Table Number. Names School Grade. Part 4: Which plant is the ranger talking about? February 16, 2016

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1 - TEAM FORM - Part 4: Which plant is the ranger talking about? Park Ranger Stephen had some conversations with park visitors about the three plant species. He made the following statements. Decide which plant was being described in each case. Statement Plant Species This plant usually starts off growing pretty slowly at the beginning of the season, but in eleven weeks this area will be covered in this stuff. February 16, 2016 Score (18) You ll see less and less of this plant this time of year, especially with the drought. This plant grows quickly at the beginning of the season, but by the eleventh week, another plant covers more area. Students: Final scoring will be determined based solely on the answers recorded on the Team Form. The scoring breakdown is as follows. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 (6) (3) (3) (3) (3) Part 5: Where should the Park Service focus their efforts? The National Park Service wants to prioritize their efforts to control the growth of these three plant species. Based on your findings and predictions from the scientists data, make recommendations regarding which species the National Park Service should focus their efforts on controlling. Which invasive plant species should be removed first? Be sure to to justify your thinking and explain why. Support your recommendations using your work with the tables, equations, and/or graphs showing the growth of each of the plants. Table Number Please print all names legibly. Names School Grade

2 Studying invasive plants in our national parks. - TEAM FORM - - TEAM FORM - Three scientists, Annie, Max, and Suzanne, have been asked to conduct research on invasive plant species in our local national park. They were asked to keep a record of how these plants grow over the course of four weeks. Your team will examine their data and make recommendations about how to prioritize the removal of these three plant species. Your team will use the recorded data from the scientists research notebooks (which you ll find in the included pages) to explore and predict the growth of the plant species. Use what you learn to support your recommendation to the National Park Service. Part 3: Graph the growth of each plant species. Assuming the plants continue to grow at their recorded rates, complete the graph below showing the weeks and area covered (in acres) for each of the different plant species. Label the graphs: A) Yellow Star Thistle B) Cheatgrass C) Giant Reed Part 1: Gather the data on a table. Assuming that the plants continue to grow in a predictable pattern, complete the table below showing the weeks and area covered (in acres) for each of the different plant species. 300 Area Covered (acres) Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week Yellow Star Thistle Cheatgrass 2/10 4/10 8/10 16/10 Giant Reed 200 Part 2: Write equations for each plant species. Write an equation to represent the relationship between the time in weeks and the growth in acres for each of the plant species. Use the variable w for the number of weeks. Use the variable a for the area covered by the plant in acres. Acres covered (a) Plant Species Equation Yellow Star Thistle 50 Cheatgrass Giant Reed Weeks (w)

3 Annie s Journal: Yellow Star Thistle Annie spent four weeks collecting information about the growth of Yellow Star Thistle. Her journal shows the growth of this plant over the first four weeks of the study. Annie s Journal Use this space to continue the pattern. What would week 5 and week 6 look like? Each square above represents one acre. Generate a table that connects the number of weeks to the area, in acres, covered by Yellow Star Thistle. Week Acres covered Write an equation that can determine how many acres (a) have been covered by Yellow Star Thistle given the number of weeks (w).

4 When Annie returns to the forest on Week 15, she should expect acres to be covered by Yellow Star Thistle. Graph the growth of Yellow Star Thistle on the given coordinate plane Acres covered (a) Weeks (w)

5 Suzanne s Journal: Cheatgrass Suzanne spent four weeks collecting information about the growth of Cheatgrass. Her journal shows the growth of this plant over the first four weeks of the study. Suzanne s Journal Continue the table that connects the number of weeks to the area, in acres, covered by Cheatgrass. Week Acres covered Write an equation that can determine how many acres (a) have been covered by Cheatgrass given the number of weeks (w). When Suzanne returns to the forest on Week 15, she should expect acres to be covered by Cheatgrass.

6 Graph the growth of Cheatgrass on the given coordinate plane Acres covered (a) Weeks (w)

7 Max s Journal: Giant Reed Max spent four weeks collecting information about the growth of the plant, Giant Reed. His journal shows the graph of the area covered by Giant Reed over the first four weeks of the study. Max s Journal Generate a table that connects the number of weeks to the area, in acres, covered by Giant Reed. Week Acres covered Write an equation that can determine how many acres (a) have been covered by Giant Reed given the number of weeks (w). When Max returns to the forest on Week 15, he should expect acres to be covered by Giant Reed.

8 Meet the Plants Yellow Star Thistle Small populations of Yellow star thistle (Centaurea solstitialis) have been found and eradicated in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. An estimated 1,400,000 hectares (570,000 acres) were infested with yellow star thistle in the western states by the mid 1980s and this highly aggressive plant is a real threat to the foothill grasslands in the parks. Yellow star thistle is native to southern Europe. It is considered a noxious weed and it tends to grow in disturbed, sunny sites at low to middle elevations. Yellow star thistle s distribution in California increases rapidly each year. What is of particular concern to park managers is its ability to successfully reproduce and colonize areas at higher elevations than many of the other noxious weed species in California. Yellow star thistle reproduces entirely by seed. Each plant can produce up to 10,000 seeds per year. Seeds can remain viable in the soil for longer than five years. Each flowering head produces seeds with two distinct forms. One form has fluffy bristles, which allow it to be wind dispersed a short distance from the parent colony. The other form has no bristles, and drops directly from the plant, thereby maintaining the parent population. Cheatgrass Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is an annual grass native to southern Europe, northern Africa, and southwestern Asia. Cheatgrass changes the frequency, extent, and timing of fires. It matures earlier than most native grasses and tends to occupy openings that would otherwise contain sparse vegetation, promoting earlier and more continuous fires. Cheatgrass is also very flammable, increasing the chance of ignition. In Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, cheatgrass has become abundant in many areas, particularly in the Cedar Grove area on the South Fork of the Kings River. It is found throughout the parks in dry locations on road- and trail-sides. Cheatgrass establishes by seeds only with single plants producing in excess of 300 seeds. Cheatgrass can interfere with seedling establishment of native woody shrubs and trees that require canopy openings or disturbance to germinate. Cheatgrass also has implications for the way fire is managed in the parks. IPark managers were concerned that continued burning in dense patches or nearby areas would promote its success and spread. Giant Reed Giant reed (Arundo donax), also known as arundo, is an aggressive invader of riparian areas, ditches and other wet sites throughout California. It is considered to be well adapted to extreme fire events, and in fact it seems to promote fire. Arundo has the alarming tendency to displace nearly all native species from the areas which it invades. It is known to take over large portions of low-elevation stream beds and to form dense, very persistent thickets. Giant reed is a bamboo-like perennial grass that can grow up to eight meters (25 feet) in height. It has thick creeping rootstocks. The flower clusters are plume-like, often purplish in color, and can reach 60 centimeters (2 feet) in height. Arundo turns mostly brown in the wintertime, and grows most vigorously in late spring and early summer. Giant reed requires a tremendous amount of water to persist. This, coupled with its ability to quickly dominate entire stream channels, makes arundo a particularly pernicious weed in the thirsty state of California. Source: National Park Services (