Wamogo H.S. Environmental Science Class Earthworm and Invasive Plant Project Continued

Avereage number of earthworms observed in various invasive plant incursions versus
paired control plots (no invasive plants) and p-values of paired t-tests comparing invasive versus control pairs.
(click on chart to zoom in)

We have analyzed the data collected by Wamogo High School's Environmental Science Class. We compared the number of earthworms collected in an invasive plant incursion versus a paired sample nearby that was not invaded by the same plant species with paired t-tests.  The average number of earthworms observed in invasive plant incursions was statistically significantly greater than the paired control.  One exception was under Autumn Olive were there was significantly fewer worms under the invasive plant than the control.  The variance associated with the Japanese Barberry and Autumn Olive samples were the lowest with respect to this sampling effort.  The students have discussed how this could help them plan future experiments exploring the relationship of introduced earthworms and invasive plant incursions.