How to measure the success of a plant in aquaponics.

There are 8 steps: 

1.  Have (or set) goals. 
2. Clarify the ecological objectives. 
3. Set the scope of your project. 
4. Gather existing information.
5.  Choose the sampling unit and measurement technique. 
6. Create the sampling plan. 
7. Conduct the field work. 
8. Organize and analyze the data.

To illustrate how this works, I will use the example of growing GotuKola. GotuKola is like a grassy weed which people eat that is healthy for your body and mind. Gotu Kola's native habitat is that it grows naturally in moist, swampy areas.  

1. Set Goals

There are long-term goals, and there are immediate, single-choice goals. A single-choice may be the start of a long term plan, so it is necessary to understand the necessary steps required towards a long term goal. 

 Do you want to see if the plant will survive the immediate new conditions, or see if the plant yields over the long term.  I'll pick "check if the gotu kola will survive in the aquaponics kit."

2. Clarify the ecological objectives. 

I've only read a few pages from the Ecology textbook, so there are variables and measurable factors which may be of importance. When it comes to continuous life, modern ecology speaks in terms of evolutionary atheism - it will speak of sexual reproduction, and capitalistic competition of precious resources such as space and nutrients. In terms of populations, science will look at the number of plants per square area. 

A more real view of life, what Christian scientists suggest, is to look at the current situations and observable situations. Not speculate in the darkness of imagination. 

To know if Gotu Kola will survive, it will need to copy itself, or duplicate, or reproduce. 
and it will need to not dry out and die. 

Because GotuKola spreads by asexual reproduction - when a leaf's stalk is buried in soil, it will sprout roots and become an independent, but connected plant.  This makes counting the number of Gotu Kola plants as would be the scientific way of measuring population density impossible. We on the other hand can count the leaf stalks. 

If the leaves turn yellow, we know that they have dried out and died. 

So vegetation density, or ground cover in relation to time will be the "ecological objective." 

3. Set the Scope of this investigation. 

The scope is simply how big, or which particular things are being measured. Are we measuring 1 wicking bag, or the whole kit?  Are we observing the health of 1 plant or 10 plants?

 4. Gather Existing Information

If we are to draw a line, and draw a conclusion, we need a starting point, as well as the ending.

 

 So in this example case of the Gotu Kola, where they live now needs to be observed.

As pictured to the right, the original pot where the GotuKola live is dry, there are yellow dying stems, the GotuKola is slow to grow back (there is dirt which the GotuKola hasn't claimed. 

Any background information might help, such as the native habitat of the plant or animal.

Ethology is the described behaviorism.  

5. Choose a sampling unit or measurement technique. 

This is important step, because you need to use the same measurement through your experiment. If you are measuring the length of stems or the length of animals, you can just record one day 10 cm, and the next month 4 inches. Because you'll go to calculate the maths and be doing 4 - 10 = -6. 

Perhaps you are measuring the amount of water that you add to the system, so that would be liters or kgs. 

The sample is a smaller group of the entire population. If you wanted to see if there are smokers in your town, you could take a sample of 5 people, and ask 5 people if they smoked. If 0 smoked, you could assume that no-one in town smoked. So the 'sampling unit' is a group of 5 people's answers to the question. 

For this Gotukola test, I will measure the stem's droopiness, or their angle.  Either the stems are lacking water and are droopy, or they are well watered and standing erect. 

6. Create a sampling plan. 

Bias. 

Now you need to create a plan which is unbiased, and produces the results which provide the most honest information - information which will be applicable when you need the information in the future. 

So, if I want to check the angle of stems of Gotu Kola, then i can't just look at the dead stems, or just look at the droopy stems. I will need to look at a percentage of all the stems in each pot. 

If I want to look at %10 of all stems, then I will need to maybe look at 20 stems in each pot. 

We could even simplify the angle of the stem to stages, such as flat, leaning,  & straight up. 

Consider the above example about the smokers, if i ask 5 people in one go, all from the same place, that place might not represent the town properly. The town has a range of ages, a range of income brackets, and a range of social descriptions. So i will need to find 5 people, where 1 person is from each income bracket, and from each age bracket. 

Counting

The sample is simply the number of individuals that you will 'investigate.' So you will need to get a percentage of the total population, even if the percentage comes out to 3 individuals. The smaller the percentage, the less accurate your data/knowledge of the whole population will be. 

7. Do the investigation, do the field work. 

So, now you have to do the plan that you worked out in the previous steps. 

Remember, for each variable, you need at least two different locations to investigate, in order to make a comparison. 

And each location needs it's own 'sample.'

The two locations could simply be the same location at 2 different times. 

8. Organize and understand the data. 

So, as mentioned earlier, if you want to compare two samples together, then simply drawn a line, draw a conclusion between the two samples. 

If you want to reduce the sample to one number to work with, then you can calculate the average. 
the Mean average provides a rough average number which is not present but still represents all numbers of the survey. 

The Mode average provides the most common, most frequent number. 
When you give the sample it's average, the average represents the sample. Now you can draw a line between the two averages of the two samples.

Dry	month 1	month 3
flat	angled	straight up

Simply substract the second sample's average from the first sample's average. if the second sample is bigger, then something good has probably happened. 

In the case of the Gotukola the second sample in the aquaponics kit, has more straight-up stems , than the dry pot.