Fishery Simulation Lab

Collaborators: Taylor Wynn Objective: To determine the effects of limiting factors on a simulated population of tuna. Problem: What are the effects of limiting factors on the population of tuna? Hypothesis: The tuna population will decrease due to pollution, disease and predators but increase when theres plentiful food available to them. Independent variables: The limiting factors Dependent variable: Tuna population Controlled variables: The body of water that theyre being tested in (No control or experimental groups) Procedure: Follow procedure provided. Materials: Simulation found at http://sepuplhs.org/high/sgi/teachers/fishery_sim.html Data: Include the printout from the end of each of the four units. Then, complete the table below: Limiting Factor Effects on Population Carrying Capacity when the limiting factor is high (test ONE at a time for this) Around 50,000

Pollution

Decreases about 20,000 and take two year to recover. Decreases about 25,000 and takes 5 years to recover. The prey is just over half population can only achieve about 20,000 less.

Disease

Around 30,000

Predators

Around 40,000

Food

With a normal amount of predators and an abundant amount of food the population increases about 20,000

Around 80,000

Specific Conclusion Questions: In stage 1: 1. What are the limiting factors? A: Pollution, disease, predators and food. 2. What is your carrying capacity? A: 100,000

In stage 2: 3. What happened immediately when pollution occurred? A: Population drops 25,000 4. How long did it take the population to recover after pollution occurred? A: 2 years 5. What happened immediately after disease occurred? A: Population drops 20,000 6. How long did it take the population to recover after disease occurred? A: 5 years

(first drop pollution second drop disease) In stage 3: 7. Some fishing will occur, as humans interact with the environment. Find a pattern that will allow the tuna population to remain at a carrying capacity of 60,000. What fishing regulations would maintain this population size? A: To get to and remain at the carrying capacity of 60,000 there must be low amounts of fishing all year round.

In stage 4: 8. What factors allowed for the maximum amount of fishing while maintaining the fish population? Record the greatest amount of fishing allowable. Low predation, High reproduction, Low migration, abundant food, and low death rates are just about the best conditions that the fish can live in and just but having fishing about half way all year round the population is at it's lowest possible point.

9. Which factors are density-dependent and which are density-independent? Density-dependent: number of tuna population, predators, disease Density-independent: Pollution, food 10.How could a model, such as this simulation, help fisheries biologists make recommendations about setting fishing limits? Explain your answer. In normal conditions it only take a tiny bit of fishing to nearly wipe out the fish population which should be a wake up call to fishers especially commercial fishers because they fish in such large quantities. Fisheries biologists should made the public more aware of these facts to give a not so subtle hint that they need to cut they're fishing habits down if we enjoy our tuna population. General conclusions: evaluate your hypothesis, address errors (or limits) to using a simulation, and further apply the simulation. Remember to cite an outside source.