tansy) | Total Native Stems
Greendale | 26 | 9, 22, 109, 80 | 220
Green Grove | 16 | 13, 34, 146, 81 | 274
Green Lake | 85 | 0, 27, 19, 0 | 46
Green Valley | 43 | 6, 24, 99, 84 | 213
Greenbush | 70 | 0, 36, 49, 19 | 104
Greenfield | 66 | 2, 33, 26, 34 | 95
Greenville | 35 | 8, 37, 114, 88 | 247
Greenwood | 29 | 11, 26, 80, 82 | 199
Homework:
Using the data in Table 1, create a graph with a figure caption showing the correlation between the number of invasive stems and the number of native stems for forest communities in Wisconsin. Include a hypothesis, prediction and figure caption for your graph about the effect of invasive species on plant communities.