BIOLOGY PRACTICAL REPORTS FOR FORM 4

Experiment 8.3 (practical textbook page 108)

Problem statement: How do intraspecific and interspecific competitions affect the growth of
maize and rice plants?
Objective : To study the intraspecific and interspecific competition in plants.
Hypothesis: Intraspecific competition occurs between plants of the same species.
Interspecific competition occurs between plants of different species.
Variables: manipulated variable: types of seedlings
responding variable: dry mass of seedlings
constant variable:
quantity and types of garden soil / amount of water /
intensity of sunlight / distance between each seedling and
number of seedlings
Apparatus: a ruler, an oven, a compression balance, a spade, a can of waterproof paint, a
paintbrush
Materials: three seedling trays (2m x 1m each) with garden soil, a packet of maize seeds, a
packet of paddy seeds, distilled water
Technique: record the dry mass of paddy seedlings from tray A and tray C and the dry mass of
maize seedlings and paddy seedlings from tray B

Seedling trays planted with paddy, maize or with both plants

Procedure:
1. Three seedling trays A, B and C are labelled using waterproof paint.
2. The seedling trays are filled with an equal amount of garden soil. The seeds are planted at 5
cm intervals as shown in the figure above.
3. The seeds are watered carefully with distilled water every day.
4. After 30 days, 10 paddy seedlings are removed randomly from tray A. The roots of the
seedlings are cleaned under running water.
5. The paddy seedlings are heated and dried at 105oC in an oven. The dried paddy seedlings are
weighed to obtain an average dry mass of the paddy seedlings.
6. Steps 4 and 5 are repeated for seedlings from trays B and C. The average dry mass of the
maize seedlings and paddy seedlings in tray C are to be weighed separately.
7. The results are recorded in a table of results.
8. Safety precaution: The seeds are watered carefully with the same amount of distilled water
every day.
Results:
1

Tray
A
B
C

Dry mass/g
paddy seedlings maize seedlings
-

Discussion:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

What type of competition occurs among the plants in trays A, B and C?

What resources do the seedlings in trays A, B and C compete for?
Why are the plants not fertilised throughout the experiment?
What other parameters can be used to chart the growth of the plants?
What is the difference between intraspecific and interspecific competition?
Compare and contrast the weights of the plants from each tray. Explain why there are
differences among them.

Conclusion:
Hypothesis is accepted.
Intraspecific competition occurs between plants of the same species.
Interspecific competition occurs between plants of different species