| WRL reference | M01 D04 | |
| Module | M01 Ecosystems – Coral Reefs | |
| Data Set | D04 – Interspecific variation in anemonefish (clownfish) calls | |
| Research questions | 1. Which vocalisation characteristics differ between Amphiprion clarkii and Amphiprion perideraidon?2. What could be the driving force of differences in vocalisations between species? |
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| Keywords | Adaptation; behaviour; competition: coral; evolution; error bars; ecosystem; hierarchy; sampling: selection; statistics; t-test; sampling; standard deviation; territory; variation | |
| Potential Curriculum links | AP Biology | 1.C.1, 2.C.2, 3.E.2, 4.A.6 |
| AP Env Sci | II Living world A-E | |
| IB Biology | 5.2, A.4, A.6, C.1, C.2 | |
| IB Ess | 2.1.7 | |
| AQA | 3.4.6, 3.4.7, 3.7.4, MS, AT, PS | |
| edexcel | A – 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, B – 10.1 Maths A | |
| OCR | A – 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 6.1.3, 6.3.1, 6.3.2, M, PAG, HSW | |
| SQA | FH2G 3 (c) (i) (ii) (iv), FH2J 2 (b) (i) (iii) | |
| CCEA | 2.2.3, 2.3.2, 2.3.3,2.3.4, 2.3.5, 2.3.6, 5.6.5 | |
| WJEC | C1-5, C2 -1, C3- 3, App B, Pract.req. | |
| Summary | Clownfish or anemonefish live together on coral reef anemones and fish of the same species communicate with each other by ‘popping sounding’ calls. Often there are 2 species of clownfish on the same anemone so you would expect the calls to differ between species. This study looks at how the calls differ and think about how and why this might be achieved. The first research question involves plotting data collected by divers, calculating means and utilizing error bars, standard deviation and t-tests for analysis although not everything needs to be completed to make sense of the research question. Research Question2 is far more involved and should only be attempted by students who are confident with the manipulation of figures e.g. scatter plots, natural logs and regression analysis. This data set is particularly useful in linking together ideas about evolution. Difficulty: Research Q1 – 6/10Research Q2 – 10/10 |
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