You Conduct an Experiment to Test If Water Temperature Affects

question 43

Multiple Choice

You conduct an experiment to test if water temperature affects developmental time of dragonfly nymphs.You only had time to set up three replicates for each of three temperature treatments: 10,13,and 15 degrees Celsius.Each replicate is one individual nymph.Therefore,you have data on the developmental rate of three nymphs at each temperature treatment.The data show some variation within each treatment.You conduct your statistical test and your resulting p-value is 0.85.These results indicate the result was not significant.However,you can interpret this result another way,which is:

• A) There really may be no effect of ecological importance, or there may not be enough data, which may be because the effect is weak and you need more extensive data
• B) There is nothing more to conclude. The experiment is over, temperature has no effect, and increasing the number of replicates will make no difference
• C) The result actually is significant because the p-value is so high
• D) There is an ecological effect, it is just small and that is why the p-value is great.

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Definitions:

Sample Size

The number of observations or data points collected in a study or used in a statistical analysis.

Vertical Axis

The perpendicular line in a graph or chart representing the range of one of the variables under consideration.

Horizontal Axis

The x-axis in a graph, typically used to represent the independent variable or scale of measurement.

Widths

Widths refer to the measure of the extent of something from side to side; in data visualization, it could refer to the thickness of lines or bars.