Activity 4: data miscount
Activity #4: Comparing Plants Occupied by Monarchs to Random Plants. I found an additional 7 monarch eggs when I filled out the Characteristics of Random Milkweed Plants sheet. Do I transfer this data over to the Characteristics of Milkweed Plants with Monarchs sheet and double count the 7 new monarch eggs, or do I keep the counts separate?
The goal with these two activities is to compare a random sample of plants to plants with monarchs on them. Some of the random plants may have monarch eggs or larvae on them and you should just note the monarchs as invertebrates on the plants. You can also put data for theses plants onto the Characteristics of Milkweed Plants Occupied by Monarchs sheet. However, if you are going to count them in your density count for the week, you need to include the 30 plants that you checked as part of your sample size. You should only do this if your random sample of plants did not cross the transect you took to get monarch density. Thus, you aren't really double-counting them.